Zohran Mamdani leads trader sentiment for TIME’s 2026 Person of the Year after building a national profile as New York City mayor through high-profile policy clashes and public interventions that have kept him in the headlines. Mark Carney has surged in recent weeks on the strength of his confrontations with President Trump over tariffs and trade, positioning the Canadian prime minister as a symbol of middle-power resistance and earning him spots on TIME’s influential lists. Pope Leo XIV and AI executives such as Dario Amodei remain in the mix amid ongoing global interest in technology and religious leadership. With the magazine’s December announcement still months away, momentum will hinge on late-year political developments, international summits, and any major cultural or economic shifts that reshape the year’s dominant narrative.