Zohran Mamdani, 34, Defeats Andrew Cuomo to Become N.Y.C.’s First Muslim Mayor in Historic Election

Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, toppled the former governor’s campaign for the second time this year, delivering a massive victory to the progressive movement

Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani at the New York City Pride March on June 29, 2025.Credit : Roy Rochlin/Getty

New Yorkers made a historic decision in the 2025 mayoral election, electing 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani to lead the nation’s largest city in the strongest rebuke yet of Americans’ perceived shift toward conservatism.

The Associated Press called the race just over a half-hour after polls closed.

In winning the Nov. 4 race, Mamdani thwarted disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempt at a political comeback and earned a chance to test the principles of democratic socialism in the United States while the federal government moves in the opposite direction.

Mamdani, an Indian American state assemblyman who was born in Uganda, previously defeated the odds in June to earn the Democratic nomination for mayor over Cuomo, who was considered the clear front-runner by nearly every pollster throughout the primary race. In a February Emerson College survey, Mamdani polled at just 1% in the crowded Democratic field, ranking ninth out of nine candidates.

Between February and June, Mamdani rallied momentum and broke through the noise with his innovative ideas, further benefiting from a grassroots effort by the left to shaft Cuomo from every progressive’s ranked-choice primary ballot. The result was a dramatic upset victory, in which Mamdani not only exceeded expectations but defeated Cuomo by 13 points in the final primary election tally.

New York is one of two U.S. states without a “sore loser law,” which allowed Cuomo, 67, to stay in the race despite losing the Democratic nomination and challenge Mamdani again in the general election as an independent candidate. The former governor ran as a member of the “Fight and Deliver Party,” which he formed in May.

With Cuomo still in the running throughout the summer, Mamdani faced an unusual amount of resistance for a Democratic nominee in a deep-blue city. Many establishment Democrats hesitated or declined to endorse their party’s choice for mayor, and moderate-to-conservative power brokers united behind Cuomo’s third-party candidacy.

In Tuesday’s general election, Mamdani’s popularity with voters proved itself once again, as he soared to victory over Cuomo and long-shot Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa at the Oct. 22 mayoral debate in Long Island City, Queens.Hiroko Masuike-Pool/Getty

Mamdani’s relentless focus on affordability in the midst of a housing crisis wooed his risk-averse party into trying something new.

While Cuomo spent an inordinate amount of energy litigating national issues and repeatedly attacked his opponent’s feelings toward the Israeli government, Mamdani ran on a highly localized platform that continually routed back to a central theme: alleviating the city’s devastating cost of living, which has priced out swaths of proud New Yorkers.

In doing so, the Queens assemblyman sought to reframe the democratic socialist movement as a contemporary U.S. economic strategy.

By calling to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations, Mamdani sold an anti-capitalist vision of free public buses, rent freezes for subsidized units, city-operated grocery stores and universal childcare.

Zohran Mamdani chats with N.Y.C. residents while riding the subway to a Brooklyn campaign event in May 2025.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty

The Mamdani campaign built a multi-cultural umbrella in a time of heightened division.

During an election year when anti-semitism and Islamophobia were top of mind for Jewish and Arab New Yorkers — who have each been subjected to trickle-down hatred amid the Israel-Gaza war — Mamdani aimed to demonstrate that his Muslim faith would not pose a threat to other groups who’ve similarly faced identity-based attacks.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a former mayoral candidate who is Jewish, joined forces with Mamdani to help him break through to Jewish voters who were concerned that his support for a Palestinian state could amplify anti-semitic rhetoric in the city. Lander accompanied Mamdani to an Oct. 7 anniversary vigil, and the Democratic nominee clarified that he firmly denounces Hamas’ “horrific war crime” in 2023.

Beyond designing a campaign that aimed to unite both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate, Mamdani made an effort to reach communities that are often overlooked during election season, including by releasing campaign materials in multiple languages.

After crafting a print ad for Yiddish-language newspapers, he released playful videos where he spoke about New York in Arabic and Spanish.

Zohran Mamdani dances with women at a cultural center for the elderly on Oct. 31. Spencer Platt/Getty

Mamdani’s underdog campaign defeated both the incumbent mayor and a name-brand governor.

If his charisma carried him through the final stretch, several external factors laid the groundwork for Mamdani to thrive.

Sitting N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams, who took office in January 2022, had every intent to serve a second term, but the city began turning its back on him long before election season rolled around. A mid-term poll revealed that most voters lacked faith in Adams’ leadership abilities and were already dissatisfied with his handling of homelessness and the city budget.

That was a year before a drawn-out corruption investigation resulted in a damning federal indictment that charged him with taking foreign bribes during his rise to power. Though the Trump administration ultimately moved to dismiss his case, the public fallout across party lines remained. In March 2025, Adams had the lowest approval ratings in Quinnipiac Polling history, with only 20% approving and 56% believing he should resign.

Adams, 65, barreled forward with his reelection bid anyway, running as an independent candidate to avoid being ousted in the Democratic primary. After polling in the single digits in late September, Adams ended his campaign, though his name remained on N.Y.C. ballots.

With Adams’ approval underwater from the beginning, Mamdani’s biggest competitor was always going to be former Gov. Cuomo, a dynastic Democrat whose father served as governor before his own 10-year stint in power.

Cuomo was long considered the Democratic favorite even before formally entering the primary race, given his strong name recognition and powerful party connections, but his candidacy came with a massive vulnerability: Four years ago, he resigned the governorship in disgrace following a one-two punch of scandals.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo attends a Baptist church service in Harlem on April 13, 2025.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty

Though Cuomo’s popularity skyrocketed during the COVID-19 shutdown, as his daily video briefings amassed a cult following and his memoir about tough pandemic leadership hit the shelves, 2021 brought a different narrative.

Months after New York Attorney General Letitia James accused him of underreporting COVID-19 nursing home deaths in January 2021, the state’s lead prosecutor also alleged that he sexually harassed multiple women, which he has denied.

He stepped down in August 2021, and after initially laying low and wading through investigations related to his controversies, he slowly began planting the seeds for a political comeback.

James, who still serves as the state attorney general, and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Cuomo by default upon his resignation, campaigned with Mamdani ahead of Election Day. Trump, meanwhile, endorsed Cuomo in the final hour.

N.Y.C. mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrates his victory in the June Democratic primary. Michael M. Santiago/Getty

Mamdani’s closing argument called to abandon Cuomo’s “playbook of the past.”

Taking the stage beside Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have championed the democratic socialist movement, Mamdani told a packed Queens stadium on Oct. 26 that his administration would be focused on looking ahead.

“While Donald Trump’s billionaires think they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses,” he said. “Let us win a City Hall that works for those straining to buy groceries, not those straining to buy our democracy.”

“New York, our work has only just begun,” he added. “On November 4th, we set ourselves free.”

Mamdani will be sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1, 2026.