Zohran Mamdani Takes a Big Bite Off Big Apple: Indian American Elected NYC’s First Muslim Mayor in Historic Upset

Zohran Mamdani will be New York City’s 111th mayor, 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, Ugandan-born democratic socialist defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

Mamdani will become the first Muslim and person of South Asian descent — as well as the youngest in over a century — to hold the position. He shares the honor with John Purroy Mitchel — nicknamed the “Boy Mayor” — who took office at age 34 in 1914, according to city records.

Voter turnout surpassed 2 million, the first time that’s happened since 1969, according to the Board of Elections. Early voting turnout set records.

From Kampala to Queens

Mamdani was born Oct. 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, the only child of postcolonialism academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair.

He was given his middle name, Kwame, by his father in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, according to campaign literature. Both his parents are of Indian descent; his mother is a Punjabi Hindu who was born in Rourkela and raised in Bhubaneswar, and his father is a Gujarati Muslim who was born in Bombay and grew up primarily in Uganda.

His mother is best known for films including “Mississippi Masala” and “Monsoon Wedding.”

Mamdani lived in Kampala until he was 5, when his family moved to Cape Town, in South Africa’s Western Cape province, according to his official biography. He attended St. George’s Grammar School in Mowbray while his father taught African studies at the University of Cape Town. The family then moved to the United States, settling in New York City when Mamdani was 7, and he was raised in Morningside Heights.

In 2010, Mamdani graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in Kingsbridge Heights, where he co-founded the school’s first cricket team and unsuccessfully ran for student body vice president.

Mamdani became a U.S. citizen in 2018, after graduating from Bowdoin College with a degree in Africana Studies.

A Career Born From Crisis

After graduating from college, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor in Queens — a job he says inspired him to run for office.

“After having spent every day negotiating with banks that valued profits over people, he came face-to-face with the reality that this housing crisis — one which predated this pandemic — was not natural to our lives, but instead a choice,” according to his campaign biography.

Mamdani won a seat in New York’s State Assembly in 2020 after narrowly beating a four-term incumbent in the primary, becoming the first South Asian man to serve in that body. He is the first South Asian man, the first Ugandan and the third Muslim to serve in the state legislature, according to legislative records.

He has represented the 36th district — which includes the Queens neighborhood of Astoria — ever since, winning reelection unopposed in 2022 and 2024.

Mamdani has introduced more than 20 bills in Albany, and three have become law, according to state records.

The Meteoric Rise

It’s a remarkable ascent for Mamdani, who was a relatively unknown state assemblymember representing Queens when he entered the crowded mayoral race last year.

Initially considered a long shot with just a 1% chance of winning the Democratic primary, according to early polling, Mamdani’s first victory over Cuomo shook the Democratic establishment and the country as a whole.

The June Democratic primary delivered the first shock. Mamdani triumphed over Cuomo in what was seen as an upset to the establishment, since the 67-year-old Cuomo is the son of a three-time New York governor and held the position himself for a decade beginning in 2011.

In 2021, after numerous women accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct and questions swirled about his administration’s management of nursing home residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuomo resigned as governor to avoid a likely impeachment trial, but denied all wrongdoing.

Angling for a comeback, Cuomo entered the mayoral race in March, saying the city was “in crisis” and in need of “effective leadership,” according to his campaign announcement. After his primary loss, Cuomo reentered the race as an independent.

A Campaign of Firsts

Mamdani’s focus on costs, plus his optimistic campaign message and digital savvy, mobilized Democratic voters. Mamdani built a formidable volunteer base and electoral coalition powered in large part by young voters, who turned out in droves, according to campaign officials.

Mamdani also earned the support of high-profile progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Mamdani’s campaign was fueled by individual donors and volunteers. He received more than $1.7 million in campaign donations from more than 20,000 individuals, according to campaign finance records. Cuomo, backed by larger donors, received more than $4 million from about 5,700 people.

Mamdani used buzzy campaign videos — many with winking references to Bollywood and his Indian heritage — to help make inroads with voters outside his slice of Queens, The New York Times reported. On New Year’s Day, he took part in the annual polar plunge into the chilly waters off Coney Island in a full dress suit to break down his plan to “freeze” rents. As the race was entering the final stretch, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, documenting the roughly 13-mile trip by posting photos and videos of his interactions along the way.

On Sunday, Mamdani’s campaign broke its own record, knocking on more than 103,000 doors in a single day, in a show of force fueled by an army of young volunteers, according to campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec.

