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Zohran Mamdani, the progressive firebrand Democrat, has stunned the political establishment and claimed a remarkable victory in the New York mayoral election. The 34-year-old from Queens ran on a sweeping populist platform that included taxing the city’s wealthiest residents, free city bus service, universal child care, and a rent freeze for roughly one million rent-regulated apartments. What does his victory mean for New York and the 8.5 million people who call it home: Newsweek writers give their verdicts. Nicholas Creel: Prepare for Multi-front War with Trump administration By electing Mamdani, New York City just signed itself up for a protracted multi-front war with the Trump administration. The city should immediately assemble a litigation team to prepare to fight the inevitable attempts by Trump to block their receipt of federal funds. These court battles will be costly and time-consuming, but they’re coming whether the city wants them or not. Every dollar of federal funding NYC receives—which New Yorkers’ own tax payments help fund—will now require legal warfare to secure. New York may well find that their coming legal fights over money could be the least of their problems in the coming months. We’ve already seen Trump deploy National Guard troops to several democratic controlled cities that defied his agenda. There’s no reason to believe NYC will be treated differently, particularly now that they have elected a democratic socialist mayor who Trump has labeled a threat. For New Yorkers, Mamdani’s election now means more than choosing progressive policies over moderate ones. It’s become a test case for whether American cities can chart their own course without federal interference. The economic stakes are massive, but the democratic stakes are even higher. Nicholas Creel is an associate professor of business law at Georgia College & State University. Kevin Powell: Mamdani Has Electrified This Metropolis Zohran Mamdani is a game-changer. He is an American politician born in Africa to parents birthed in India. He is a democratic socialist, a Muslim, only 34, a child of immigrants, and the next mayor of New York, my long-ago adopted hometown. Mamdani represents a supernatural sea change from politics as usual. He is a generational voice who is honest, real, accessible, smart, flexible and humanly clear of the privilege from whence he comes. I have been a part of and worked on many political campaigns. Mamdani’s was one for the ages to witness. We did not merely elect a mayor. We elected an unapologetic builder of rainbow coalitions in an era of ugly divides. Many have compared him to Barack Obama. I see instead Bobby Kennedy, Sr., also of inherited privilege, yet, like Mamdani, was a person of the people because he was unafraid to listen to, speak up for and advocate on behalf of us. That was RFK’s gift. This is Mamdani’s gift. Can he govern a wildly unpredictable New York? I don’t know. What I do know is that Zohran Mamdani has electrified this metropolis like no politician before him. Now we get to dream with him. Kevin Powell is a Grammy-nominated poet, humanitarian, author of 16 books, filmmaker, public speaker and frequent contributor to Newsweek. He lives in New York City. Costa Beavin Pappas: Win Inspires Hope at a Dark Time Zohran Mamdani’s win sets a new ethical standard of what a politician can accomplish—free of AIPAC funding—by breaking the myth that political success requires a Faustian bargain. While far-right rhetoric seeps deeper into the cultural sphere and can feel like it’s at a place of no return, his victory as a socialist, Muslim immigrant from outside the circles of wealth, is also a collective win for New Yorkers, who have agreed: “This is who we are—this is who represents us.” His win shows a collective institutional political fatigue, and inspires hope, in a particularly dark time, that there is new light and new solutions to be found in American politics beyond the binary confines of institutional Democrats. On a structural level, the success also puts further pressure on Democrats, who have lost the working-class, to reckon with its disconnect from the people and progressive ideas it once claimed to represent. Costa Beavin Pappas is a culture writer with bylines in ELLE, Oprah Daily, Business Insider, the Observer, and Newsweek, among others. He resides in New York City. Faisal Kutty: A Humane Reset for New York—If He’s Allowed to Govern Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City’s first Muslim mayor is both a cultural milestone and a governance test. His victory reflects a profound fatigue with inequality and political cynicism, but the real challenge lies ahead: turning activism into administration. Mamdani’s agenda—rent freezes, universal childcare, free public transit—echoes the frustrations of a city where affordability and dignity have become luxuries. Yet these proposals also face hard fiscal and institutional realities. As Brookings and others note, he will need cooperation from Albany and the private sector, both skeptical of his tax plans. And, as Politico observed, his critics are poised to define him not by policy but by identity—testing whether the city that elected its first Muslim mayor will judge him by his performance or by prejudice. Having lived in both the United States and Canada, I’ve seen how policy shapes possibility. The U.S. rewards ambition but punishes vulnerability; Canada’s “socialist-lite” model—healthcare, education, infrastructure as public goods—proves that stability and innovation can coexist. If Mamdani succeeds, he may offer something even better: an improved version of Canada, a society that blends fairness with dynamism. Not everything will be perfect, and establishment forces will seek to contain him. But even incremental progress would mark a break from a status quo that shields the powerful while leaving the rest behind. His victory is less a revolution than a reminder: humane governance is not naïve—it’s necessary. Faisal Kutty is a Toronto-based lawyer, law professor, and frequent contributor to The Toronto Star. Paul du Quenoy: Election Win Will Drive Residents from New York City Zohran Mamdani's election as New York's next mayor is a disaster for the city. Judging by his campaign promises alone, he will spike New York City's taxes to the nation's highest levels to finance a massive program of welfare spending that it can ill afford, reduce policing in a way that strongly correlates with rising crime, discriminate against whites, whom he says should be taxed at higher rates than minorities, and Jews, who are the main targets of nefarious groups and individuals whom his rhetoric supports, and take measures against the very capitalist system that made New York great and built its massive wealth. Polling data show that the mere fact of Mamdani's election will drive away hundreds of thousands of residents - among them many of New York's most productive and highest taxpaying citizens—who have said they will "definitely" leave—to friendlier climates, while over two million more say they will consider it. Business, finance, capital, and prosperity will surely follow. Even leaving these facts aside, neither the doctrinaire socialism nor militant Islam have ever improved any place on earth, and New York City will not be the first. Here in Florida, where we have neither income nor inheritance tax, and where property taxes may soon be a thing of the past, we are already seeing the New York license plates of refugees seeking a better home and a brighter life. They are welcome.” Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. Jonathan Alpert: Mamdani's Win Shows NYC Voters Moved by Extremes Zohran Mamdani’s win reflects less a mandate for New York than a moment of validation for its most radically minded. In the lead-up to the election, even many of my liberal patients, people who typically lean left and value inclusion and growth, expressed deep concern about what a Mamdani win would mean. Several told me they fear a further erosion of safety, stability, and economic growth. A few who grew up under socialist systems said the rhetoric feels uncomfortably familiar and are deeply concerned. Clinically, the reaction reflects an undercurrent of anxiety that now defines New York politics. Voters are no longer thinking; they are reacting, pushed and provoked by the extremes. Mamdani’s win is not representative of mainstream Democrats and certainly not of moderates in middle America. It is a victory for the far-left wing of the party and a sign that coastal elites are moving even further left. For some, that brings validation. For others, dread. In my sessions, what stands out most isn’t just fear, it’s exhaustion. People are tired of moral posturing and of being told that unease or disagreement makes them bad or intolerant. Many say they no longer recognize the city they once felt inspired by. Mamdani’s win feels less about leadership than about emotion—about people wanting to feel something rather than fix something. Jonathan Alpert is a psychotherapist practicing in New York City and Washington, D.C. He's also the author of the forthcoming book Therapy Nation (HarperCollins, 2026).
