Zohran Mamdani elected NYC mayor in historic defeat of Andrew Cuomo

abdulmanannet77@gmail.comNovember 5, 2025

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Zohran Mamdani elected NYC mayor in historic defeat of Andrew Cuomo

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Democrat Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York on Tuesday, becoming the youngest man chosen to lead the five boroughs in modern history in what is widely seen as a watershed moment for his party’s rising left wing.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who will also be the city’s first-ever Muslim mayor, was declared the winner of the 2025 mayoral race by the AP shortly after 9:30 p.m., as Board of Elections tabulations showed him leading his main opponent, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by a margin of about 50 to 41 percent.

Mamdani — who will now take office on Jan. 1 as the youngest mayor in more than a century — was scheduled to address the crowd at his election night party in Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

Cuomo, who campaigned as an independent, did not immediately comment. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor, took third place in the race, according to unofficial tables.

Mamdani’s victory was propelled by near-record levels of voter turnout, with more than 2 million New Yorkers voting in Tuesday’s election — the highest turnout in a local race since at least the 1969 mayoral race.

Marking the conclusion of New York City’s most intense mayoral race in decades, Mamdani’s victory also gives the left wing of the Democratic Party a major feather in its cap and provides progressives nationally with a potential road map on how to campaign in competitive elections.

A dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani will, as mayor, be the left-wing group’s highest-ranking elected official in the country, providing the organization with a major bully pulpit.

Mamdani’s victory comes after he focused his campaign on addressing the city’s cost-of-living crisis, with a particular emphasis on creating broader social safety nets for working-class New Yorkers. He has proposed funding such initiatives by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, proposals that are generally welcomed by Americans of all political stripes.

But Mamdani’s victory is also sure to upset moderate-leaning Democrats, who fear that Mamdani’s unapologetically left-wing agenda will trigger fiscal instability and lead to a decline in public safety. While openly supporting the Palestinians, Mamdani has also taken stands and made statements about Israel that some of his moderate critics say have fueled anti-Semitism.

Politically, there are concerns that Mamdani’s triumph could backfire and benefit Republicans, particularly in the New York gubernatorial race and next year’s congressional midterm elections. President Trump has vowed for weeks to punish New York City by cutting federal funding if Mamdani wins.

Amid all this, Mamdani also risks facing pressure next year from his supporters to quickly implement his agenda — many elements of which depend on actions by state government that will be beyond his control as mayor and could run into headwinds in Albany.

Queens state Sen. Michael Gianaris, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the state Senate and a Mamdani supporter, would not make any promises to reporters at Mamdani’s election night about getting specific parts of his agenda through Albany in his first year as mayor.

“[But] I think at a minimum we can start and move in the direction of gradually building these things out over time,” Gianaris told Brooklyn Paramount.

When he announced his mayoral campaign a little more than a year ago, in October 2024, Mamdani was a relatively unknown entity in New York politics, working as a state Assembly member representing a slice of northwest Queens that includes Astoria.

But Mamdani quickly captured the attention of New Yorkers by launching an energetic campaign, spurred by a clever social media strategy and volunteers who canvassed on his behalf. His promises to freeze rents for stabilized tenants, significantly expand subsidized child care and make public buses free struck a chord with residents of a city that had become increasingly expensive, particularly among younger generations, who flocked to Mamdani.

But even older New Yorkers who didn’t vote for him found Mamdani’s campaign appealing.

“My feelings are not anti-Mamdani. I have no problem with Mamdani being a socialist Democrat or anything…I think they just gave him a bad name in this election,” Queens resident Kevin Moran, an 80-year-old retired taxi driver, said after voting for Cuomo in South Ozone Park Tuesday morning. “If Mamdani wins, I will be happy. I think he will be able to do whatever comes his way as mayor of the city. He will appoint different people. I think it will probably be a little bit of a difficult road for him, but I think he will be able to do it.”

Barry Williams/New York Daily News

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Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, vote at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Queens, New York, Tuesday, November 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)

Develop

In June’s Democratic mayoral primary, Mamdani won a shocking victory, defeating Cuomo in that contest by a margin of nearly 13 percent.

Despite the primary defeat, Cuomo, a member of one of New York’s most famous political dynasties, returned to the general election for mayor, campaigning as an independent on a “Fight & Deliver” ballot with an emphasis on public safety and his extensive experience in government.

Cuomo’s entry into the mayoral race was an attempt to rehabilitate his career, after resigning as governor in 2021 when he faced impeachment amid accusations of sexual and professional misconduct that he now denies.

Cuomo, a longtime Democrat, spent the final days of the campaign trying to attract votes from local Republicans, which he was seen as needing to have a path to victory, despite trailing Mamdani by double digits in virtually every poll.

For weeks, Cuomo also tried to knock Sliwa out of the race. When Sliwa refused, Cuomo publicly pleaded with Republicans not to “waste” their vote on Sliwa and instead support him as an anti-Mamdani candidate.

The pressure campaign on Sliwa came after Mayor Adams decided in late September to abandon his re-election bid following prodding from Cuomo and his allies.

In contrast, Mamdani, during the general election campaign, accumulated a long list of endorsements from New York political actors who did not support him during the primary. They included Governor Hochul, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other moderate Democrats who were otherwise wary of elements of Mamdani’s left-wing agenda.

Hochul, in particular, is expected to play a particularly significant role in determining the fate of Mamdani’s agenda, as his support will be needed to implement the tax increases he has proposed to generate revenue for his major campaign promises.

So far, Hochul – who faces a re-election race next year – has publicly resisted calls to support Mamdani’s tax increase plans. This could potentially put a major dent in one of the most important elements of its platform.

Still, speaking to reporters outside an Astoria polling place Tuesday morning before voting for himself, Mamdani expressed optimism that he would be able to stick to his agenda.

“We cannot choose the scale of the crisis we face, we can only choose how we respond to it,” he said. “And it’s time to finally respond with the urgency that New Yorkers deserve.”