Looking out at more than 13,000 of you here in Forest Hills Stadium, it is tempting to believe that this moment was always destined. Yet when we launched this campaign on October 23, one year and three days ago, there was not a single television camera there to cover it.
When we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, my name was a statistical anomaly in every poll. Four months later, as recently as this February, our support had reached the eye-watering heights of 1 percent. We were tied with noted candidate “someone else.” I always knew we could beat him.
When we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, the political world did not pay it much attention, because we were looking to build a movement that reflected the city as it actually is, not just the one that political consultants think exists on a spreadsheet.
And when we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, we were dismissed as a punchline in the halls of power. The idea of fundamentally changing who government serves in this city was unimaginable. Even if we gained momentum, they asked, how would we ever overcome the tens of millions of dollars in attacks that would follow?
Yet we knew then what we know now. New York is not for sale.
As young people showed up in record numbers, as immigrants saw themselves in the politics of their city, as seniors once skeptical dared to dream again, we spoke with one voice: New York is not for sale.
And now, as we stand on the precipice of taking this city back from corrupt politicians and the billionaires that fund them, let our words ring out so loud tonight that Andrew Cuomo can hear them in his $8,000-a-month apartment. Let them ring so loud so that he could hear us even if he’s in Westchester this evening. Let them ring so loud that his puppet master in the White House hears us: “New York is not for sale.”
Thirteen days after we announced our candidacy, Donald Trump won the presidency once again….
Auteur: Zohran Mamdani
