Despite writing just once a week, I find myself trying to make content choices two or three weeks ahead — if for no other reason than gathering information. Late last year I theorized Zohran Mamdani just might replace our Tangerine Terror as the most interesting political story in America early in 2026. I was dead wrong about that. The deranged initiatives emerging from the White House are providing distractions even a newly elected Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor can’t eclipse. Which will we bomb next — Venezuela, Greenland, Tehran, or Minneapolis? Together with criminal charges filed against the Federal Reserve Chairman, White House chaos would push an announcement of the second coming off the front page. Jerome Powell reminds me of the deacon who passed the donation basket down the pews at Holy Rosary when I was a kid. He’d rather burn in hell for all eternity than pocket a nickel. Perjury? Really? I think not.

So, what has Zohran been up to behind this smokescreen which has forced the New York Times to move reports of its new mayor to the interior of the news section? It’s worth noting Mamdani’s invitation-only, midnight swearing-in at a long-abandoned City Hall subway station. The mayor-elect and his speechwriter are silver-tongued socialists, although much like Obama, it appears Mamdani crafts his own more compelling riffs. “I stand alongside over one million New Yorkers who voted for this day nearly two months ago — and I stand just as resolutely alongside those who did not.” Now, that’s classy. He added, “I cannot blame anyone who has come to question the role of government and whose faith in democracy has been eroded by decades of apathy.” Who hasn’t felt that way?

Recalling his predecessors as mayor, Mamdani noted, “…they were unified by a shared belief that New York could belong to more than the privileged few…they knew this belief could be made true if only government dared to work hardest for those who work hardest.” He also promised, “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical” and then quoted from the man who just swore him in, Bernie Sanders, “What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.” You may have missed China’s state television recently aired an hour-long examination of “Poverty in America.” That feels a bit embarrassing. Even worse is the fact the new CBS would likely kill the same story if 60 Minutes filmed it.

On election night, there was little coverage of another Democratic Socialist, Katie Wilson, running for Mayor in Seattle. Challenging a moderate Democratic incumbent, her victory wasn’t certified for several days. In some respects, Wilson’s win may be more remarkable than Mamdani’s since her opponent, Mayor Bruce Harrell, was generally regarded as a competent, even if somewhat bland administrator. Katie first came to public attention a decade ago when she founded Seattle’s Transit Riders Union. Though that sounds like a narrow platform on which to build a campaign, following several successes including a JumpStart payroll tax on large employers, Wilson’s organization has adopted a full-throated assault on Seattle’s affordability crisis, just as did her counterpart across the continent. Her adversarial involvement with City Hall may arm her with a superior understanding of the challenges she faces. In a post-election interview Wilson pointed out, “Back in 2015, Seattle first declared a state of emergency on homelessness and it’s just gotten worse ever since then.”

Much like Denver’s Mike Johnston, Wilson advocates, “Long-term social housing is an anti-homelessness policy that works.” The jury remains out on this approach, however. Responding to a query regarding her one time support for defunding the Seattle police, she now supports “…civilianizing roles that police don’t need to perform,” explaining, “On the campaign, I spent a lot of time talking about, yes, we need to expand our ‘Care’ department…to make it effective and allowed to respond to more kinds of calls… all that stuff was part of the defund platform.” Apparently, Seattle voters have also approved the funding of a mixed-income, publicly owned social housing development agency.” Wilson is enthusiastic, “That is why I jumped into the mayor’s race, and it’s so important to me that our social housing developer is successful… it’s so important that we get it right and that it’s not seen as a failure.” A term borrowed from Britain; social housing is either public or non-profit units for low-income families. Katie’s apparently not short on ambition.

Surprisingly, Wilson’s democratic socialism wasn’t much of an issue in the mayor’s race, as her opponent focused on her lack of qualifications for taking his job. Apparently, his campaign obtained a 15-year-old resumé which was predictably skimpy. This deceit failed to persuade voters as everyone was aware of her decade of civic activism. Wilson explains, “There’s a lot of cool socialist, left-urbanism kind of ideas that are inspiring, that we can look at in other cities. As a socialist, I believe the profound changes that need to happen in our society and our economy can only be accomplished through the organized power of working people.” Needless to say, that kind of rhetoric attracts strong, even vicious, opposition. She seems to recognize her honeymoon could be short. “If we’re trying to make the case for socialism, but our government is failing to deliver basic services, that’s a problem,” she observes.

In New York, Zohran Mamdani’s campaign organization is launching a new group, “Our Time,” meant to organize his 100,000 campaign workers behind his policy agenda. Katie plans to do something similar in Seattle. Mamdani was fast out of the blocks, issuing a dozen executive orders during his first week, and recruiting Gov. Kathy Hochul to endorse his universal daycare proposal statewide. As several child welfare experts have concluded, although being the most expensive of the many initiatives he promised as a candidate, it may be the easiest to implement. Employers will benefit broadly should safe, reliable and affordable childcare be available for their workers. If New Mexico could pull it off, why not New York City with its vastly superior resources?

Likeability is the essential ingredient for a successful political career. Mamdani exudes affability from his every pore. Hell, he was able to reach into the president’s reptilian brain and charm the hostile beast residing there. Even the pundit Mattew Yglesias, who occupies the militantly moderate center of the political spectrum, has softened his opposition, writing of Zohran’s “strong start.” This won’t prevent the Big Apple’s billionaire brotherhood from continuing to foam at the mouth over his left-wing extremism for a few more months. They were late to realize Zohran was going to win easily and they will be late to apprehend New Yorkers really like him. Yglesias observes, “One of the nice things about democracy as a political system is that, at least when it comes to executive office, the incentives are pretty aligned. To be a successful leftist mayor, you need to be a successful mayor, and to be a successful mayor you need economic growth and safe streets.”

Once the 24/7, 200-decibel cacophony emerging from Washington simmers down, we will begin to hear more reports concerning this pair of democratic socialists. They may actually benefit from these calculated disruptions by allowing them to get their feet underneath their agendas. Within the laboratories of democracy, this pair of experimenters are well worth watching.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.