Since Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in the Democratic primary for the New York City mayoral race, I’ve been on a mission to better understand the factors that led to his win — the charismatic candidate, the electorate that rallied behind him and the changing city he may soon lead.

Over five months of following the campaign, including two interviews with Mamdani and conversations with about 40 other people close to the race and its reverberations among national Democrats, I learned that Mamdani has taken great pains to prepare himself for this moment — and for what comes next. While this story may feel like an only-in-New York political fairy tale, there are several lessons for understanding America’s changing political landscape.

Here are five takeaways from my Times magazine profile of Mamdani:

Mamdani has spent the summer and fall on a charm offensive.

Since his primary win in June, Mamdani, a 33-year-old avowed Democratic Socialist, has worked to woo New York City’s business and finance leaders and other skeptics. He has met with a legion of city bureaucrats as well as pro-business liberal megadonors like Sally Susman and Robert Wolf. His efforts have expanded his coalition and stand in stark contrast to previous Democratic nominees for mayor, including progressives like Bill de Blasio.

He has used the meetings to reframe previous positions, softening some of his political language and policies. He says he wants to support renters, not punish landlords. He supports Palestinian rights; he’s not anti-Zionist. He is even open to compromise on his proposed millionaires’ tax.

“I want to emphasize how unprecedented this is — the first nominee in memory that has made a concerted effort to reach out to people who were against him in the primary,” Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president and Democratic nominee for comptroller, told me.

One of Mamdani’s most significant shifts is on policing.

Mamdani has continued to distance himself from his previous calls to “defund the police” throughout the mayor’s race. And I learned that he recently met with more than two dozen rank-and-file police officers in a closed-door listening session about officer retention and public safety. In that meeting, he also explicitly apologized for a June 2020 tweet in which he called the New York Police Department “racist” and “anti-queer.”

In our interviews, the candidate reaffirmed his interest in potentially keeping the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, in her role, even as some progressives had hoped he would remove her.

Despite Mamdani’s pivots toward the center, there are still some issues he’s unwilling to budge on.

The issue on which he’s been most steadfast is the one that has been central to his political identity: support for the Palestinian cause. In our interviews, Mamdani reaffirmed his commitment to one of his most controversial campaign promises: that he would order the Police Department to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel if he were to come to New York City while Mamdani is mayor, citing the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court charging Netanyahu with crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Mamdani’s own allies told me the promise was unrealistic, as the United States does not recognize the I.C.C.’s legal authority. Others have warned that Mamdani would permanently fracture his political coalition. Still, the candidate doubled down.

“Is this a campaign promise that’s compatible with governing?” I asked at one point.

“We’re going to show how it is,” he said.

Mamdani’s race has become a stand-in for the larger tensions within the Democratic Party in the wake of the 2024 presidential election.

Mamdani galvanized the exact voters who turned away from Democrats in 2024 — first-generation Americans, young people and working-class people of color. But some in the party fear that this new electorate could displace their own political power. Others worry that Mamdani’s playbook could prove toxic for Democrats in swing states.

While some establishment Democrats have embraced and endorsed the candidate, this has only highlighted the reticence of Mamdani holdouts, including Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader; Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader; and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Representative Tom Suozzi, a swing-district Democrat who represents parts of eastern Queens and Long Island, has made clear that Mamdani will never receive his endorsement, saying that “Democratic Socialists should create their own party, because I don’t want that in my party.”

Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor in New York City’s history. Some worry that could expose him to violence.

Mamdani has energized the city’s South Asian and Arab communities. It is a full-circle moment for the candidate, whose early days of political activism date back to the Muslim Democratic Club of New York.

But that history also comes with some fear. Throughout my reporting, which included an interview with Mamdani on the day the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed, I heard fears from his allies and supporters about the possibility of violence. Mamdani, who called Kirk’s shooting “horrific,” told me his team has changed some of its security protocols in response.

“I think for a long time, it’s felt as if the safest place, especially as a Muslim in public life, was to be in the shadows,” Mamdani said. “And yet we see that that safety is all too tenuous. And to allow ourselves to be intimidated is to, in some ways, allow for the continuation of that very kind of politics.”