This name, the New Yorkers are likely to hear it for a long time- Zoran Mamdani is a Democratic candidate for his position mayor her New Yorkwriting history as the first Muslim candidate.
33 -year -old Zoran Mamdani with a glittering smile, surprised political analysts When on Tuesday (24.06.2025) brought overwhelming defeat to former ruler Andrew Cuomoas it seems ready for the municipality of the largest city in the United States.
If Mamdani, a member of the State Parliament, wins the City Council in November, will become the first Muslim mayor of Indian descent in New York history– This is another “headache” for Trump, at a time when his anti -immigration policy is “crushed” …
At the time of counting the votes, Mamdani, with roots from India and Uganda, cited Nelson Mandela on Wednesday morning in a post on X: “It always seems impossible until it is. My friends, it was done. And you are the ones who did it. It is my honor to be the Democratic candidate for the post of New York Mayor. “
In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done.
My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it.
I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City. pic.twitter.com/AgW0Z30xw1
– Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani) June 25, 2025
Cuomo, a former ruler of the New York State, who resigned in 2021 in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal, spoke at an event in Manhattan after first phoning Mamdani to congratulate him.
“Tonight was the night of MP Mamdani, who organized an excellent campaign,” he said. “And touched the young people, inspired them, moved them and made them come out and vote. He was really conducting a major impact campaign. “
With Mamdani’s expected victory, political analysts believe that there are important lessons for the Democratic Party, which is still struggling with his defeat in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
So who is Zoran Mamdani?
THE Zoran Quament Mamdani He is a Democratic Socialist and son of academic Mahmoud Mamdani from Uganda and Indian director Mira Nair.
Born in Kampala, Mamdani moved to New York at the age of seven. He obtained a degree in African studies from Bowdoin College in Maine. Before dealing with politics, He worked as a housing consultant, helping low -income families to avoid eviction.
In the New York State elections in 2020, he was elected by the 36th District, representing the Astoria Queens.
At the beginning of the year, He married Rama Duvaji, a 27 -year -old Syrian artist based on its Brooklyn- The couple met through the Hinge acquaintance application.
Her work has been published in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Washington Post and VICE, and also deals with animation and pottery.
He has published a video of his campaign entirely in Urdu and with excerpts from Bollywood films. In another, he speaks Spanish.
Before becoming known to New York Progressives, he was a real estate seizure consultant and a rapper – initially by the name of Young Cardamom and later as Mr. Cardamom (“Better to stop pretending to be young,” he told the New York Times in 2019).
Mamdani is presented as a candidate for the people and organizer.
“As life received its inevitable turns, with bypasses in cinema, rap and writing,” he said in his profile at the State Assembly, “it was always the organization that ensured that the events of our world would not lead him to despair, but to action.”
He has also made his Muslim faith visible part of his campaign – eg regularly visits mosques.
“We know that standing publicly as a Muslim means sacrificing the security we can sometimes find in the shadow,” he said in a concentration in the spring.
“There is no other candidate for mayor representing all the issues that really interest me, except Zoran,” said Jagprit Singh, political director of the Drum Social Justice Organization, at the BBC.
“This is a city where one in four residents lives in poverty, a city where 500,000 children go to bed hungry every night,” he recently told the BBC. “And finally, it’s a city that is in danger of losing what makes it so special.”
He has suggested:
- Free buses across the city
- Rental Ice and stricter accountability for negligent real estate owners
- City -owned food chain and focus on affordable price
- Universal care of children from six weeks to five
- Triple the production of home -made housing, made by unions
- His plan also includes the “reform” of the mayor’s office, so that real estate owners are responsible, and the massive expansion of permanently accessible houses.
In his campaign, he linked these policies with very visible and viral movements. He dived into the Atlantic to dramatize the freezing of rents and broke the fasting of Ramadan with a burrito to highlight food insecurity. A few days before the qualifying elections, he walked all along Manhattan, stopping to take a selfie with voters.
While he insists that he can make the city more accessible, critics dispute such ambitious promises.
The New York Times did not support anyone in the city’s qualifiers and generally criticized the candidates. Its editorial committee said Mamdani’s program is “particularly inappropriate for the city’s challenges” and “often ignores the inevitable compromise solutions of governance”.
The freezing of rents will limit the offer of housing, the committee said.