The election playing out on both sides of the Hudson River is something of an experiment about the Democratic Party during the second Trump era. Is the future Mamdani, a movement politician fluent in social media who commands the attention of both his faithful and his detractors? Or is it Sherrill, who has the sort of résumé and mainstream credentials that Establishment Democrats have long thought is the key to winning over voters skeptical of their party?
Latest Ipsos polling has the Tory party's national vote share on just 15%. YouGov polling has the party on 18%. The last time the Conservative party polled 30% or more was in September 2022. A party that gave people a choice at the ballot box has become a husk. It is, as a former MP colleague said to me recently, akin to an empty warehouse the building is still there but the goods inside have all but disappeared.