New York State Council member Zohran Mamdani won the democratic primaries in the New York City mayoral race after former governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race.
Mamdani, a progressive lawmaker and a vocal critic of Israel, is now favored to take City Hall in the majority Democratic city, drawing concern within the Jewish and pro-Israel communities.
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New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, after winning the Democratic primaries
(Photo: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)
Born in Uganda to a family of Indian descent, Mamdani, who would be the city's first Muslim mayor, has a history of pro-Palestinian activism.
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He was elected to a state assembly seat in New York's Queens borough and has garnered the support of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent progressives.
The party's progressive wing has coalesced behind Mamdani, 33, a self-described democratic socialist. A relatively unknown state legislator when the contest began, Mamdani gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city's high cost of living and secured endorsements from two of the country's foremost progressives, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
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Protesters call for the release of hostages held in Gaza
(Photo: Liri Agami, Amnon Shemi)
The war between Israel and Iran, along with the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, deepened the divide between the two candidates—yet also united them against a common adversary, Donald Trump.
Mamdani sharply condemned the military action, accusing the Trump administration of prioritizing war over welfare. “While Donald Trump bears immediate responsibility for this illegal escalation, these actions are the result of a political establishment that would rather spend trillions of dollars on weapons than lift millions out of poverty, launch endless wars while silencing calls for peace and fearmonger about outsiders while billionaires hollow out our democracy from within,” he said.
The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump's Justice Department.
Meanwhile, Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council, held onto her seat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, after facing a challenge from Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, who said she got into the race due to the councilwoman’s focus on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.