Andrew Klavan’s candid conversation with Megyn Kelly about how he “came to Jesus” is more than a personal testimony — it’s a challenge to conservatives to remember the power of faith in public life. Klavan laid out how reading the Gospels and the English Romantic poets opened his eyes and led him back to Christ, a story he’s told in interviews and in his recent book. He also joined Megyn Kelly to talk about culture and politics, and one of the headline items they discussed was the startling rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York City politics.

There is something hopeful about a public intellectual who doesn’t hide his faith, who admits he bowed the knee and found moral clarity — Klavan’s journey reminds us that conviction still matters in the marketplace of ideas. His willingness to speak plainly about truth and beauty is a breath of fresh air in a media culture that often sneers at religion. For hardworking Americans who believe in family, faith, and free speech, Klavan’s testimony is a call to hold fast and to argue for a moral vision that actually sustains a free society.

But while Klavan and Megyn were discussing faith and truth, New Yorkers were making a very different choice on Nov. 4: Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman and self-described democratic socialist, won the mayoralty in a result that shocked many and thrilled others. The victory — reached with a surge of youth turnout and a message of affordability — shifts the city toward policies that will test the limits of municipal government and the patience of taxpayers.

Mamdani’s platform was unapologetically big-government: fare-free buses, universal public childcare, city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes for certain tenants, and a push toward a $30 minimum wage timeline. These are expensive promises that depend on tax increases, regulatory overreach, and central planning masquerading as compassion — the sort of sweeping experiments that usually leave the most vulnerable worse off when costs explode and private supply collapses. Voters bought a vision of immediate relief; conservatives must insist on sober budgets, real accountability, and clear metrics before any taxpayer dollars are diverted into utopian pilots.

Let’s be blunt: Mamdani’s win is a wake-up call. When a city of New York’s size elects a democratic socialist promising to remake markets and daily life, the risk is that creative energy, businesses, and middle-class families will be driven out by higher costs and diminished public safety. Conservatives should not cede the language of compassion — we believe in helping neighbors without bankrupting cities or erasing liberty — and we should organize now to protect local institutions, schools, and small businesses that actually sustain neighborhoods.

That’s why Klavan’s testimony matters politically as well as spiritually. Faith rebuilds character, and character is the only antidote to the moral and fiscal recklessness we’re seeing courted by some on the left. If conservatives can combine cultural renewal with smart, compassionate policy alternatives — support for parental choice in education, targeted criminal-justice reforms that restore safety, and pro-growth tax policies that keep people and jobs in the city — we can offer a real, practicable alternative to grand government schemes.

Americans who love their country should watch Mamdani closely and hold him to his promises, even as we pray for the city’s safety and prosperity. We’ll speak up where policy will harm real people, vote where it matters, and refuse to let a single election erase the values that built this nation. If Klavan’s conversion teaches anything, it’s that moral clarity changes politics — and it’s past time we brought that clarity back into our public square.