Democrat Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday, becoming the youngest man picked to lead the five boroughs in modern history in what is widely seen as a watershed moment for his party’s surging left wing.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who will also be the city’s first-ever Muslim and South Asian mayor, was declared the winner of the 2025 race for City Hall by the Associated Press shortly after 9:30 p.m. The election was marked by massive turnout, with more than 2 million votes cast and Mamdani capturing more than a million of them himself, according to early Board of Elections tabulations.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he’d ultimately clinch an outright majority of the vote — a key benchmark — once all ballots get counted. Still, with nearly 98% of votes tabulated, Mamdani led his closest opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by more than 150,000 ballots — a 50.4% to 41.5% margin that the mayor-elect declared is “a mandate” for enacting his affordability agenda.
“New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate for a city we can afford and a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that,” Mamdani said at his election night party at the Brooklyn Paramount to deafening cheers from hundreds of supporters.
As for Cuomo, Mamdani sneered: “I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on the politics that abandon the many and answers only to the few.”
Cuomo, one of New York’s most well-known politicians, who ran as an independent against Mamdani, conceded the race in a speech at his Election Night party in Midtown, telling supporters that his campaign was “the right fight to wage.”
“This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city,” said Cuomo, who has railed against Mamdani on the campaign trail as being too far to the left for New York.
Andrew Cuomo concedes the mayoral election in a speech to his supporters at his election night party at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral nominee, clinched third place in the race with less than 8% support, according to unofficial tabulations.
“Obviously, I wish him good luck,” Sliwa said at his Election Night party on the Upper West Side while conceding. But he warned Mamdani, “If you try to implement socialism, if you try to render our police weak and impotent … we are not only organizing we are mobilizing.”
Mamdani’s victory was propelled by nearly record-setting levels of voter participation, with the more than 2 million ballots cast clocking in as the highest turnout in a local race since at least the 1969 mayoral contest.
Marking the conclusion of the most high-octane New York City mayoral race in decades, Mamdani’s win gives the Democratic Party’s left wing a major feather in its cap and provides progressives nationally with a potential roadmap for how to campaign in competitive races.
Zohran Mandani supporters cheer after he’s declared the victor at Mamdani’s celebration party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
A dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani will as mayor be the leftist group’s highest-ranking elected official in the country, providing the organization with a big bully pulpit. Some of the loudest cheers of the evening at Mamdani’s Election Night party came when a speaker introducing him touted the Democratic Socialists of America as being one of his earliest supporters, prompting chants of “DSA! DSA! DSA!”
Mamdani’s win comes after he centered his campaign on tackling the city’s cost of living crisis, with a particular focus on creating more expansive social safety nets for working-class New Yorkers. He has proposed paying for such initiatives by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy, proposals that generally poll well with Americans of all political stripes.
But Mamdani’s win is also certain to unnerve moderate-leaning Democrats, who worry Mamdani’s unabashed left-wing platform could spark fiscal instability and lead to declines in public safety. Amid his vocal support for Palestinians, Mamdani also took positions and made statements about Israel that some of his moderate critics say fueled antisemitism — a charge he vehemently denies and addressed in his victory speech.
“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,” he said while also vowing to fight Islamophobia.
Andrew Cuomo supporters react to his loss to Zohran Mamdani at Cuomo’s election night party at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
Politically, there’s concern Mamdani’s triumph could backfire and benefit Republicans, especially in next year’s New York gubernatorial race and congressional midterms. President Trump has for weeks vowed to punish New York City with federal funding cuts in the event of a Mamdani win.
Amid it all, Mamdani’s also likely to face pressure next year from his supporters to quickly make good on his agenda — many components of which depend on state government actions that will be out of his hands as mayor and could run into headwinds in Albany.
Mamdani, though, voiced total confidence in his ability to get his agenda enacted. “When we enter City Hall in 58 days, expectations will be high. We will meet them,” he said.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the country’s most prominent progressives and a key Mamdani surrogate, told reporters at the Brooklyn Paramount it is “still going to take all of us to execute on” the incoming mayor’s agenda.
