Democrat Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York Metropolis on Tuesday, changing into the youngest man picked to steer the 5 boroughs in fashionable historical past in what’s extensively seen as watershed second for his get together’s surging left wing.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who can even be town’s first-ever Muslim mayor, was declared the winner of the 2025 race for Metropolis Corridor shortly after 9:30 p.m., as Board of Elections tabulations confirmed him main his high opponent, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by a margin of about 50-41 p.c.
Mamdani — who will now take workplace Jan. 1 because the youngest mayor in nicely over a century — was anticipated to deal with a crowd at his election evening get together in Brooklyn late Tuesday evening.
Cuomo, who campaigned as an unbiased, didn’t instantly remark, and neither did Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral nominee, who clinched third place within the race, in response to unofficial tabulations.
Mamdani’s victory was propelled by practically record-setting ranges of voter participation, with greater than 2 million New Yorkers casting ballots in Tuesday’s election — the best turnout in an area race since at the very least the 1969 mayoral contest.
Marking the conclusion of essentially the most high-octane New York Metropolis mayoral race in many years, Mamdani’s win additionally offers the Democratic Social gathering’s left wing a significant feather in its cap and supplies progressives nationally with a possible roadmap for methods to marketing campaign in aggressive races.
A dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani will as mayor be the leftist group’s highest-ranking elected official within the nation, offering the group with an enormous bully pulpit.
Mamdani’s win comes after he centered his marketing campaign on tackling town’s value of residing disaster, with a specific deal with creating extra expansive social security nets for working class New Yorkers. He has proposed paying for such initiatives by rising taxes on firms and the rich, proposals that usually ballot nicely with People of all political stripes.
However Mamdani’s win can be sure to unnerve moderate-leaning Democrats, who fear Mamdani’s unabashed left-wing platform may spark fiscal instability and result in declines in public security. Amid his vocal help for Palestinians, Mamdani additionally took positions and made statements about Israel that a few of his reasonable critics say fueled antisemitism.
Politically, there’s concern Mamdani’s triumph may backfire and profit Republicans, particularly in subsequent 12 months’s New York gubernatorial race and congressional midterms. President Trump has for weeks vowed to punish New York Metropolis with federal funding cuts within the occasion of a Mamdani win.
Amid all of it, Mamdani’s additionally more likely to face stress subsequent 12 months from his supporters to rapidly make good on his agenda — many parts of which depend upon state authorities actions that might be out of his palms as mayor and will run into headwinds in Albany.
Queens state Sen. Michael Gianaris, the state Senate’s second highest-ranking Democrat and a Mamdani supporter, didn’t wish to make any guarantees to reporters at Mamdani’s election evening get together about getting any particular elements of his agenda by means of Albany in his first 12 months as mayor.
“[But] I think at a minimum, we can get started and move in a direction of phasing those things in over time,” Gianaris mentioned on the Brooklyn Paramount.
When he introduced his mayoral marketing campaign simply over a 12 months in the past in October 2024, Mamdani was a comparatively unknown entity in New York politics, working as a State Meeting member representing a slice of northwestern Queens that features Astoria.
However Mamdani rapidly caught the eye of New Yorkers as he mounted an lively marketing campaign boosted by a savvy social media technique and volunteers who canvassed on his behalf. His guarantees to freeze the hire for stabilized tenants, drastically broaden sponsored childcare and make public buses free struck a transparent chord with residents throughout a metropolis that has change into more and more costly, particularly these in youthful generations, who turned out in droves for Mamdani.
However even older New Yorkers who didn’t vote for him discovered Mamdani’s marketing campaign attractive.
“My sentiments are not anti-Mamdani. I have no issue with Mamdani being a socialist Democrat or whatever…I think they just gave him a bad rap in this election,” Queens resident Kevin Moran, an 80-year-old retired cab driver, mentioned after voting for Cuomo in South Ozone Park on Tuesday morning. “If Mamdani wins, I’ll be happy. I think he’ll be able to do everything that comes up as the mayor of the city. He’ll appoint different people. I think it’ll probably be a bit of a rough road for him, but I think he’ll be able to do it.”
Barry Williams/New York Each day Information
Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his spouse, Rama Duwaji, vote at Frank Sinatra College of the Arts Excessive College in Queens, New York on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
New York Legal professional Common Letitia James and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani attend the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Hanson Place in Brooklyn on Saturday Nov. 1, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
New York Legal professional Common Letitia James and Mayoral entrance runner Candidate Zohran Mamdani attend the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Hanson Place in Brooklyn on Saturday Nov. 1, 2025. 1120. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
New York Metropolis Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani holds a rally at 966 Fulton Avenue, the place he obtained a purple Rose and took part in some portray with attendees in Brooklyn on Thursday Oct. 30, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani pays for an egg and cheese with jalapeños sandwich earlier than he speaks at a press convention on Oct. 29, 2025 within the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photos)
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Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his spouse, Rama Duwaji, vote at Frank Sinatra College of the Arts Excessive College in Queens, New York on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
Broaden
In June’s Democratic mayoral major, Mamdani pulled off a stunning victory, defeating Cuomo in that contest by a virtually 13% margin.
Regardless of the first loss, Cuomo, a member of one in all New York’s most storied political dynasties, jumped again into the final mayoral election, campaigning as an unbiased on a “Fight & Deliver” poll line with a deal with public security and his breadth of expertise in authorities.
Cuomo’s mayoral race entry was an try to rehabilitate his profession, having resigned as governor in 2021 whereas dealing with doubtless impeachment amid sexual {and professional} misconduct accusations he now denies.
Cuomo, a lifelong Democrat, spent the ultimate days of the marketing campaign attempting to draw votes from native Republicans, whose help he was seen as needing to have a path to victory, as he trailed Mamdani by double digits in nearly each ballot.
For weeks, Cuomo additionally tried to get Sliwa to drop out of the race. When Sliwa refused, Cuomo publicly pleaded with Republicans to not “waste” their vote on Sliwa and again him as an alternative because the anti-Mamdani candidate.
The stress marketing campaign on Sliwa got here after Mayor Adams determined in late September to desert his bid for reelection following prodding by Cuomo and his allies.
In contrast, Mamdani, in the course of the basic election marketing campaign season, racked up a protracted line of endorsements from New York political power-players who didn’t help him in the course of the major. The included Gov. Hochul, U.S. Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries and different reasonable Democrats who’ve in any other case been cautious of components of Mamdani’s leftist platform.
Hochul, particularly, is predicted to play an particularly significant position in figuring out the destiny of Mamdani’s agenda, as her help might be wanted to enact the tax will increase he has floated because the income mills for his primary marketing campaign pledges.
Up to now, Hochul — who’s dealing with a aggressive reelection race subsequent 12 months — has been publicly resisting calls to again Mamdani’s tax hike plans. That would probably throw a significant wrench into some of the necessary planks in his platform.
Nonetheless, talking to reporters outdoors an Astoria polling station on Tuesday morning earlier than voting for himself, Mamdani voiced optimism he’ll be capable of make good on his agenda.
“We do not get to choose the scale of the crisis we face, we simply get to choose the manner in which we respond,” he mentioned. “And it is time to finally respond with the urgency that New Yorkers deserve.”
