New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pulled off a surprising win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded to Mamdani on Tuesday after the state Assembly member won over voters with his platform pushing for rent freezes, city-owned grocery stores and free buses.
In the ranked choice election with a field of 11 candidates, Mamdani earned 43.5 percent of first-place votes compared to Cuomo, who won 36.3 percent, according to unofficial results from the New York City Board of Elections.
Who supported Mamdani?
Mamdani, 33, lives in Queens but was able to pull support from a wide range of neighborhoods, winning over the Brooklyn and Manhattan boroughs, in addition to his home turf.
A neighborhood breakdown of unofficial election results shows the state lawmaker earned voter confidence in Washington Heights, Flatbush, Williamsburg, Astoria, Park Slope, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, according to The New York Times.
Cuomo won the Bronx and Staten Island boroughs, while claiming neighborhood support from Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West sides.
Ahead of election day, Mamdani polled better with voters under 50 by a 2-1 ratio, according to surveys from Emerson College Polling/Pix11/The Hill.
What is Mamdani’s campaign platform?
Mamdani captured the attention of voters with one message: “New York is too expensive.”
His platform encourages no-cost child care for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks old and 5 years old, city-owned grocery stores that buy and sell at wholesale prices, and creating 200,000 permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes over the next 10 years.
“This is a campaign for EVERYONE,” Mamdani wrote in a post on the social platform X.
The democratic socialist touted a track record of three terms in the state Assembly, where he secured $100 million in the state budget for increased subway service and a fare-free bus pilot, according to his campaign.
What are his ties to the Democratic Socialists of America?
The Democratic Socialists of America organization is working toward creating a system where “ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society,” according to its website. It aims to push for “‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.”
Mamdani has earned praise from both Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who are well-known democratic socialists.
“Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack,” Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times, when asked about why she endorsed him.
If elected, Mamdani would become New York’s second democratic socialist mayor, following in the footsteps of David Dinkins in the early 1990s.
What’s Mamdani’s background?
Mamdani immigrated to the United States from Uganda as a child and spent a majority of his life in the Big Apple.
If elected, the 33-year-old would become the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century, following 34-year-old John Purroy Mitchel’s election in 1913, while also making history as New York’s first Muslim and first Asian mayor.
What are his views on Israel?
Mamdani has railed against the Trump administration for backing the Israeli government amid its efforts to carry out “genocide” against Palestinians. He’s been a vocal critic on the issue for years and has frequently spoken out in support of a Palestinian state.
While enrolled at Bowdoin College in Maine, he co-founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Mamdani was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in 2023 for blocking traffic outside the Brooklyn home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in an effort to urge the leader to promote a ceasefire in Gaza.
In recent months, Mamdani said the issue of antisemitism has been “weaponized” by mayoral candidates. New York’s mayor represents a constituency with more than a half million Muslims and one of the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel.
“There are millions of New Yorker who have strong feelings about what happens overseas. I am one of them,” he said in his victory speech, as reported by CBS News. “And while I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, for all those who walk this Earth, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements.”
Mamdani has pledged to increase the city’s anti-hate crime program by 800 percent to tackle Islamophobia and antisemitism, amid other concerns, according to CNN.
