Zohran Mamdani elected New York City’s first Muslim mayor

The 34-year-old mayoral candidate and assemblyman from Queens emerged victorious in the race on Tuesday to lead New York after polls closed in a heated contest that grabbed the world’s attention.

Mamdani outperformed his chief opponent — former governor Andrew Cuomo — with at least 50 percent of support after 85 percent of the votes had been counted.

"We are on the brink of making history in our city. On the brink of saying goodbye to a politics of the past. A politics that tells you what it can't do, and really what it means to say is what it won't do, and to usher in a new era," Mamdani told reporters earlier in the day.

"We do not get to choose the scale of the crisis we face. We simply get to choose the manner in which we respond," he added.

The Democratic lawmaker promised rent control and free bus travel - a platform funded by a proposed increase in taxes on the wealthiest residents of New York City.

According to data, Mamdani's stance on Israel and Palestine helped him seal the primary win, despite smears of antisemitism for his views on the war, which is now widely bashed as genocide.

Mamdani is an immigrant from his birthplace of Uganda, where his Indian-origin father was raised. His mother is Indian.

On January 1, 2026, he will be sworn in to run the largest and most diverse city in the United States with a population of 8.5 million.