Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor

New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's unexpected victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary makes him the presumptive favorite to be the city's next chief executive. While the city has not released a final result due to ranked choice votes still being tallied, his leading opponent, scandal-plagued former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has already conceded.

A campaign that started with almost no chance of success came out of virtually nowhere to best household-name Cuomo. Mamdani's rise to prominence has been swift, and observers are already grappling with the implications of his victory for national politics.

Background

Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian Muslim parents but raised in New York City after his family moved there when he was seven. His mother, Mira Nair, is an "award-winning filmmaker whose credits include 'Monsoon Wedding,'" said The Associated Press. He attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he "co-founded the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine," said the BBC. He became an American citizen in 2018. After working as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor in New York City, Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020 and is currently serving his third term. There, he "focused primarily on housing and transportation reform" and was "praised by progressive voters for the ambition of his bills," said Time.

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The latest

New York City's incumbent mayor, Democrat-turned-independent Eric Adams, is running for re-election but was indicted by a federal grand jury on bribery charges in September 2024 before the Department of Justice dismissed the case under pressure from President Donald Trump in April 2025. Adams' legal troubles and unpopularity left this year's race wide open, and in March, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threw his hat in. Cuomo had resigned from office in disgrace in 2021 after a flurry of sexual harassment allegations were levied against him. While Cuomo began the race with high name recognition and a significant early polling lead, Mamdani was able to consolidate the support of anti-Cuomo factions and emerge as the Democratic Party's nominee. That was in spite of the Democratic Party's old guard getting behind Cuomo, providing him an "impressive list of endorsements, including from former president Bill Clinton, former mayor Michael Bloomberg and South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn," said The Nation.

Despite being "underrated by his opponents, and by the press," Mamdani pulled off his stunning victory by campaigning on an unapologetically progressive platform of "slightly higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, free buses, universal child care and more," said The New Yorker. Mamdani also courted the city's 750,000 Muslims and "released ads in Urdu, Hindi and Bangla to reach Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi voters," said New York magazine, even as he was being attacked as antisemitic. Finally, he deftly maneuvered through the city's ranked-choice voting system by forging voting alliances with other progressive candidates, most significantly with City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The reaction

Republicans relished the opportunity to tie national Democrats to Mamdani. The National Republican Congressional Committee called him the "new face of the Democrat Party" and said his policies are "straight out of a socialist nightmare." Some criticism of Mamdani certainly appeared to be racially motivated. "Many a frothing xenophobe can't fathom the idea" of New York City electing a Muslim mayor, said Rolling Stone. And his win is already "sparking fresh clashes between moderates and liberals about Democrats' best path back to national relevance," said The Washington Post.

Yet even in victory, there were warning signs for Mamdani. He appears to have won with the "support of New York City's white, Hispanic and Asian voters" but "not its Black voters," said National Review. That should worry national Democrats still smarting from Trump's gains with Black voters in 2024.

Mamdani's big win should convince national Democrats that "you don't have to choose between economic populism and protecting vulnerable people," said Parker Molloy at The Present Age. And while a Mamdani victory in the November general election is "not quite a foregone conclusion," it helps that his opponents, including Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and possibly even Cuomo himself in an independent run, will "all be running on similar law-and-order themes," said Nate Silver at The Silver Bulletin.