In the fall of 2024, Jorge DeFendini, a democratic socialist who had served on Ithaca, New York’s city council as a Cornell undergraduate and was now running again as an alumnus, spotted an opportunity to boost a like-minded politician. A council seat in Ward 5, which includes parts of the university’s campus and is made up of 70 percent students, had just opened up—the incumbent announced he would not be running for reelection. So DeFendini called up Sara Almosawi, who was the co-chair of Cornell’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA’s youth arm), and after weeks of exploratory discussions a candidate emerged: Hannah Shvets was a sophomore at the university, an Ithacan since 2016, and had helped reestablish Cornell YDSA the year before.
Shvets eked by in the Democratic primary, winning 40 percent of the vote against two more moderate candidates who likely split the vote. But when one of those candidates then ran as an independent in the general election—psychotherapist Gepe Zurenda, who graduated from Cornell in 1988—Shvets drubbed him by nearly 30 points. Her win caught national attention, albeit unfavorably, from The New York Post: “Upstate NY city one-ups Zohran Mamdani by electing Communist student, 20.” (It’s true: Shvets is a member of the Communist Party USA, though she told me, “I identify as a democratic socialist, and my work is most closely aligned with the priorities of the DSA.”)
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