NCF Research Officer Klara Ismail details the recent successes of Zohran Mamdani, New York’s Democratic candidate for Mayor. The article considers Mamdani’s sharp rise to becoming the new face of the Democrat’s New York mayoral elections. Is Mamdani a passing political trend or is the Democratic Party in the midst of a changing political landscape which is taking shape across America and the global North, amidst growing civil resistance to the status quo?
On 24th June 2025, Zohran Mamdani stunned the New York political scene with a historic primary election win that broke records. Back in January, the state lawmaker and self-proclaimed democratic socialist was polling at a meagre 1%. On election day, he received a total of 565 639 votes, more than any other mayoral candidate in New York City primary election history.
How did this previously unheard of State Assembly Member become the new face of the Democratic party, even when odds were stacked against him?
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda in 1991 to Mira Nair, an Indian-American filmmaker, and Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan-Asian Columbia university academic. He moved to New York City at the age of 7 and later received a bachelors degree in Africana studies from Bowdoin College in 2014, a private liberal arts university. There, he co-founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Mamdani was already involved in several political campaigns by the mid-2010s. As a young adult he worked as a housing councillor, assisting lower-income homeowners in Queens with eviction notices and pushing for efforts to remain in their homes.
After a brief stint as a hip-hop artist in the late 2010s, Mamdani focused seriously on a political career. By 2020, the then 28-year-old was elected to the New York State Assembly, representing the 36th district in the borough of Queens. He was re-elected twice, in 2022 and 2024. During his time as a State Assembly member, Mamdani was already committed to his grassroots-style political approach to advocate for his community, for example by joining in a hunger strike alongside taxi drivers facing crushing debt.
Mamdani’s Rise: Appealing Policies, Digital Exposure
Mamdani’s campaign has prioritised a focus on improving the material aspects of New Yorkers’ lives. Many praise the straightforwardness of his campaign which is largely interested in easing cost-of-living concerns for working New Yorkers. The main policies of Mamdani’s campaign which have received the most engagement are as follows:
- Immediately freezing the rent for all stabilized tenants
- Tripling the City’s production of permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes, constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years
- City-owned grocery stores to help stabilise the rising cost of groceries
- Free bus fares on all city buses
- Free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years
To finance this socio-economic reshuffle, Mamdani’s manifesto states that the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers (those earning above $1 million annually) will be subject to a new flat 2% tax. Secondly, New York’s corporate tax rate will be raised significantly, from 7.25% to the proposed 11.5%. This rate would put it in line with New Jersey’s corporate tax rate.
Source: Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign website
The digital engagement strategy perfected by Mamdani and his campaign team is the overarching reason why the mayoral candidate has shot to recognition in the last six months. A candidate could have the most appealing policy campaign to the most wide-ranging demographic but, if the campaign lacks exposure, those policies will never reach voters. Quite literally, Mamdani went viral.
Charming informative video clips with warm vintage filters and delicate subtitle text look like they were extracted from an indie film. Others feature humorous personal content filmed informally by Mamdani himself, such as when he confessed to his followers that “My comms team told me I use the word ‘ultimately’ a little too much and that I should take it out of my vocabulary … So you know, I’m listening, I’m learning. I sit down for an interview with News12, and I almost pull it off [Cue News12 interview clip where Mamdani stops himself midway through saying ‘ultimately’]. So please keep sending me your feedback because, ultimately, I will get better”.
That video was not political, it did not criticise Andrew Cuomo, and it did not remind his followers of his own policies. Yet it was one of the most successful posts on Mamdani’s Instagram page, amassing 380k likes. The video was an innocent heart-to-heart, but its message had invaluable positive implications for his political image: ‘When you give me feedback, I listen, learn, and implement’.
