In April, centrist state senator John Horhn, 70, defeated two-term self-described radical mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, 42, in the race for mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. In his fourth try, the long-time state senator won 48 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary against Lumumba’s 17 percent. Because no candidate obtained over 50 percent of the vote in the 80 percent Black city, voters forced the contest into a runoff. In the runoff, Horhn defeated Lumumba. The new mayor vowed to keep blueberry blue Jackson from losing its assets, such as the airport and Smith-Wills Stadium, to ruby-red state interests.

In June, Democratic socialist state representative Zohran Mamdani, 33, won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City with a 12-point lead over his chief rival, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67. As in the Mississippi capital, no candidate in New York obtained over 50 percent of the vote for mayor in the first round, thus forcing a runoff. Mamdani won the ranked-choice instant runoff.

Cuomo had a 20-point advantage with Black voters over Mamdani, earning more than 51% of the Black vote. Mamdani has since faced attacks from Republicans and conservatives for his faith as a Muslim, wrongly labeled a communist, and many Democratic leaders have given him a cool reception. Trump has even called for his arrest and falsely suggested he is in the United States illegally.

Mamdani vowed to use taxpayer dollars to make daycare and bus service free, as well as reduce police funding. Mandani still faces a race against the current Mayor, Eric Adams. Adams received a lifeline when the Trump administration moved to drop federal corruption charges against the Democrat, who had since become an independent.