Hours after the culmination of their biggest electoral victory in recent history, the socialists of New York City were ready to party.
The locale was the checkerboard-floored dance club called Paragon in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where hundreds of young New York City leftists gathered on Thursday night to celebrate the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as mayor with a kind of low-key rave.
It was an event that combined thumping house music, a cash bar and low-budget swag with some very real hopes for the next four years.
“What are we going to do? Say it with me: tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich!” said Eon Huntley, a socialist candidate for a State Assembly seat from Brooklyn, leading the crowd in a chant, adding, “That never gets old.”
While Mr. Mamdani’s inaugural speech on the frozen steps of City Hall drew a starry array of left-wing political leaders, the sold-out party at Paragon — hosted by the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — was populated by the grass-roots foot soldiers who helped catapult the mayor into office.
Mr. Mamdani did not attend, though his membership in the D.S.A. was a source of intense pride for those at Paragon, a minor mecca for electronic and dance music fans. Mamdani buttons and beanies were prized attire, and other garb included cartoon images of characters urinating on the word “Capitalism” and decrying Immigration and Customs Enforcement in profane terms.
Micah Uetricht, the editor of Jacobin magazine, a socialist glossy with an avid online following, which was a sponsor of the event, was staffing a merch table in the basement, handing out red “Socialism in Our Time” scarves and marveling at the moment.
Like many, Mr. Uetricht said Mr. Mamdani had helped shed the musty image of the taciturn left-wing liberal, tapping into “real, deeply felt struggles” that many people were facing.
“And he did so in a way that was charming, that was inviting, that wasn’t hectoring,” he said. “It really painted the possibility of a better world. And he invited people into that vision.”
Indeed, Thursday’s event also seemed part of the D.S.A.’s — and the mayor’s — concerted effort to make left-wing politics cool, with the group hosting other recent events like “glamour disaster” parties, comedy shows and “socialist speed dating.” (“Don’t rely on dating apps created by capitalist corporations to help you find love,” one ad read, complete with a depiction of a lovelorn Karl Marx with a rose in his mouth.)
The organization says it has more than 80,000 members nationally, with chapters in every state, and New York City its largest. Membership boomed after the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont — an ally of Mr. Mamdani — and election of Mr. Trump, with a political platform geared toward working people. The city has been one of its most successful sites, with winning campaigns for the state legislature and City Council. And now, of course, City Hall.
Sarah Helden said she’d come to the party — and socialism in general — to find optimism about the future.
“Obviously this is a time where people really are craving hope and something to believe in rather than someone to blame for things,” she said.
The dance party — which featured a tiny V.I.P. area behind the D.J. booth, complete with pleather chairs, free water and yerba matte soda — was interrupted for speeches from elected officials, even as others crowded the bar and the basement. (The event served as a fund-raiser for the N.Y.C.-D.S.A., with 500 tickets sold, most at the socialist-friendly price of $25.)
And while there were ample attacks on President Trump’s policies, his name was rarely mentioned on the microphone, though Democratic leaders got razzed.
“One of my favorite moments was when Zohran tried to say something nice about Eric Adams and people booed anyway,” said Jabari Brisport, a state senator from Brooklyn and close friend of the new mayor, about the mayor’s inauguration speech, drawing laughs.
Mr. Brisport, who brought a hype-man’s energy to his speech (“Let’s go, party people!”), also seemed overjoyed to have watched Senator Chuck Schumer, who never endorsed the mayor when Mr. Mamdani was a candidate, shiver in the cold outside City Hall.
“Watch them bend to power!” Mr. Brisport yelled. “The socialists are ascending!”
Some attendees were waiting for the beats. Jamaal Bowman, a former member of Congress who lost a bid for re-election in 2024, joked early on that he might storm the D.J. booth.
“My first question was, ‘Y’all better be playing some hip-hop tonight,’” he said, sitting at the bar. “Actually, it’s not a question, it was a statement. I better hear some hip-hop tonight. If not, I’m going to take the mic.”
Toward the end of the speech section of the evening, Grace Mausser, a co-chair of D.S.A.’s New York City chapter, also reminded partygoers to volunteer for the group’s campaigns, “before you get too drunk” or “too tired from dancing.”
Ms. Mauser’s fellow chair, Gustavo Gordillo, echoed that, leading the assembled masses in a type of call-and-response oath-taking, with promises to “fight for our freedom” and “love and support one another.”
“We have nothing to lose but our chains,” he said, as the crowd repeated him. “All right! Let’s celebrate a year of class struggle.”
Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering politics, pop culture, lifestyle and the confluence of all three.
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