• k0e3@lemmy.ca
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    26 days ago

    Could someone explain what’s happening to a non-american? I was under the impression that this Madmani gentleman had already won the mayoral race. Are they having another election for something else??

    • user_name@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      Mamdani won the primary election. In the US parties don’t choose their candidates for elections (in b4 “but superdelegates!”) like you see in other electoral systems where an internal party committee selects a candidate list. So this election was determining who was going to be the Democratic candidate for the actual election.

      But New York has some weird fusion laws that allow people to run on multiple party lines so Cuomo, even though he lost the Democratic nomination, can still run in the general election.

      • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        It should be noted that parties can choose their candidates without an election if they really want to, but it’s not a good idea if they want a chance to win. See the most recent presidential election for an example.

        • user_name@lemmy.world
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          26 days ago

          That’s true. Presidential elections are a little different given the primaries are technically only for convention delegates bound only for the first vote. There’s also instances where the party picks in the face of a candidate death before the primary or general, such as in Minnesota in 2002.

          This was a big development in US politics that happened more or less due to fallout from the Vietnam War. Look at the map of the 1968 Democratic primaries and 1972 Democratic primaries. After the catastrophe that was 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago—driven by the drama around LBJ’s late departure, Hubert Humphrey being despicable, and the hope and ultimate assassination of RFK, and the lack of responsiveness to the anti-war movement, there was a serious push to move the process from one controlled almost entirely by party officials to a more democratic, if still party-official-directed process.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      In addition to what the others said here, it’s worth knowing that despite all the manufactured contention around this race, Mamdani is heavily favored to win no matter who else enters the final race. The news and youtubers love to find the edge-case weirdos and hype up the drama around it being “BATTLE OF THE CENTURY” because our country’s brains have collectively oozed out our ears.