New York City’s Rising Left Is Losing The Mayor’s Race

For several years now, New York City has been the beating heart of the American left ― a place that showed what was possible when progressive reformers, democratic socialists and Black Lives Matter activists actually gained power.

Voters in the nation’s largest city sent Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman to Congress, won some temporary cuts to the police department budget, and elected a new crop of state lawmakers who strengthened rules protecting renters and raised taxes on the rich.

It comes as something of a surprise then that candidates backed by the city’s activist left are now underdogs in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 22. The winner of that contest is all but assured to win the general election in the solid blue city.

The top two contenders for chief executive of the Big Apple are former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams ― moderate Democrats cozy with the city’s business elite and supportive of traditional policing.