The Policy Platform

Mamdani campaigned on an affordability-focused platform in support of fare-free city buses, public child care, city-owned grocery stores, LGBTQ rights, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, additional affordable housing units, comprehensive public safety reform, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030, according to his campaign website.

Mamdani also supports tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually.

A CBS News exit poll found cost of living is the top issue for voters, ahead of crime. Three in four New York City voters say the cost of housing is a major problem.

Facing Attacks and Islamophobia

The campaign was not without challenges. Mamdani has said he would stand up to President Trump, who has frequently criticized — and mischaracterized — Mamdani as a communist and repeatedly threatened to slash New York City’s federal funding if he wins.

President Trump said Monday night on Truth Social that New Yorkers “really had no choice” but to vote for Andrew Cuomo. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him and hope he does a fantastic job,” the president wrote. “A vote for Curtis Sliwa … is a vote for Mamdani.”

Late last month, Mamdani delivered an emotional address condemning what he called “racist, baseless” attacks he’s faced for his Muslim faith.

Mamdani broke down in tears as he described the vitriol he has faced over his own faith on the campaign trail. “I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” he told reporters at a news conference.

At a rally alongside Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders days later, Mamdani said Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and Sliwa possess only “the playbook of the past.” “They have sought to make this election a referendum not on the affordability crisis that consumes New Yorkers’ lives,” he said, “but on the faith I belong to and the hatred they seem to normalize.”

The Israel-Palestine Question

Despite his repeated disavowal of antisemitism, his vocal and long-held criticisms of Israel’s government and actions in Gaza have alienated some voters in a city that’s home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.

Mamdani’s unapologetically pro-Palestinian stance energized progressives who oppose Israel’s war in Gaza, as pro-Israel Democrats and donors grew anxious about his rise.

NBC News exit polling found that Jewish voters favored Cuomo over Mamdani by 29 points, with 60% backing the former governor and 31% backing Mamdani.

“While I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, for all those who walk this earth, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements,” Mamdani said in a statement released last month.

The Victory Coalition

NBC News exit polling found that Mamdani won across racial demographics — with white, Black, Latino, Asian and voters of other races all backing his candidacy over Cuomo’s and Sliwa’s.

Younger voters overwhelmingly backed Mamdani, with NBC News exit polling showing that voters under 45 years old favored him over Cuomo by 43 points. Voters over 45, meanwhile, backed Cuomo by a 10-point margin.

One of the biggest divides in the election was between New Yorkers who were born in the city and those who had moved to New York within the last 10 years, according to the exit polls.

Mamdani’s victory marks a series of historic firsts for New York City — its first Muslim mayor, the first born in Africa, and the first person of South Asian descent to lead the largest city in the United States.

The significance extends beyond New York. Mamdani’s victory comes on the same night that Ghazala Hashmi won election as Virginia’s lieutenant governor, becoming the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in U.S. history.

“So the last 25 years, since 9/11, have really molded the community into becoming this formidable force. And I think nothing demonstrates that better than this mayoral election cycle,” activist Linda Sarsour told The Guardian.

“It’s crazy that the same police department that surveilled me and [Mamdani’s community] and the rest of the Muslim community is now going to be under his command,” Fahd Ahmed, executive director of Desis Rising Up and Moving, told the newspaper.

Critics have pointed to Mamdani’s relative inexperience and the political challenges he would face in delivering on his ambitious, highly progressive agenda.

Questions remain over whether he can deliver on such sweeping promises and how a newcomer with no executive experience would fare against the hostile administration of President Trump, which is already threatening to withhold the city’s federal funding, according to political analysts.

Mamdani’s success in New York has caused concern among Democrats in Washington, where some worry that his brand of socialism, popular with younger voters, could deepen the divide between progressives and moderates before next year’s midterm elections, according to The Financial Times.

A Historic Night

The journey from Kampala to Gracie Mansion has been improbable. A child of academics and artists, a foreclosure counselor turned lawmaker, a democratic socialist in a city of wealth and capitalism, a Muslim in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Trump era—Mamdani’s election represents a fundamental shift in New York City politics.

Whether he can deliver on his ambitious agenda remains to be seen. But on Tuesday night, as thousands celebrated in Queens and across the city, one thing was certain: New York City had elected a mayor unlike any in its 400-year history.

Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City’s 111th mayor on Jan. 1, 2026.

This story was aggregated by AI from several news reports and edited by American Kahani’s News Desk.