During his victory speech on Nov. 4, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani quoted a five-time presidential candidate: “The sun may have set over our city this evening,” he declared to an exuberant crowd of supporters in Brooklyn, “but as Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’” Though many people in attendance might have been unsure who Debs was, the reference made perfect sense. After all, Debs was a transformative figure in the history of U.S. socialism.