Will TIME name Zohran Mamdani its Person of the Year?

TIME names its Person of the Year in the second week of December. Last year it went to a group, the Architects of AI. Traders already have a favorite for this year, and it is the mayor of New York.

Zohran Mamdani took office on January 1, sworn in after midnight on his grandfather's Quran in a disused subway station, then again in the afternoon by Bernie Sanders.

In February, he signed an executive order barring ICE from city property without a judicial warrant, covering schools, shelters, hospitals and parking garages, and said ICE was a manifestation of the abuse of power.

Then he focused on the domestic program:

• A $5.2 million wage-theft settlement against three delivery apps, with 10,000 sacked couriers reinstated
• A tax on second homes, through the State Assembly in May
• Five city-run grocery stores
• A ban on junk fees, the first in any American city
• On June 25, the Rent Guidelines Board froze the rent for two years on the 40% of New York apartments that are rent-stabilized, and the landlords' representative resigned rather than vote for it.

TIME does not give the Person of the Year to the person who did the most good or the most bad. It gives it to the person who affected the news and people's lives the most over the past 12 months. And Zohran Mamdani is exactly that person out of the whole list on Polymarket's board, priced at 34 cents, which is a 3x return by December.