Copyright Al-Monitor
NEW YORK — New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, making history as the first Muslim and person of South Asian descent to win the top position in the United States' largest city. The pro-Palestinian lawmaker's victory is unprecedented in American politics given his self-identification as a democratic socialist and backing of social welfare policies. Mamdani, a Democrat, defeated independent candidate and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as well as Republican public safety advocate Curtis Sliwa in the three-way race, according to the Associated Press. As of 9:34 p.m. ET on election night, Mamdani had received 50.4% of the vote to Cuomo’s 41.3% and Sliwa’s 7.5%, with 69% of ballots counted. He is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 1. Who is Mamdani? Mamdani, 34, was born in Uganda to professor Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair. Both his parents are originally from India, and his father is Shiite Muslim while his mother is Hindu. The family moved to South Africa when Mamdani was 5 years old before settling in New York City when he was 7. Mamdani identifies with his father’s faith. Mamdani’s wife, illustrator Rama Duwaji, is Syrian American, with parents from a prominent Damascus family. She was born in Texas but moved with her family to Dubai at the age of 9 and spent the rest of her childhood in a number of Gulf countries. The mayor-elect was educated at both the private Bank Street School for Children in Manhattan and the public Bronx High School of Science in the city before majoring in Africana studies and studying Arabic language at Bowdoin College in the northeast state of Maine, where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. In the summer of 2013, he studied abroad in Egypt. Mamdani has represented part of the borough of Queens in the state assembly since 2021. He previously worked as a housing counselor and rapper. The mayor-elect joined the New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America in 2017. He made affordability a central tenet of his mayoral campaign, pledging to freeze rent, make bus rides and child care free, and launch city-owned grocery stores. Mamdani mentioned a number of these policies in a campaign video last week that featured him speaking in Arabic. There are around 60,000 Arabic speakers in New York City, per government data, while the city has roughly 8.74 million residents. Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activism Mamdani has a long history of opposing Israel’s character as a Jewish state and championing pro-Palestinian positions. The lawmaker described Israel as an “apartheid state” as early as 2014 and accused its government of carrying out a genocide in the recent Gaza war. He called for a ceasefire as early as Oct. 20, 2023, just days after Hamas' attack, and reiterated in September his pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the International Criminal Court’s November 2024 warrant for the leader. Some legal scholars have argued Mamdani would lack the jurisdiction to do so as the US is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. At the DSA’s national convention in September 2023, he accused Israel of having ties to police brutality issues in New York City, sparking outrage from many Jewish leaders. “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” said Mamdani, referring to the Israeli military. For years, the NYPD has held exchanges with police and security forces in Israel and a number of other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Israelis and Americans involved in the exchanges told Al-Monitor in 2020 that they focused on counterterrorism. When asked in October about his comments, Mamdani told CNN that the training is a “concern” to him, but said he would focus on “working with the NYPD to actually deliver public safety.” A day after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Mamdani said in a statement that he “mourns” the Israelis and Palestinians who were killed without condemning the Palestinian armed group directly. Around 1,200 people in Israel were killed during the Hamas attack, while 250 were taken hostage to Gaza. More than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, per local authorities. At the second mayoral debate in mid-October, Mamdani said Hamas “should lay down their arms.” In June, Mamdani called the term “globalize the intifada” a “desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights” in a podcast interview with "The Bulwark." The intifada refers to two Palestinian uprisings against Israel in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, the first from 1987 to 1993 and the second from 2000 to 2005. But in July, Mamdani told "Meet the Press" that he no longer uses the “globalize the intifada” phrase and acknowledged “concerns” about it. Mamdani’s views on the situation in Gaza have helped him gain support among many pro-Palestinian supporters in New York, though the war does not rank highly when New Yorkers have been polled about issues motivating their vote. Affordable housing, crime and inflation top the list. “It’s [Gaza] an important litmus test for a lot of people,” Umir al-Mahmood, from Queens, told Al-Monitor at a rally for Mamdani on Saturday. “It shows moral clarity.” Still, Mahmood said he supports Mamdani because he believes the politician will inject wealth redistribution into the US political conversation. Shift in messaging Mamdani has sought to moderate his stances on the conflict during the race. On the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Mamdani attended a vigil held by the anti-occupation group, Israelis for Peace. In a statement, he called Hamas’ attack a “horrific war crime” and accused Israel of launching a “genocidal war” against Gaza. Mamdani said he recognizes Israel’s right to exist on the campaign trail but stopped short of endorsing it as a Jewish state. Mamdani conducted significant outreach with some Jewish groups during the final stretch of the campaign. In October, Mamdani met with members of the anti-Zionist Satmar community of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. The same month, he attended services at the self-described “God-optional” synagogue Lab/Shul in Manhattan alongside Jerry Nadler, the longest-serving Jewish congressman in the House of Representatives, and released a flyer in Yiddish targeting ultra-Orthodox voters. The message read that he would fight antisemitism as mayor, a pledge he made several times during the final stretch of the campaign. Around 960,000 Jews live in New York City, according to the UJA-Federation of New York 2023 survey, while 800,000 Muslims live in the city, per a statement from the Council on American–Islamic Relations in 2021. Many in the city’s Jewish community have criticized Mamdani for his rhetoric on Israel. Richard Altebe, the co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish community organization Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance in Queens, called Mamdani an "existential threat” to the city’s Jews, pointing to the lawmaker’s statements on Hamas and defense of the “globalize the intifada” phrase. “I don’t believe we will be safe,” Altebe told Al-Monitor by phone. “A Mamdani victory gives a message to radicals out there that they are free to roam the streets and harass us.” Altebe, who supported Cuomo, characterized Mamdani as believing “Israel is the cause of all problems.” A number of Jewish institutions in the city have been targeted in relation to the conflict, including Manhattan’s Park Avenue Synagogue, which was vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti in June of last year. Antisemitic incidents in the city accounted for 345 of the city’s 641 reported hate crimes in 2024, according to NYPD data. There were 43 incidents of Islamophobia as well as 78 involving sexual orientation and 21 targeting other groups. In 2023, 323 anti-Jewish crimes were reported. On the national level, Mamdani was endorsed by fellow democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as well as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House. President Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed Mamdani as a "communist" and endorsed Cuomo on Monday night. On Tuesday, he wrote on Truth Social that Mamdani is a "proven and self professed JEW HATER." Trump has threatened to cut funding to the city if Mamdani is elected. The assemblyman has not commented extensively on other Middle East issues, though he condemned the Trump administration over the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June. “Today’s unconstitutional military action represents a new, dark chapter in his endless series of betrayals that now threaten to plunge the world deeper into chaos,” said Mamdani in a statement on June 22. Family background Mahmood Mamdani, the mayor-elect's father, is currently a professor of government at Columbia University. The academic, who specializes in the study of colonialism, came under scrutiny during the election for his outspoken views on the US. A video of him speaking to the Asia Society in 2022 spread on social media in October in which he called the US the “genesis of what we call settler-colonialism.” Nair has taken part in activism as well, and signed a letter in March urging the Oscars to bar Israeli actress Gal Gadot from attending, citing her support of the Israeli military. In 2013, Nair declined an invitation to attend the Haifa International Film Festival and endorsed a cultural boycott of Israel, The Guardian reported at the time.
