The Art of Losing: Andrew Cuomo

A look at the all-too-familiar reasons behind a historic chokejob.

(Credit for the voiceover for this article goes to the great Samuel Lipson)

Last night, the American left won the greatest victory it has seen in generations. Contrary to polling, contrary to expectations, contrary to all common sense, Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old New York State assemblymember and self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, smashed his competition in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.

It was a race where he had started out at 1% of the vote—a race where he still trailed by the mid-single digits by Election Day even after immense hype and what even his opponents recognized as a masterfully-run campaign. But when the results came in, it quickly became evident that he had succeeded in building the kind of coalition that no other modern left-wing candidate had ever succeeded at constructing. With near-unanimous support among the city’s white leftists, shock inroads in Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods, and respectable support among what was supposed to be Cuomo’s base, he secured a stunning seven-point first round victory. When all is said and done, he is highly likely to win by double digits.

Over the coming days, weeks, and months, you will undoubtedly see an endless stream of content about Mamdani’s campaign, how he won, and what his victory means. This newsletter will be included—you can expect a collaboration with The Narrative Wars’ Michael Lange, the only commentator in New York to correctly predict Mamdani’s victory, within the coming days. But before we all get to that, I want to spend a moment on Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor who just lost so badly in a race he once led by 40 points that it could end his entire career. You’ll have to forgive me for taking some satisfaction in both the size and nature of his defeat. Ever since the 2024 election, I’ve appointed myself to something of an anti-centrist beat, often finding myself alone among election commentators in arguing that their worldviews and strategies were dangerously misguided. For eight months, these arguments and theories were only validated in intangible ways—one poll here, a trend there, an insane subreddit somewhere else. But last night, they were all suddenly vindicated in the most stunningly possible way, to a degree that I hadn’t considered possible before it happened.

For as much as this win may be about Mamdani, it is also the story of the misconceptions, errors and arrogance underlying the post-2024 centrist worldview—a worldview founded in cope and denial that is starting to shatter on impact as it is being forced to meet reality. Here’s how Andrew Cuomo lost a race he should have won against a candidate who wasn’t even supposed to register, and why it should be a moment of deep reflection for the Democratic establishment in even more ways than they have already realized.

#1: Opposing Israel is Good Policy and Good Politics. Zohran Mamdani Won Every Time Cuomo Mentioned It.