The buzz surrounding this year’s New York City mayoral elections is unprecedented.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Kwame Mamdani began as an underdog in the race, polling at less than one percent in February. Just four months later, he won the primary with 56 percent of the vote, after running a successful grass-roots campaign mobilising tens of thousands to knock on more than one million doors in the city.
The win shook the status quo by knocking out the current mayor, Eric Adams, and snatching the Democratic candidacy for mayor from former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is political royalty in New York (his father, Mario Cuomo, was one of New York’s most famous governors).
The combination of Mamdani’s charisma, catchy videos and his focus on making New York City affordable for all has captured the imagination of millions in New York, across the US and globally.
After the primary loss, Adams and Cuomo ran against Mamdani as independents, until Adams pulled out a few weeks ago, giving Cuomo, backed by the New York elite, a better shot at winning on 4 November.
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If Mamdani is elected, as many observers believe is likely, then he will become the city’s first Democratic Socialist, South Asian, or Muslim to hold that position since the first mayor took office in 1665.
Middle East Eye takes a look at what shaped the 34-year-old into a rising star.
What’s Mamdani’s background?
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to a Ugandan-Indian father and an Indian mother, both of whom are internationally recognised in their respective careers and helped shape Mamdani’s political leanings.
His father, Mahmood Mamdani, a well-known academic, who has written extensively on colonialism and empire, was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, in 1946, to Tanzanian-Muslim parents with roots in Gujarat, India.
He first came to the US on a scholarship programme, studied at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1960s and participated in the civil rights movement in Alabama. He then studied at Tufts and Harvard University before returning to Uganda, from where he, along with other South Asians, was expelled in 1972 by dictator Idi Amin.
After Amin was overthrown in 1979, Mahmood returned: his subsequent tenures included the University of Cape Town, the University of Dar es Salaam, and Makerere University. He is currently the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University.
Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is a celebrated Oscar-nominated independent filmmaker who challenges conventional views on race, gender and class.
She was born in Orissa, eastern India, in 1957 to a Punjabi-Hindu family. Her father was an administrator from Lahore in present-day Pakistan, and her mother was a social worker.
Nair studied sociology at a women’s college at the University of Delhi. From there to she went on a full scholarship to Harvard, where she graduated in visual and environmental studies with a focus on documentary film-making in 1979.
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Much of her early work focused on India and its people. Her debut Salaam Bombay!, co-produced with then-husband Mitch Epstein, focuses on Mumbai’s street children and was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 1989 Academy Awards. Nair used the profits to create Salaam Baalak Trust, which works with street children in India. Later, Monsoon Wedding, won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2001.
Nair and Mahmood, who met in Kampala while Nair was researching Mississippi Masala, married in 1991. Zohran was born that year: his middle name is Kwame, after Kwame Nkrumah, a Pan-African icon and the first democratic president of Ghana.
When Mamdani was seven, his family moved to New York City. Zohran has said that his formative years in Africa helped shape his sense of self and identity, as well as his ability to navigate multiple cultures. Both of his parents are pro-Palestinian.
Mamdani attended private elementary and middle school at the Bank Street School for Children, where he first ran for an “election” at the age of 12.
In the school-wide US presidential election simulation in 2004, amid the US “war on terror”, he ran on an anti-war platform that proposed allocating funds to education rather than the military.
His political aspirations didn’t stop there. He attended the Bronx School of Science, where he unsuccessfully ran for student vice president at the prestigious public school that requires a standardised admission test.
On the sports field, Mamdani found success. He and another friend created a cricket team, and it was through the sport that he met and befriended many South Asians, which brought him closer to his South Asian roots. The sport was not part of the public school curriculum in New York – but within a few years, it has been added to the roster. An Arsenal fan, Mamdani also played in a football league.
How did Mamdani’s politics develop?
After high school, Mamdani studied Africana Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, including the work of critical race theorists and the anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanon. He also worked as an editor for the student newspaper, including writing an opinion article on consent.
Mamdani also founded the college chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, and with other students attempted to make Bowdoin join a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, without success.
In one article, he wrote about his loneliness at being the only brown student in a predominantly white classroom where he had to continuously correct people’s pronunciation of his name – something he continues to do, particularly with political rival Cuomo, who still mispronounces it.
“I’m tired of being one of a few non-white students in a classroom, if not the only one,” he wrote in that article in May 2014. “I bring up race in discussions only to see the thought flicker in my peers eyes and on their tongues. They sigh without a sound. I’ve brought up race again. I’ve sidetracked the discussion. I’ve chosen to make an issue out of it.”
During the summer 2013, Mamdani attended an Arabic language school in Cairo, which he said he enjoyed until democratically elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, making life precarious for non-Egyptians and increasingly uncomfortable for foreigners.
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After leaving college in 2014, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention and housing counsellor in Queens, assisting lower-income homeowners with eviction notices and helping them to remain in their homes.
In interviews, he has said the experience motivated him to run for office to address the housing and affordability crisis in New York.