“We’re going to step up,” she said, citing the need to fight Trump, in particular, amid his threats to defund New York.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arraives at Zohran Mamdani’s Election Night celebration party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Trump’s presence will loom large over Mamdani. The president, who incorrectly labels Mamdani “a communist” and endorsed Cuomo in the race, has for months threatened to deploy the National Guard to the city and take other punitive measures in addition to cutting federal funding in the event Mamdani takes control of City Hall.
Mamdani pledged to fight Trump tooth and nail. “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him, and if there is a way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power,” he told his supporters.
In apparent response, the White House tweeted out a doctored image of a New York Knicks logo saying, “Trump Is Your President.”
Zohran Mandani supporters cheer after he’s declared the victor at Mamdani’s celebration party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
When he announced his mayoral campaign just over a year ago in October 2024, Mamdani was a relatively unknown entity in New York politics, working as a state Assembly member representing a slice of northwestern Queens that includes Astoria.
But Mamdani quickly caught the attention of New Yorkers as he mounted an energetic campaign boosted by a savvy social media strategy and volunteers who canvassed on his behalf. His promises to freeze the rent for stabilized tenants, drastically expand subsidized childcare and make public buses free struck a clear chord with residents across a city that has become increasingly expensive, especially those in younger generations, who turned out in droves for Mamdani.
But even older New Yorkers who didn’t vote for him found Mamdani’s campaign enticing.
“My sentiments are not anti-Mamdani. I have no issue with Mamdani being a socialist Democrat or whatever…I think they just gave him a bad rap in this election,” Queens resident Kevin Moran, an 80-year-old retired cab driver, said after voting for Cuomo in South Ozone Park on Tuesday morning. “If Mamdani wins, I’ll be happy. I think he’ll be able to do everything that comes up as the mayor of the city. He’ll appoint different people. I think it’ll probably be a bit of a rough road for him, but I think he’ll be able to do it.”
Zohran Mamdani appears with his wife, Rama Duwaji, at his Election Night celebration party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
In June’s Democratic mayoral primary, Mamdani pulled off a shocking victory, defeating Cuomo in that contest by a nearly 13% margin.
Despite the primary loss, Cuomo, a member of one of New York’s most storied political dynasties, jumped back into the general mayoral election, campaigning as an independent on a “Fight & Deliver” ballot line with a focus on public safety and his breadth of experience in government.
Cuomo’s mayoral race entry was an attempt to rehabilitate his career, having resigned as governor in 2021 while facing likely impeachment amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.
Cuomo, a lifelong Democrat, spent the final days of the campaign trying to attract votes from local Republicans, whose support he was seen as needing to have a path to victory, as he trailed Mamdani by double digits in virtually every poll.
For weeks, Cuomo also tried to get Sliwa to drop out of the race. When Sliwa refused, Cuomo publicly pleaded with Republicans to not “waste” their vote on Sliwa and back him instead as the anti-Mamdani candidate.
Zohran Mandani supporters cheer after he’s declared the victor at Mamdani’s celebration party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
The pressure campaign on Sliwa came after Mayor Adams decided in late September to abandon his bid for reelection following prodding by allies to Cuomo, who he later endorsed.
In a video posted on X, Adams, whose one-term mayoralty was rocked by his federal corruption indictment, said his team will help Mamdani with the transition. He also said he understands the “concerns” and “fears” non-Mamdani voters have, but added: “This is our democracy.”
During the general election campaign season, Mamdani racked up a long line of endorsements from New York political power players who did not support him during the primary. They included Gov. Hochul, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other moderate Democrats who have otherwise been wary of elements of Mamdani’s leftist platform.
Hochul, in particular, is expected to play an especially meaningful role in determining the fate of Mamdani’s agenda, as her support will be needed to enact the tax increases he has floated as the revenue generators for his main campaign pledges.
So far, Hochul — who’s facing a competitive reelection race next year — has been publicly resisting calls to back Mamdani’s tax hike plans. That could potentially throw a major wrench into one of the most important planks in his platform.
Still, Mamdani, who was joined on stage by his wife and parents for the end of his victory speech, reiterated every key promise of his campaign and said he’s forging ahead with implementing all of them.
“Years from now,” he said, “may our only regret be that this day took so long to come.”
