Zohran Mamdani Beats Andrew Cuomo in Victory for the Left in NYC Mayoral Race

Zohran Mamdani Won the New York City mayoral poll on Tuesday night becoming the first Muslim elected mayor in the city s history in a race that garnered national attention as a test for the future of the Democratic Party The Associated Press called the race for Mamdani with percent of the vote shared on Tuesday night defeating former Gov Andrew Cuomo with Guardian Angels founder and perennial gadfly Curtis Sliwa in a distant third At the Mamdani campaign party at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn excitement began to ripple through the crowd as word spread of a call for Mamdani from NBC Seconds later the big screen evidenced the local station New York announcing that The AP had called the race for the democratic socialist and the room exploded in cheers Mamdani press chief Andrew Epstein gave another man a bear hug while New York City Society Advocate Jumaane Williams who easily won his reelection race Tuesday night jumped up and down We shook up the world baby Williams yelled before wrapping New York Attorney General Letitia James in a hug Unreal James explained The race has been unlike any other in latest memory in New York Minutes before polls closed the New York City Board of Elections stated that million people had cast ballots the highest number since Campaigning on a core platform of affordability Mamdani went from little-known assembly member to household name as he criss-crossed the city popping in at churches and nightclubs supported by an army of volunteer canvassers Cuomo who lost the primary to Mamdani in a stunning upset in June billed himself as the best man to stand up to Donald Trump an argument that was complicated Monday when the president endorsed him pledging to slash federal funding to the city if Mamdani were to win Trump s endorsement was by then effectively a formality The right had already coalesced around New York s former Democratic governor with the president and other members of his party pushing Sliwa the Republican candidate to drop out and let Cuomo face Mamdani head-on On social media Trump warned A vote for Curtis Sliwa who looks much better without the beret is a vote for Mamdani The bulk polls issued in the past two weeks indicated Mamdani enjoying a commanding lead over both of his opponents New York comptroller and former mayoral candidate Brad Lander a key Mamdani ally since the primary rebuked Trump at the Paramount for a current social media post in which the president noted that any Jew voting for Mamdani was stupid When Andrew Cuomo earlier in the race tried to tell Jews how to vote I cursed at him in Yiddish so I guess I ll do the same Lander stated Gay kaken ofn yam Go shit in the ocean Donald Trump In addition to making history as an avowed socialist Mamdani who is of Indian descent and was born in Uganda will be the city s first Muslim American mayor For several Muslims in New York who lived through the Islamophobia racism and pervasive NYPD surveillance of the post- years Mamdani s success on the campaign trail has been deeply personal urban historian Asad Dandia explained The Intercept It means a great deal to me as a Muslim New Yorker but also as a native New Yorker who doesn t know how to live anywhere else commented Dandia who was involved in a lawsuit over the NYPD s targeting of Muslim communities To see someone who looks like he could be my brother or my cousin that s a powerful testament to the possibility of New York and to people s power In the June primary South Asian voter turnout surged by percent from the primary thanks in part to a surge in new voters according to the New York Times Related Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats How Not to Take the Bait But Mamdani s identity as a Muslim and his committed help for Palestine came into play in an ugly fashion too Cuomo s allies repeatedly attacked Mamdani with contends that he did not sufficiently denounce the Palestinian liberation protest cry globalize the intifada which Cuomo translated inaccurately as kill all Jews As the general polling drew closer Mamdani s opponents engaged in naked Islamophobia by calling him a jihadist and a terrorist sympathizer while congressional Republicans mused about having his citizenship revoked Despite efforts to tar him as an extremist outsider Mamdani proved immensely popular both in polls and on the street where videos show him routinely being stopped by enthusiastic passersby Mamdani s success was not limited to Muslim or South Asian communities or to the so-called Commie Corridor of progressive college-educated voters in north Brooklyn and Queens who have made up the primary basis of endorsement for candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America In the primary and in the months that followed his campaign worked aggressively to build a coalition of encouragement that cut across ethnic and class lines According to a contemporary poll published by the Hispanic Federation percent of Latino voters favored Mamdani percent indicating strong assistance with just percent of Latinos supporting Cuomo and percent picking Sliwa Cuomo s hopes laid with the traditional Democratic base of Black voters in the city but Mamdani had been making headway on that front as well with weekly visits to Black churches and a latest appearance with Al Sharpton Related The Struggle for the Future of the New York Democratic Party Ultimately Dandia explained it was Mamdani s core message of affordability that broadened his encouragement far beyond committed leftists and South Asian and Muslim voters He wasn t running on his identity he was running on a platform that appealed across so a large number of communities Dandia reported His success has shown the value of embodying what it means to be a humanistic person justice-oriented person and that s equally as crucial if not more so than his identity Celebrating Mamdani s win an attendee at his party demanded Rep Nydia Vel zquez D-N Y Can you believe it I maintained it a year ago she declared This is a emerging story and will be updated The post Zohran Mamdani Beats Andrew Cuomo in Preeminence for the Left in NYC Mayoral Race appeared first on The Intercept