Zohran Mamdani will be New York City’s 111th mayor, CBS News projects, capping a closely watched campaign in which the little-known state assemblyman energized voters with his focus on making America’s largest city more affordable.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist defeated Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing a Democratic primary that he had initially entered as the clear front-runner. The mayoral race drew the attention of President Trump, who endorsed Cuomo the night before the election and threatened to withhold federal funds to New York City under a Mayor Mamdani.
Mamdani’s message centered around the cost of living, energizing a coalition of young and progressive voters, even as critics questioned his lack of experience and raised concerns about his stance on Israel. He pledged to freeze rents on rent-stabilized apartments and raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for a host of new services, like free buses and city-run grocery stores.
When he assumes office, Mamdani will make history as the city’s first Muslim mayor. At 34, he’ll also be one of the city’s youngest mayors, but not the youngest ever: That distinction belongs to Hugh J. Grant, who was 31 when he was elected to his first term in 1889.
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Mamdani’s background
Mamdani was born in Uganda and moved to New York City when he was 7. He attended the elite Bronx High School of Science before heading off to Bowdoin College.
In 2018, he became an American citizen.
His parents are political science professor Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair. Mamdani is married to artist Rama Duawaji. They live in Queens, where Mamdani has served as state assemblyman since 2021, representing Astoria, Astoria Heights and Ditmars-Steinway in Queens.
Mamdani’s policies
Mamdani focused his campaign around reducing the cost of living. He promised to freeze the rent for the city’s rent-stabilized units. He has also pledged to provide free bus service and to open city-owned grocery stores in each borough. Mamdani also says he wants to build 200,000 affordable housing units.
To pay for his proposals, Mamdani has said he would raise taxes on corporations and on top earners by 2%, but he’ll need the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature to do it.
His candidacy was enthusiastically embraced by prominent fellow progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He eventually got the endorsement of some top Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Mamdani’s position on Israel drew scrutiny over the course of the campaign. He condemned the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, but also criticized the Israeli government’s response, calling the war in Gaza a genocide. Israel said his comments were “shameful.”
Mamdani says, while he supports Israel’s right to exist, he will not say it should exist as a Jewish state.
“I would not recognize any state’s right to exist with a system of hierarchy on the basis of race or religion,” he said in the candidates’ second and final debate.
He also said critics have wrongly accused him of more extreme statements.
“I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad. That is not something that I have said. And that continues to be ascribed to me. And frankly, I think much of it has to do with that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election,” Mamdani said during the last debate.
Mamdani and the NYPD
Mamdani came under withering criticism for his past remarks regarding the NYPD. He previously called for disbanding the Strategic Response Group, which was the same unit that responded to the Midtown office shooting in July. He has since walked that back, saying he was opposed to using that unit to respond to protests.
“I am not defunding the police,” Mamdani said this summer. “I am not running to defund the police.”
In an October interview with Fox News, Mamdani again apologized for remarks he made about the NYPD in 2020, when he called the department “racist” and a “threat to public safety” amid nationwide protests after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“We used to ask officers to focus on serious crimes. Now we’re asking them to focus also on the mental health crisis, to focus also on homelessness,” Mamdani said last month. “Absolutely I’ll apologize to police officers right here. Because this is the apology that I’ve been sharing with many rank and file officers. And I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers, and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day.”
Mamdani also recently said he would ask Jessica Tisch to stay on as police commissioner.
