Assemb. Zohran Mamdani (D) completed one of the more remarkable rises in modern political history on Tuesday, winning the mayoralty of the nation’s largest city on a platform of taxing the rich to make New York City more affordable.
Mamdani, who turned 34 just last month, will be the youngest mayor of New York in a century. With 69% of the vote counted, Mamdani held 50% of the vote, leading former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (I) at 41% and community activist Curtis Sliwa (R) at 8%.
Election results showed Mamdani leading in four of New York’s five boroughs. He led by 23 percentage points in his home base of Brooklyn, and by 11 points in the Bronx. Cuomo led by a wide margin in the city’s smallest, most conservative borough, Staten Island.
Mayor Eric Adams, the scandal-plagued incumbent, quit the race last month, though his name remained on the ballot. Adams had captured just over 4,300 votes when the Associated Press called the race for Mamdani.
A self-declared member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani stunned Cuomo in the June Democratic primary, capturing 56% of the vote in the third round of New York’s first ranked-choice election. He pledged to raise taxes on the wealthy to provide free buses, city-run grocery stores and free child care to New Yorkers.
His campaign leaned heavily on a ground-breaking social media presence, a break-neck schedule of appearances around the city, and, ahead of the general election, quiet outreach to business leaders and Wall Street titans to blunt any hopes of a well-funded opposition effort coalescing behind Cuomo.
“Time and again, people have rewarded the happy warrior. We all know of the many threats that are out there, but people want something to believe in,” Assemb. Alex Bores (D), a Mamdani ally in Albany, said in an interview. “New Yorkers chose to elect someone focused on affordability, someone who would not be distracted by the many darts and daggers being thrown during the race, and chose an optimistic view of what is possible.”
Mamdani brought in liberal heavyweights including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), a longtime ally, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who got his start in politics as the mayor of his hometown, Burlington.
At a rally last week as early voting was underway, Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders rallied before a near-capacity crowd at a 13,000-seat stadium in Queens.
That style contrasted with Cuomo, who relied on small-scale appearances before safe audiences. Cuomo focused his message on Mamdani’s youth, warning Mamdani was not qualified to run a city with a $115 billion budget and nearly 400,000 employees, and his liberalism, painting the Democratic Socialist label as out of touch with reality.
“The socialists want to take over the Democratic Party,” Cuomo said last week. “He wins, book airline tickets for Florida now.”
Cuomo also took aim at Mamdani’s Muslim faith, using thinly veiled dog whistles to recall the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. A super PAC backing Cuomo depicted Mamdani in front of the Twin Towers.
In a radio interview last month, Cuomo asked the host to imagine Mamdani serving as mayor if there were another such attack. When the radio host said Mamdani “would be cheering,” Cuomo laughed.
“That’s another problem,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani, who was nine years old and living in New York City on September 11, called Cuomo’s comments “absolutely disgusting.”
Beneath the veneer of joy and optimism, Mamdani wielded blistering barbs at Cuomo, 67, who left the governor’s office in 2021 under a cloud of scandal, accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and misconduct. Mamdani also targeted Cuomo’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Cuomo ordered nursing homes to admit patients from hospitals without testing for the virus.
New York City elections officials said more than two million voters had cast ballots this year. It was the first time so many New York City residents had voted since 1969, when Mayor John Lindsay (R) won re-election.
Though New York City is a Democratic stronghold, the city’s most powerful former resident, President Trump, took an unusual interest in the race. Trump’s team attempted to convince Sliwa to leave the race, and Trump issued a last-minute endorsement of Cuomo, with whom he feuded openly during the pandemic.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post filled with inaccuracies about Mamdani.
Trump’s nod may have influenced some voters: CNN exit polls showed 57% of those who approved of Trump’s handling of the presidency backed Cuomo, while just 33% backed Sliwa.
But any positive Trump may have offered is limited: The same exit poll showed just 28% of New York City voters approve of Trump’s job performance. Mamdani won nearly two-thirds of the 69% who said they disapproved of Trump’s job performance.