Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who shot to stardom and shook up Democratic politics, has won the race for mayor of New York City.
The race was called for Mamdani around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 4, and his chief opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, later conceded in a combative speech to supporters.
Before a roaring crowd at the Brooklyn Paramount theater, Mamdani thanked young New Yorkers for believing “that the promise of a better future is not a relic of the past” in a speech that shouted out “Yemeni cab drivers and Mexican abuelas” among the workers who deliver the city’s packages, staff its warehouses and sweat in its kitchens.
“We are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn,” he said.
“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life,” Mamdani said. “But let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.”
Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, was at 1% in the polls when he launched an upstart campaign focused on the cost of living. He offered unabashedly left-leaning proposals including a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, free buses and universal child care, paid for by taxes on the city’s wealthiest. Several of the city’s billionaires donated millions of dollars on attack ads against him.
The general election campaign, which Cuomo contested as an independent, was marked by fighting over Mamdani’s proposals and his past criticisms of Israel and the New York Police Department.
In addition to some fellow Democrats objecting to him, Mamdani drew the ire of President Donald Trump, a Queens native, and other Republicans who have attacked Mamdani − a Ugandan immigrant and a Muslim − with incendiary allegations that he supports terrorism. Some of those attacks were echoed by Cuomo, who Trump endorsed.
“This was a change election,” political consultant Suri Kasirer told USA TODAY, noting record voter turnout and Mamdani’s grass roots campaign.
When Mamdani replaces embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams on Jan. 1, he will have to navigate threats by the Trump administration to pull federal funds from New York and convince state lawmakers to approve his plans for taxing and spending.
Mamdani dares Trump
Zohran Mamdani dared President Donald Trump to keep going after him in a combative speech after his Nov. 4 New York City mayoral election victory.
Mamdani, the subject of months of attacks from the president, called Trump out by name as the democratic socialist hailed a “mandate for change” with his victory.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani, 34, said. “And if there is any way to defeat a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.”
He added: “This is not only how we stop Trump ‒ it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
Trump had endorsed Mamdani’s chief opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and threatened to withhold federal funds from New York if the young democratic socialist was elected.
After the race was called for Mamdani, Trump left a four-word post on Truth Social: “…AND SO IT BEGINS!”
USA TODAY
