Former President Barack Obama called Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, after the socialist won the June primary. Obama congratulated Mamdani and “offered him advice about governing and discussed the importance of giving people hope in a dark time,

Zohran Mamdani said he has spoken to Barack Obama “a number of times” since he trounced the Democratic establishment candidate Andrew Cuomo in the party’s mayoral primary.

al campaign in many ways — as Al Sharpton, Letitia James and other Democrats have noted — albeit on a much smaller political battlefield. But Obama and Mamdani also have the common experience of being Donald Trump’s bogeyman.