Shafaq News – Washington

Zohran K. Mamdani won New York’s mayoral race on Wednesday, defeating Andrew Cuomo by about nine percentage points, according to preliminary results from the city’s Board of Elections.

More than two million New Yorkers cast ballots in the contest, marking the largest turnout in a mayoral race in over five decades, the Board reported.

“The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this,” Mamdani said to a roaring crowd at his victory party.

He described his win as a victory for blue-collar workers struggling to get by, pledging to “wake up each morning with a singular purpose: to make this city better for you than it was the day before.”

US President Donald Trump, who backed Cuomo during the campaign, denounced Mamdani’s victory, calling him a “100% Communist lunatic” and warning that New York “will face ruin” under his leadership.

Meanwhile, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, one of the first Democratic leaders to endorse Mamdani, welcomed the outcome.

“Yes. We CAN create a government that represents working people and not the 1%,” Sanders posted on X, adding that he looks forward to working with Mayor Zohran.

Who is Zohran K. Mamdani?

Zohran Kwame Mamdani, 34, is a democratic socialist and the son of Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani and Indian filmmaker Mira Nair.

Born in Kampala, he moved to New York at the age of seven and later earned a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College in Maine. Before entering politics, he worked as a housing counselor, assisting low-income families to avoid eviction.

In the 2020 New York State Assembly election, he was elected from the 36th district, representing Astoria, Queens.

Earlier this year, Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a 27-year-old Syrian artist based in Brooklyn whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and VICE. She also works in animation and ceramics.

Mamdani has been among the most outspoken American elected officials criticizing Israel’s war on Gaza. In an October 2024 post on X, he wrote, “I will always be clear in my language and based in facts: Israel is committing a genocide.”

He has also been a strong supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. At an event in Manhattan earlier this month, he linked that support to “the core of my politics, which is non-violence.”