Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
The Associated Press called Mamdani the winner less than an hour after polls closed on Tuesday night. According to the New York Times, with 75% of the votes counted, Mamdani leads with 860,327 votes (50.4%), Cuomo trails with 704,866 votes (41.3%) and Sliwa is in a distant third with 128,400 votes (7.5%).
Mamdani established himself as an early favorite after a shocking victory against the perceived front-runner, Cuomo, in June’s Democratic Primary. Early voting polls on Sunday showed the 34-year-old leading with 40% of the vote, while Cuomo and Sliwa earned 34% and 24% respectively.
Mamdani forged his victory with a platform built for the working-class New Yorker, promising rent stability, free public transportation, no-cost child care and city-owned grocery stores. Cuomo, his closest competitor, attempted to leverage his experience as governor while pushing issues like public safety, city maintenance and education.
Mamdani is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani. He was born in Uganda and his family moved to New York when he was 7 years old. He graduated from Bowdoin College and was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, 2022 and 2024.
Although Mamdani has earned the trust of New York City, some of his fellow Democrats were hesitant to back his platform, which some critics deem as outwardly socialist. Progressives like New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have both endorsed Mamdani. However, Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have remained silent. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York also dodged supporting Mamdani until Oct. 24.
Republicans have widely rejected Mamdani. They wrote of the mayoral election in a memo on Oct. 28, “This isn’t about one race in New York. It’s a national story of a party bending the knee to socialism and the far left.”
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Donald Trump is among Mamdani’s harshest critics. He wrote on Truth Social Monday evening, “If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival! It can only get worse with a Communist at the helm, and I don’t want to send, as President, good money after bad. It is my obligation to run the Nation, and it is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win.”
From Variety US