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Over 2 million New Yorkers cast ballots, marking the largest turnout in a mayoral race in more than 50 years, according to the city’s Board of Elections. Mamdani leads by an estimated 9 percentage points over Cuomo with about 90% of the votes counted. Mamdani, criticized during the campaign for his limited experience, now faces the challenge of building his team and delivering on a bold, divisive agenda. His promises include free child care and bus service, city-run grocery stores, and a new Department of Community Safety that would send mental health workers—not police—to certain emergencies. How he’ll fund these plans is unclear, given Gov. Kathy Hochul’s firm resistance to raising taxes on the wealthy. On Wednesday, he highlighted his backing from Hochul and other state leaders as “endorsements of an agenda of affordability.” “I don’t begrudge New Yorkers who were skeptical, and I don’t begrudge them because they were subjected to around $40 million in attack ads,” the mayor-elect, an outgoing Queens state assemblymember, told NY1 on Wednesday morning. “So, for many New Yorkers, when they open their mailbox, turn on their TV, or put on their radio, they would hear something or the other about why they should fear me. My job now is to lead the entirety of the city, and I’m looking forward to it.”
