Colin Sheridan: New York loves an underdog story. So will Mamdani’s substance match the style?

Mamdani may not change the world, but he’s already changed the tone, writes Colin Sheridan

Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji react to supporters during an election night watch party in New York. Picture: Yuki Iwamura/AP

There’s something oddly serendipitous about how neatly Zohran Mamdani fits into the modern myth of New York. The city has always liked its stories messy but magnetic — the cabbie turned poet, the Wall St bro who has an epiphany at Equinox and converts to Buddhism.

And now, the city, hungover on the avarice of others, has elected a Ugandan-born, Indian-descended, Muslim socialist as its mayor.