New York City mayor Eric Adams has had a bad tenure even by the low standards of New York City mayors. He has enraged the city’s progressives with his policies, and his political future looks shaky now that he and his allies are the subjects of overlapping federal corruption charges. Adams’ weakness has already prompted five Democratic challengers to declare their candidacy for mayor, and that number may well increase in coming months.

One of those candidates is socialist Zohran Mamdani, who currently represents parts of Queens in the New York assembly. Mamdani, a 33-year-old with a history of leftist activism for labor and antiwar causes, has won the official endorsement of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, making his candidacy an ambitious step forward for DSA’s burgeoning involvement in New York City politics.

I spoke to Mamdani yesterday about Eric Adams, Donald Trump, and the painstaking task of hauling socialism into the political mainstream.