NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election here Tuesday, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in more than a century, Nov. 4, 2025.
Running on affordability and propelled by a turnout surge, Zohran Mamdani turned a local contest into a national argument over the Democratic Party’s direction — and a direct political headache for President Donald Trump, who repeatedly targeted him during the campaign.
The Associated Press called the race after polls closed, capping the 34-year-old democratic socialist’s jump from the state Assembly to the country’s most-watched city job.
Zohran Mamdani’s turnout surge and ranked-choice path
Zohran Mamdani cleared the first hurdle in the June 24 Democratic primary, where the city’s ranked-choice results show him beating Cuomo in the final round, 573,169 votes to 443,229, according to official Board of Elections rounds.
Cuomo tried again in November as an independent — and lost again, as summarized on NPR’s New York City results page.
Just as striking was who showed up. City & State New York reported roughly 2 million people voted, an 84% jump from 2021 and the first time the city hit that mark in a mayoral race since 1969. Analysts there described a coalition that mixed brownstone Brooklyn liberals with working-class and immigrant neighborhoods in Queens and the Bronx.
Mamdani’s agenda is expansive: free child care, free city bus service and city-run grocery stores, among other proposals. Zohran Mamdani argues those ideas are basic relief in a city where rent, commutes and child care routinely outpace paychecks — but turning them into policy will require budget math and cooperation from Albany.
Why Trump became part of the Zohran Mamdani story
Trump’s involvement sharpened the stakes. The Washington Post reported Trump endorsed Cuomo late in the race and raised the prospect of withholding federal funds or other federal interventions if Zohran Mamdani prevailed.
Zohran Mamdani answered by casting himself as a defender of the city’s immigrant identity, praising “Yemeni bodega owners, Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers, Uzbek nurses, Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties.” Supporters call the moment a rebuke of Trump-style politics; opponents say the campaign now faces a governing reality check.
Zohran Mamdani’s rise didn’t start this year
In 2020, City & State New York documented Zohran Mamdani narrowly unseating longtime Assembly incumbent Aravella Simotas after absentee ballots were counted — an early sign that a left-backed challenger could beat an entrenched Democrat in Queens.
In 2021, the same outlet reported Zohran Mamdani joined taxi drivers during a hunger strike over crushing medallion debt and was arrested at a rally as advocates pushed for relief: Taxi drivers’ hunger strike hits its seventh day.
Zohran Mamdani is set to take office in January, inheriting a city still grappling with housing costs, public safety debates and strained budgets. Whether his win marks a durable leftward shift — or a one-cycle surge — will depend on whether his coalition stays intact once governing begins.
