Zohran Mamdani — a 33-year-old left-wing Muslim who openly calls the Gaza war a genocide and is accused of anti-Semitism — was unexpectedly the winner of the intra-party process to run for mayor of New York City against the favorite, centrist Andrew Cuomo, after campaigning against the high cost of living and promising to tax higher incomes.
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Zohran Mamdani, a candidate of the Democratic Left Wing, scored a surprise victory in the internal party elections and will run for mayor of New York.
"With the vision of a city that can afford every New Yorker, we won," he said in his speech, while promising to reject the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump and "govern the city as a model for the Democratic Party."
Mamdani's surprise victory came amid fierce attacks by Trump on major U.S. cities, which he says are governed by "far-left Democrats" "with a sick spirit," and at a time when the Democratic Party does not seem to have a cadres capable of opposing the Republican.
"Tonight was not our night. He won," 67-year-old former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted, speaking to supporters before the vote was counted.
New York "deserves a mayor who is proud to run based on his accomplishments, not (...) A mayor who has no achievement. We deserve a mayor who will continue to reduce crime, support our police and fight anti-Semitism," responded outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected with the Democratic Party but now plans to run again as an independent.
Born in Uganda to an Indian family, Mamdani, if elected, will be the first Muslim mayor of New York. He had the support of left-wing figures of the Democratic Party, such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mamdani based his campaign on social media and the enthusiasm of an army of young volunteers who plowed the streets of New York City.
The 33-year-old politician pledged to tackle the high cost of living, promising to abolish bus tickets, kindergartens and freeze rents on some buildings, as well as build 200,000 new homes over the next ten years.
It intends to finance all these social benefits by taxing the highest incomes.
"Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani and his thousands of supporters for their excellent election campaign. You confronted the political, economic and media establishment and won," Sanders wrote in X.
"Billionaires and lobbyists have spent millions against you (...) and you won," Ocasio-Cortez commented.
"Zohran Mamdani is very extreme for a city that is already in turmoil," said Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, a radio producer known for founding a citizen patrol group, the Guardian Angels. Sliwa was running for mayor of New York City in 2021 as well, but then lost to Eric Adams.
"Now is not the time for extreme politics. It is time for real leadership," he stressed.
Adams' image has been hit by a series of corruption scandals in which he is allegedly implicated and his approach to Trump.
Mamdani has faced criticism from his opponents both for his pro-Palestinian positions and for accusing Israel of "genocide."
But the key message of his campaign, reducing the cost of living, seems to resonate with New Yorkers.
If Johran Mamdani is finally elected, he will be the first Muslim and Indo-American to lead the country's largest city
Who is Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old son of Indian immigrants, was born in Uganda in 1991 before moving to New York with his family when he was seven years old. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and Bowdoin College and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.
Zohran Mamdani has represented the 36th parliamentary district since 2021, representing the neighborhoods of Queens Astoria, Astoria Heights, and Ditmars-Steinway. According to his resume in the state legislature, he used to work helping low-income New Yorkers fight evictions from their homes.
As stated in his CV: "Zohran is proud to be the first South Asian man to serve in the state parliament, as well as the first Ugandan and only the third Muslim ever to be a member of the body. For too long, communities like these have been left out of our state's politics and priorities. Zohran will strive to amplify the voices of preferably deaf people throughout the region and state for as long as he remains in office."
The Democratic socialist built a campaign based on lowering the cost of living for New York City workers. Mamdani is campaigning for rent freezes and free buses. As Mamdani stated: "Eight months after the start of this campaign, with a vision for a city that every New Yorker could afford, Won. We won because New Yorkers defended a city they can afford. A city where they can do more than fight every day."
Among his proposals are a rent freeze for the city's stabilized units, as well as free buses and groceries owned by the city. It also wants to build 200,000 low-cost homes.
He told CBS News New York political reporter Marcia Kramer that he plans to fund all of this, in part, by raising taxes on corporations and high-earners by 2 percent. As he said in the March interview: "Where appropriate, yes, taxes on the richest, taxes on the most profitable companies, definitely. And I think that's one thing that set our campaign apart from the others is that I'm very honest and open and clear about what it's going to take to pay for this program." He went on to say, "I've seen us find money for all kinds of things, I've seen us find a billion dollars to pay for the Buffalo Bills stadium. But now, when we're going to make sure that New York City workers can get a chance, we're being told that's unrealistic. It's just a matter of political will."
Zohran Mamdani received significant support from other progressive politicians, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as state Senator John Liu, who represents part of Queens. He told Kramer that he believed in a "grassroots effort" to energize younger voters, which seems to have paid off.
In the primary, another strategy he used was to work with other candidates, New York Comptroller Brad Lander and former state Assemblyman Michael Blake, in statements of support for the rank-and-file vote. They united and discouraged voters from endorsing Cuomo.
His opponent Andrew Cuomo, who campaigned based on his experience, repeatedly criticized Mamdani for his lack of leadership. Mamdani's position on Israel also became a hot spot in the race. As Kramer said, he calls the war in Gaza genocide and, while saying he supports Israel's right to exist, he will not say that it should exist as a Jewish state. He became emotional during the election campaign as he talked about what it's like to be a Muslim running for mayor and facing backlash for his support for Palestine. "I get messages saying things like, 'the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.' I am receiving threats for my life and for the people I love and I try not to talk about it," he said.
During the debate between the candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor, the 33-year-old said he would not visit Israel as mayor, unlike other candidates, including Cuomo, and argued for Israel's existence as a "state with equal rights" and not as a "Jewish state."
He was also accused of making comments on a podcast that, according to some Jewish groups, equated the Holocaust with the intifada, which in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as "rebellion, uprising" and comes from Arabic, where it literally means "the act of shaking off." In particular, Mamdani had said that the word "intifada" was used "by the Holocaust museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto uprising." He added: "What I hear from so many is a fervent desire for equality and equal rights in defending the human rights of Palestinians."
The U.S. Holocaust Museum called the comments "outrageous." In a statement, he said: "The exploitation of the museum and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising to sanitise the 'globalisation of the intifada' is outrageous." Mamdani said: "Anti-Semitism is such a real issue in the city and it is hard to see it being used as a political weapon by the candidates."
Will this be the next mayor of New York City?
The Democratic Party's primary election in New York is likely to determine who becomes mayor in November's election. The results showed that Mamdani had a commanding lead, but fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright victory.
The showdown is being watched as a test for the Democratic Party as it tries to define and improve its messaging after last November's election losses, which saw President Donald Trump's Republicans win the White House, as well as both houses of Congress. Cuomo's admission of defeat was unexpected, because the counting looks set to continue next week with the ranking system, which allowed New Yorkers to choose up to five candidates in order of preference. Undoubtedly, the defeat of the former governor marks the "greatest upheaval in the modern history of New York," as Tripe Young, a political strategist, told the BBC.
Many believe that if Mamdani is finally elected mayor of New York, it will be disastrous for both the economy and its structure, as what he says is borderline utopian. Prominent men, such as the Greek-American tycoon John Catsimatidis - owner and CEO of the Gristedes super market chain and the Red Apple group - and the CEO of the colossal Pershing Square Capital Management, Bill Akman said that if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor, they will leave New York City, along with their huge businesses, and they will not be the only ones.
