New York Elects Mamdani as Mayor

Aniket Tank, editor-in-chief

On New Years Day, New York City (NYC) inaugurated Zohran Mamdani as mayor after he decisively won his election in November. Former State Assemblyman Mamdani made history by becoming the first Muslim NYC mayor and the youngest in recent history. 

A self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, Mamdani promises to freeze rent prices from increasing, improve public transportation and make childcare free, which would be funded by budget changes including an increase in the corporate tax rate. Critics have called his policies unrealistic and doomed to fail, but as evidenced by the election results, the solutions proposed by other candidates did not stick with voters like Mamdani’s. 

His campaign gained incredible momentum in the weeks before the Democratic primary election in June 2025. Mamdani’s young, energetic and progressive campaign was refreshing to voters who had only seen older and more moderate candidates. The general election was as much of a decisive victory as the primary, beating Andrew Cuomo by nine and a half percent. 

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo ran in the Democratic primary and was the favorite leading up to voting day but lost to Mamdani. In 2021, Cuomo resigned from governing the state of New York because of allegations of sexual harassment. His departure from government and his relationship with President Trump are key reasons why many voters were eager to find a new candidate. 

Mamdani’s “new” style of campaigning featured engaging social media posts, a strict message focused on policies and an army of volunteers spreading the message door to door.  

  “His consistent messaging on his key issues meant there was little confusion about what he was running on. One of the criticisms of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign was that voters couldn’t figure out what each candidate stood for and what rationale they had for running. Mamdani never had that problem,” according to The Hill. 

One of the biggest criticisms against Mamdani is that his proposed agenda is too ambitious, and he will not be able to accomplish any of it. His agenda included improving public transportation, increasing the role of the government in improving housing prices and conditions, making childcare free and experimenting with city owned grocery stores. Many of these ideas are difficult and expensive to implement and would require the support of the state government and Governor Kathy Hochul. 

In Mamdani’s first week he signed over 10 executive orders which undid executive orders signed by Adams, created the Office of Public Engagement, targeted hidden junk fees and much more. At the end of the first week, he also announced that in partnership with Governor Hochul they would launch free childcare for two-year-olds in NYC and other parts of the state. 

Due to the ranked choice voting system in NYC, Mamdani was able to leverage several strategies to gain votes. Ranked choice voting works by having voters rank their top five candidates and if a candidate was not ranked first over 50 percent of the time, then the lowest preforming candidates would be removed, and the next ranked candidate would be counted. This meant that alliances between candidates are not only possible but were used to increase support. Mamdani partnered with a fellow progressive, Brad Lander, telling their supporters to rank the combination of them first and second. This and the messaging of the slogan “Don’t Rank Cuomo” brought Mamdani a win by 13 percentage points and in the first round of ranked choice voting, despite only a single poll predicting a Mamdani win. 

“The cross-endorsement for Zohran and I emerged two weeks ago as the final shape of the race was taking place... Once it happened and that video we did was out in the world, it shifted from being ranked-choice math to being something more like a politics of hope and cooperation,” said Lander in a interview with the Intelligencer. 

Mamdani’s victory changed the political landscape going into the 2026 Midterms. Republicans and Democrats alike praise his focus on affordability and connection to younger voters, but nearly all Republicans and some Democrats warn that electing more progressive candidates, like Mamdani, could be dangerous. Other Democrats say that promoting politicians like Mamdani are the key to winning elections. Mamdani’s victory caused a surge of progressive candidates vying for a spot in the midterms including Grant Platner, Kat Abughazaleh and Brad Lander.