Just hours after Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani declared victory in New York's mayoral primary on Wednesday, a small group of business leaders convened with Mayor Eric Adams, who bypassed the Democratic primary and is instead running in the general election as an independent.

Zohran Mamdani had just been elected Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York — a jaw-dropping achievement for a politician who most voters in America’s most populous city had barely heard of a few months ago.