Today's Edition
NEW YORK (THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker who transformed himself into an electrifying voice for New Yorkers disillusioned with runaway living costs and a scandal-plagued old guard, was elected the city’s 111th mayor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
His victory, stretching from the gentrified corridors of Brooklyn to the working-class immigrant enclaves of Queens, completed one of the most remarkable political upsets in New York history, and will soon put a democratic socialist in City Hall.
Mamdani defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo in a rematch of June’s Democratic primary, as New Yorkers soundly rejected a man who was once the state’s most powerful figure for the second time in five months. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, was in a distant third place, and conceded earlier in the night.
Turnout surged past 2 million voters, the highest level of participation in one of the city’s municipal elections since 1969.
A state Assembly member from Queens, Mamdani had entered the contest a year ago as little more than a protest candidate with a thin résumé and virtually no citywide profile.
But his intense focus on affordability, mastery of social media, and relentlessly infectious optimism about New York galvanised record turnout among young voters and immigrant groups, catapulting him past more seasoned rivals.
Now, he is poised to make history. He will be New York City’s youngest mayor since the 19th century, and its first Muslim and first South Asian mayor.
Born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, he will also be the first naturalised immigrant to serve as mayor since Abraham Beame in the 1970s.
Mamdani campaigned against the city’s long-running political and business establishment. He has called for raising taxes on the wealthy, making buses and child care free, a rent freeze for rent-stabilised apartments, and overhauling a Police Department he has harshly criticised.
Mamdani is set to take office on January 1, 2026.
