The very-new-guard foot soldiers in mustard-yellow beanies pounded tequila shots and scream-cheered the first name on everyone’s clothing.
A man with an embossed red rose on his shirt walked toward the stage and wept.
A little after 9:30 p.m., the Kendrick Lamar track from a D.J. wearing a “Freeze the Rent” button was suddenly overpowered by a chant:
“I BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE WON! I BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE WON!”
By the time Zohran Mamdani appeared inside the cool-kid-opulent Brooklyn Paramount theater around 11:20, that bare fact of the night had still not entirely set in across the venue, its floor sticky from discarded cans of Modelo and Pabst Blue Ribbon toppled like a political dynasty.
“Over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater,” the mayor-elect said, after quoting the socialist hero Eugene Debs — and inspiring scattershot shouts of “EUGENE DEBS” over the rhetorical punchline. “Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it.”
Some 15 minutes later — after Mr. Mamdani warmly called out Yemeni bodega owners and Senegalese taxi drivers and Trinidadian line cooks and knowingly (and perhaps a bit trolling-ly) invoked former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo — he enlisted the room for a call-and-response exercise ticking through the agenda items they knew well.
“Freeze the …”
“RENT!”
“Make buses fast and …”
“FREE!”
“Deliver universal … ”
“CHILD CARE!”
For a flash, it was difficult to remember that so many in the city — and more than a few in the theater on Tuesday — had viewed this campaign so skeptically at its outset, if they had known anything about it at all.
When some allies of Mr. Mamdani’s reconciled themselves to his run last year, the operative question was not whether he could win-win — that seemed far more outlandish than free buses or government-run grocery stores — but what victory might look like for a now-34-year-old Uganda-born democratic socialist former rapper with an unremarkable legislative record as a little-known assemblyman.
A spirited protest campaign in the primary? A springboard for another run down the line?
Things change.
As it happened, victory on Tuesday looked like chants of “tax the rich!” and “D.S.A.!” wafting over supporters wearing “Jews for Zohran” and “Gaza 5K” shirts; a hobbled woman holding a single crutch aloft in celebration; livestreamers livestreaming themselves saying variations of “wooooo!” into their phones with such singular focus that they backed into each other near the CNN cameras.
Hasan Piker — a popular internet personality whose association with Mr. Mamdani (and past comment that America “deserved 9/11”) became an outsize talking point in former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s campaign — held forth before reporters and well-wishers with a drink in his hand.
“The exodus is here!” Mr. Piker said loudly, appearing to mock the predictions of vast flight from New York among the rich and others who oppose the next mayor.
Joyce Ravitz, a volunteer who, at 82, has spent six decades in the city, saluted Mr. Mamdani as a fresh voice she had known little about a year ago. “He doesn’t think in the box,” she said. “He’s not stuck.”
The evening also amounted to a rolling roast of Mr. Cuomo, delivered gleefully by a reel of figures from his past.
Letitia James, the state attorney general whose office detailed accusations of sexual harassment against Mr. Cuomo, enthused over the results a few feet from Lindsey Boylan, one of Mr. Cuomo’s most prominent accusers.
“Surreal,” Ms. Boylan said, staring up at the grand ceiling.
Cynthia Nixon, the actress and progressive activist who ran unsuccessfully against Mr. Cuomo in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor, suggested it was time at last for his proper retirement.
“He’s an old man,” she said. “It’s enough already.”
When Mr. Cuomo appeared onscreen for his concession speech, without audio, the crowd booed loudly enough to briefly drown out Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard for the Money.”
Attendees waved Mr. Cuomo goodbye and cursed him out. Mr. Mamdani was only slightly more diplomatic.
“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life,” he said once he had the microphone. “But let tonight be the final time I utter his name.”
The room lost it.
“That’s riiiiiiiight!”
For Mr. Mamdani and his admirers, there will surely be less jubilant days ahead. There will be a government to fill and a city to tame and a State Capitol to navigate and a president who has made clear both his opinion of Mr. Mamdani and his ambitions to involve himself intimately in his hometown’s affairs.
But those were questions for the after-after-after-afterparty of the mayoral transition.
“New York City,” Mr. Mamdani said, “breathe this moment in.”
At watch parties across the boroughs, many who had invested their time and money and hope in him were heeding that counsel, from the fans clustered outside the theater watching on their phones to a raucous Queens gathering for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
From the stage, Mr. Mamdani thanked his team and called them to a well-earned reprieve.
“You can sleep now,” he said.
Someone in the back snorted.
“Yeah, right.”
Claire Fahy and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
Matt Flegenheimer is a correspondent for The Times focusing on in-depth profiles of powerful figures.
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