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Socialist Zohran Mamdani is inching closer to the role of New York City mayor after claiming victory in the Democratic primary against rival Andrew Cuomo in what many had thought would be a much closer race.
While the official result of the vote has yet to be declared—and will only be done so after the ranked candidate ballots have been fully counted—Mamdani’s win was all but guaranteed when Cuomo, 67, a former New York governor, conceded defeat to the 33 year old.
“I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City,” Mamdani—who was born in Uganda but immigrated to the U.S. as a child—told supporters after his opponent bowed out of the race.
“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for Governor Cuomo, or felt too disillusioned by a long-broken political system to vote at all,” he said. “I will work to be a mayor you will be proud to call your own.”
Mamdani ran a dynamic campaign in the lead-up to the primary, focusing his efforts largely on fighting the increasing cost of living, telling the BBC: “This is a city where one in four of its people are living in poverty, a city where 500,000 kids go to sleep hungry every night. And ultimately, it’s a city that is in danger of losing that which it makes it so special.”
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The assemblyman, who is based in Queens, has made housing policy—and soaring rents—a core part of his campaign, vowing to “triple the city’s production of publicly subsidized, permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes” within the next 10 years to the tune of around $70 billion.
He has also pledged to fast-track “any 100% affordable development” and “double the money we’re spending to preserve public housing,” campaign promises that are widely believed to have helped him cinch victory in the primary.
“New York City is a majority-tenant town, but too often, our government works for the landlords. It’s time to take back our power and unleash the public sector to build housing for the many,” Zohran’s website states.
Mamdani’s ties to housing stretch back to long before he delved into politics, when he was working as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor in Queens, where he helped low-income homeowners fight eviction.
“It was this job that led him to run for office,” his biography on the New York State Assembly website reads. “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. A choice that was the consequence of decades of pro-corporate policies enacted across our country as well as our state.
“Yet, like with any choice, we always have the opportunity to change and Zohran is excited to be a part of that.”
Though Mamdani is almost assured of the Democratic nomination for NYC mayor, his path to victory—and the sought-after seat in Gracie Mansion—will face further hurdles, as he prepares for November’s election, during which he will go up against incumbent candidate Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, as well as Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa.
There is also some speculation that Cuomo will continue his campaign—this time as an independent—although he has yet to confirm one way or another, simply stating in the hours after the primary polls closed that he and his team would “look at the numbers.”
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Should Mamdani claim victory in November’s election, he and his wife, Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, will leave their home in Queens behind and move into Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the New York City Mayor.
The grand, yellow Gracie Mansion is located on the corner of East 88th Street and East End Avenue, having been built on that same site back in 1799.
Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of New York City mayors since 1942. Since then, every mayor except for Michael Bloomberg has lived there at some point during their term.
Some mayors have opted to split their time between the mansion and their own residence, with Adams revealing in 2021 that he would retain his Brooklyn residence after winning the election, even joking that same year that he planned to take nothing but a mattress to the historic property.
“All I need is a mattress on the floor, that’s all I need,” he told reporters.
Mamdani has resided in New York City since the age of 7, when he and his family relocated to the U.S. from Cape Town, South Africa. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, worked as a professor at Columbia University and for much of Mamdani’s childhood, his family lived in university-funded housing, according to Forbes.
The 33-year-old, whose mother, Mira Nair, is a director, attended high school in the Bronx and later graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he received a degree in Africana Studies.
Today, the Democratic mayoral candidate lives in a rent-stabilized apartment with his wife and has listed just one key asset in his financial disclosure, per Forbes, a plot of land in Uganda that he bought many years ago.