New York City, US (EFE).- Young progressive Democratic politician Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday, becoming the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect.
At 34 years of age, Mamdani will also be New York’s youngest mayor since 1892 after defeating the independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, with 90 percent of the vote counted
It is also the first time since 1969 that more than 2 million people have voted in the city.
According to the provisional results, Mamdani secured 50.4 percent of the vote, followed by Cuomo (41.6 percent) and Sliwa (7.1 percent).
The politician, who surprised everyone by defeating Cuomo in the primaries despite his short experience as a state assemblyman, won over New Yorkers with promises of free city buses, universal childcare, affordable housing, and a network of city-run stores with low prices to lower the high cost of living for the working class in the Big Apple.
“The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,” Zohran began in his victory speech.
“To every New Yorker — whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents, or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all — thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust. I will wake each morning with a singular purpose: to make this city better for you than it was the day before.”
He declared “hope is alive” — “hope over tyranny, hope over big money and small ideas, hope over despair,” and thanked “those so often forgotten by the politics of our city, who made this movement their own.”
“I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas. Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses. Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. Yes, aunties. To every New Yorker in Kensington and Midwood and Hunts Point, know this: This city is your city, and this democracy is yours too.”
“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too,” Mamdani continued.
“And we will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. Where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong — not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power.”
When he begins his term on Jan 1, he said “we will usher in a city government that helps everyone.”
He also addressed President Donald Trump, saying: “since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up (…) To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
During the campaign, Trump had called him a “communist,” and even went so far as to urge voters to support Cuomo.
The Republican president, a New Yorker who has kept a close eye on the race, had also reiterated his threats to cut funding to the city if Mamdani was elected, writing on Truth Social that “it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!”
Under the US Constitution, only Congress has the authority to decide how federal funds are allocated to states.
Nevertheless, New Yorkers backed Mamdani over Cuomo, whose campaign had received millions from various magnates, both Democrats and Republicans, but continued to be criticized for the sexual harassment allegations that forced him to resign as governor in 2021.
The Democratic candidate inspired the younger residents, who have rallied around him in the form of an army of as many as 100,000 volunteers for his campaign, despite criticism from his main rival, who insisted in recent months that the Democrat lacked experience.
However, rather than defining a platform, Cuomo focused on the offensive, referring, among other things, to the Democrat’s criticism of Israel, given that New York is home to the largest Jewish population outside the United States.
Meanwhile, Mamdani filled a 10,000-seat stadium in Queens last month for a rally with the slogan “New York is not for sale,” which was attended by the left-wing duo of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, figures who endorsed him.
Others who supported him include the state governor, Kathy Hochul, and the state attorney general, Letitia James, as well as the Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, but not the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, nor former president Barack Obama, among other leaders.
Mamdani’s victory comes as a relief to a Democratic Party trying to recover after Trump’s victory in last year’s presidential elections and with the midterm elections just a year away. EFE
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