It wasn’t until 2015 that Zohran had his first foray into New York City politics, when he started volunteering for the unsuccessful city council campaign for lawyer Ali Najmi, who now serves as Zohran’s election campaign attorney.
Mamdani also had a short stint as a musician under the name Young Cardomom (a nod to South Asian cuisine, where the spice is ubiquitous), releasing an EP titled Sidda Mukyaalo (No Going Back to the Village) with a Ugandan rapper.
In 2017, Mamdani joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which continues to inform his approach to policy, and worked on the campaigns for Khader El Yateem, Ross Barkin, and Tiffany Caban.
In June 2020, he became an assembly member for New York’s 36th State Assembly district in Queens, which includes Long Island City and Astoria, endorsed by DSA and running on a platform of housing reform, and police and prison reform. He won again later that November, and again in 2022 and 2024.
In an interview in 2020, Mamdani said: “Every day, I’m reminded that all this suffering isn’t inevitable – it’s a choice that our representatives make to put the interests of their campaign donors over the well-being over their constituents.”
As an assemblyman, Mamdani campaigned alongside the New York Taxi Workers Alliance union for drivers to be given debt relief from the exorbitant amounts they had paid for taxi medallions, the transferable permits that allow taxicabs to operate.
He was arrested and charged for a sit-in on Broadway Avenue during a protest. He also went on a hunger strike with some of the taxi drivers for two weeks. His activism helped consolidate support among the Sikh community.
When did Mamdani start his campaign for mayor?
On 23 October 2024, Mamdani launched his candidacy for his campaign for mayor of New York.
He told The Guardian at the time: “There is a representation of sets of voters that typically, in the very best scenario, have been erased from the political fabric, and in the worst scenario, have been persecuted by the political system in the city.”
At a rally in Forest Hills on Sunday, he said there wasn’t “a single television camera” present back then, and for months, no one took notice of him.
Yet his savvy and energetic campaign caught the imagination of legions of Gen Z supporters who have started their own sub-movements such as “Hot girls for Mamdani” and have hit the streets in droves.
His manifesto, not least its focus on affordability and populist economic policies, has had diverse appeal across many demographics and and spurred more than 90,000 people into volunteering. Across the country he has galvanised supporters into phone banking and other forms of campaigning.
Mamdani’s views on Israel’s war on Gaza, which he has described as genocide, have mobilised both supporters and opponents.
He told Mehdi Hasan that he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were he to enter New York City. “As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu,” Mamdani said in December 2024. “This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also.” Mamdani has since walked back such comments.
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His vocal support of Palestinians, his position against Israeli occupation (he has also said he would review any Israel-linked investments made by the city), and his criticism of Israel have driven pro-Israelis to label him as antisemitic.
Yet 78 percent of New Yorkers who voted in the primary agreed with him that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, while 79 percent agreed that weapons transfers to Israel should be restricted.
Mamdani has run a race based on inclusivity. He has continued to court New York’s Black and Jewish communities, with whom he underperformed in the primary.
His campaign has seen him feature in a lengthy video speaking in Urdu, Spanish and Arabic, and publishing flyers in Yiddish. He has visited several faith communities, including sit-downs with imams, rabbis and members of the Hindu community.
New York City has the world’s largest Jewish population. Several Jewish groups have canvassed for Mamdani and dismissed allegations of antisemitism against him.
Whether he has done enough to win support from those demographics could be a key factor in the election.
Politically, Mamdani cross-endorsed the city’s mayoral primary NYC comptroller Brad Lander, who returned the support. He has also built alliances with established progressives like Bernie Sanders, who he credits with influencing him politically, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Both have endorsed Mamdani , and he has appeared with each them during his mayoral campaign. Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran, as has House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, albeit at the last minute.
What are Mamdani’s plans for New York?
Mamdani has been running on a platform that prioritises making New York affordable for all those who live there.
His proposals include freezing rents on one million apartments, building 200,000 affordable homes, making buses fast and free, and universal childcare that will include free childcare for children under five.
Mamdani has also proposed creating five publicly owned grocery stores that focus on low prices rather than profits in each borough, better wages for childcare workers, and increasing taxes on residents who earn more than $1m per year.
He has also backed down on his younger political aspirations to defund the police. He plans to retain NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is widely respected even among Mamdani’s opponents.
Yet despite a campaign that focuses on affordable economics, Mamdani’s socialist political leanings and Muslim identity have made him a target of bipartisan attacks, amid accusations of being a terrorist, anti-Israel, anti-police, and anti-American.
US President Donald Trump has consistently called him a “communist” and suggested he may cut funding to the city iof he is elected.
His closest rival, Cuomo, and current NYC mayor Eric Adams, unleashed Islamophobic attacks two weeks before election day, which have been widely condemned.
“God forbid, another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo said in October, to which Mamdani later replied: “This is Andrew Cuomo’s final moments in public life and he’s choosing to spend them making racist attacks.”
