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04-11-2025
NEW YORK: As Zohran Mamdani walked the streets of the Upper East Side for a campaign event to greet early voters, he could barely walk a few steps without being stopped by his supporters.
Two smiling young women looked stars-truck and told him they followed him on Instagram. The millennial Democratic nominee for mayor thanked them before posing with another young man who had readied his phone for a selfie.
Throngs of press surrounded Mamdani and captured his every moment, like running into the street to shake hands with a taxi driver shouting “we support you, man”.
With a comfortable lead in the polls, the 34-year-old is on the brink of making history when New Yorkers vote on Tuesday, as the youngest mayor in over a century and the first Muslim and South Asian leader of the city.
A relatively unknown figure just months ago, few could have predicted his rise, from hip-hop artist and housing counsellor to New York State assemblyman and frontrunner to lead the biggest city in the US, a job which comes with a $116bn (£88bn) budget and global scrutiny.
Leading a three-way race
Through viral videos and outreach to content creators and podcasters, Mamdani has reached disaffected voters at a time when faith in the Democratic party among its own members is at an all-time low but there are questions over whether he can deliver on his ambitious promises and how a politician with no executive experience will handle the onslaught sure to come from a hostile Trump administration.
There is also the complicated relationship he has with his party establishment, as he becomes a national figurehead for left-wing Democrats.
He describes himself as a democratic socialist, which essentially means giving a voice to workers, not corporations. It’s the politics of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with whom Mamdani has often shared a stage.
Trump has threatened to withdraw federal funds if New Yorkers elect a “communist”. Mamdani’s retort is that he’s more like a Scandinavian politician, only browner.
Victory would be seen as a rejection of politics as usual by New Yorkers as they struggle with the cost of living, Mamdani’s number one issue.
His main rival in Tuesday’s vote is former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary.
Cuomo accuses Mamdani of an anti-business agenda that would kill New York. He says he has shown he can stand up to Trump but Mamdani calls Cuomo the president’s puppet.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, mocks both of them. In the last debate, he said; “Zorhan, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin and Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City.”
Rent freezes and free buses
Mamdani’s message has been laser-focused on affordability and quality of life issues. He has promised universal childcare, freezing rent in subsidized units, free public buses and city-run grocery stores.
It’s a message that has landed with New Yorkers fed up with sky-high prices.
“I support him because I’m a housing attorney and I see how the cost of living just keeps going up and up and up,” Miles Ashton told media outside the candidates’ debate earlier this month. “We all want an affordable city.”
The costs of the Mamdani agenda would be covered by new taxes on corporations and millionaires, which he insists would raise $9bn though some, like the libertarian Cato Institute, say his sums don’t add up. He would also need the support of the state legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul to implement new taxes. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
