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Mamdani is a Muslim, which was heavily criticized before the primary, and a member of the 9-member Democratic Socialists of America bloc...
The race for mayor in New York City is heating up, with Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive who swept past establishment figures in the primary to win the Democratic Party nomination, extending his lead over his main rivals this week.
Mamdani, 33, was ahead of former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, and current Mayor Eric Adams was far behind, with the election due in November 2025.
In a metropolis that leans Democratic, he was also well ahead of Republican talk show host Curtis Sliwa, and also another independent, former federal prosecutor Jim Walden.
According to a poll released Tuesday, Mamdani, who has been supported by left-wing colleagues on the national stage, such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, held a 19-point lead over Cuomo, his closest rival.
However, it was a small-scale poll, involving only 317 registered voters, and cited an unusually wide margin of error of 6.7%.
Mamdani is a Muslim, which was heavily criticized before the primary, and a member of the 9-member Democratic Socialists of America “State Socialists in Office” bloc in the New York state assembly.
Cuomo was expected to win the Democratic primary, but despite his near-universal name recognition, he was defeated by his political past, having resigned as governor following a series of allegations of sexual harassment and workplace bullying.
Mamdani was rated 32 points ahead of Sliwa on Tuesday by Siena and held a 37-point lead over Adams, who has faced corruption allegations and is increasingly being pushed out of office by voters after one term.
With Mamdani the candidate to beat, his credentials are now under attack and he has only four years of experience as a state legislator. Cuomo has criticized Mamdani for living in a rent-regulated apartment, where he pays $2,500 a month, when the market rate would be $8,000, while he makes $147,000 a year and is campaigning on housing affordability and calling for higher taxes on wealthier New Yorkers.
Cuomo has accused Mamdani of “senseless theft” and proposed a new means-testing law, “Zohran’s Law,” that would control who can live in the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments. Mamdani’s campaign said their candidate would have met Cuomo’s proposed 30% rent-to-income ratio standard if he moved in and earned $47,000 a year, and described Cuomo’s proposal as “petty retaliation.”
However, Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said this issue is an opportunity for New York City voters who lean against Mamdani.
"This won't change the numbers for young people who are his base of support, but the argument could benefit both Cuomo and Adams because it makes Mamdan look like a hypocrite," he said.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has launched a “Five Neighborhoods Against Trump,” shifting his focus to what many Democratic New Yorkers can agree is a common enemy, the Republican president of the United States.
Trump has threatened to intervene in New York, a threat made clear with the National Guard now patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., if Mamdani is elected, and Cuomo tweeted that this is likely to happen and that "Trump will flatten him like a pancake."
Sheinkopf said Mamdani’s move to attack Trump was a smart political strategy because it avoids his lack of governing experience. “He can be defeated, but the problem is, are any of these guys going to be able to figure that out? Cuomo’s numbers have to be much lower for Adams to win, and Adams has to regain momentum.
“The only way he [Mamdani] can win back the black vote is to offer a mea culpa for making some mistakes in the beginning, but argue that crime is down, education and job numbers are up, tourism is great, but what I need is more time to make sure that 85,000 new housing units are already budgeted,” says Sheinkopf.
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a Democrat in the state assembly whose district includes most of East Brooklyn, is among the moderates who are moving closer to the left wing and attended an anti-Trump meeting led by Mamdani on Tuesday.
“Democrats, both moderates and progressives, are uniting around pressing issues like affordability, housing and protecting our democracy,” Hermelyn said. /Adapted from The Guardian/
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