NEW YORK — A big switch in the Red vs Blue battle in the U.S. – Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic state assembly member from Queens and self-described democratic socialist, has been elected as the 111th mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim, South Asian, and African-born person to hold the office. The Associated Press called the race for Mamdani at 9:34 p.m. on election night, cementing a political upset that has redrawn the city’s political map.
Mamdani secured just over 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race, defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, as per The Guardian .
Cuomo received around 41 percent, while Sliwa trailed with about 7 percent. Roughly two million ballots were cast, marking the highest voter turnout for a mayoral race in more than half a century.
He will take office on January 1, 2026, succeeding Eric Adams.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian scholar Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdani moved to New York at age seven and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. He graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in Africana Studies and entered politics after defeating incumbent Democrat Aravella Simotas in a 2020 state assembly primary backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. His election makes him the youngest New York City mayor in more than a century.
Mamdani’s campaign focused heavily on the city’s affordability crisis, framing the election as a referendum on housing, transit, and cost of living. His policy platform includes a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, fare-free bus service, city-funded universal childcare, and the construction of 200,000 affordable housing units.
He has also proposed city-owned grocery stores in each borough and raising the minimum wage to 30 dollars an hour by 2030, funded in part by higher taxes on corporations and individuals earning over one million dollars.
Initially considered a long-shot candidate polling at just one percent, Mamdani’s campaign surged in late summer 2025 thanks to aggressive digital organizing and support from progressive leaders including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His victory followed a decisive win over Cuomo in the Democratic primary, where ranked-choice voting favored his multi-racial working-class base.
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In his victory speech in Brooklyn, Mamdani called the result “a triumph for working people” and said his administration would “make New York affordable for all, not just the wealthy few.” He pledged to protect the city’s funding against federal retaliation and invoked historical labor and anti-colonial figures, telling supporters that “hope is alive.”
President Donald Trump, who had labeled Mamdani a “100% Communist lunatic” during the campaign, had urged New Yorkers to back Cuomo, framing the race as a battle for the city’s economic future. Business groups and some Jewish organizations voiced concern over Mamdani’s policy agenda and foreign-policy positions, while progressive organizations hailed his win as a watershed moment for socialist politics in major American cities.
Internationally, media in Uganda and India celebrated the election as a historic milestone, highlighting Mamdani’s immigrant background and family ties to both nations. Analysts see his victory as emblematic of a generational realignment in urban politics, signaling renewed strength for left-wing movements within the Democratic Party and a broader shift toward policies centered on public investment and affordability.