Source: Mamdani’s Instagram page
Turning point? The War on Gaza
Mamdani’s own progressive grassroots political activism on controversial cultural issues such as trans rights and Israel’s war on Gaza has won over many young people and progressives. Mamdani was the only mayoral candidate who was explicitly critical of the severity of the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza and the West Bank. Mamdani even pledged that if he served as mayor he’d arrest Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he came to New York, citing Netanyahu’s ICC arrest warrant on war crimes charges, issued on 21 November 2024. Meanwhile, Cuomo volunteered to be part of Netanyahu’s legal defense team before the international criminal court.
Mamdani’s criticism of Israel’s government and its treatment of Palestinians has deep roots. Back in 2023, months before Hamas’s brutal attack on Israelis on October 7th, Mamdani co-introduced a bill to end the tax-exempt status of New York charities with ties to Israeli settlements that violate international human rights law. The “Not On Our Dime” act proposed that any New York nonprofits that provide financial support to Israel’s military or settlements could be sued for at least $1 million and lose their tax-exempt status. Despite receiving some higher-profile support from representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the bill was widely criticised and ultimately declared a “non-starter”. It never came to fruition.
Mamdani’s break from the Democratic Party’s steadfast support of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza lays bare just how divided civilian opinion and official party lines are becoming. While the Biden administration continued to raise military aid and profess public support for Netanyahu’s government, Democrat voters were becoming increasingly critical as the death toll in Gaza mounted and suspicions of war crimes became increasingly feasible. The overwhelming support for Mamdani over Cuomo is evidence of this shift.
What does this mean for the Democratic Party’s future?
Some Democrat politicians have already acknowledged that the party has a lot to learn from Mamdani’s campaign, particularly his digital engagement strategies and voters’ great appeal for his cost-of-living focus. “He’s speaking to people’s material needs, and that’s what the Democratic party has completely failed to do, and that’s why they lost the working class,” said Alicé Nascimento, political director of the pressure group New York Communities for Change, which campaigned for Mamdani.
On the other hand, the Democrats are naturally wary of a self-proclaimed socialist becoming the face of their party, as well as Mamdani becoming a wider symbolic representation of renewed opposition politics against Republicanism. Reports have been circulating of whether Mamdani’s win has sparked a movement among more left-wing Democrats, with some speculating that a 2028 presidential campaign of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is increasingly likely, particularly if Mamdani wins the mayoral election in November. However, factionalism within the Democratic Party lines would be highly unfavourable for any Democrat hoping to vote Trump out of office in the next presidential elections, regardless of internal political differences.
Critics of Mamdani’s campaign also have concerns over the economics behind his policies being simply unviable. Further, that a New York run by Mamdani will drive big business and high earners away from the city. Yet Zeve Salman, real estate agent and writer for the Financial Times, believes that these narratives “tend to be driven more by sentiment than substance”. During Mamdani’s campaign between March and June 2025, there were growing reports of failed real estate deals from critics who claimed that Mamdani was already pushing business out of the city. However, Salman argues that these claims provided evidence based on narrow statistics. Indeed, the Olshan Luxury Market Report revealed that the Manhattan market finished June with contracts signed on 153 properties. This made it the third-best performing June since 2006.
Needless to say, the Republicans are even more shaken up by Mamdani’s surprise win, with Donald Trump famously branding him a “100% communist lunatic” on Truth Social at the end of last month. Yet even Republican backlash has failed to make a dent in Mamdani’s approval ratings. The most recent opinion polls show that Mamdani still has a substantial lead against former rival and now independent, Andrew Cuomo. As of July 2-6th, Mamdani leads with 35% support, followed by Cuomo at 25%. The Republican Curtis Sliwa trails at 14%.
It’s clear that corporations and high-net worth individuals assess value in more comprehensive ways than simply tax adjustments. There are a host of reasons keeping the financial market turning in the city. New York is one of the epicentres of American culture, offering a rich history alongside some of the best dining, shopping and entertainment in the world. If Mamdani is successful in November, he will need an experienced team of aides by his side to provide support and guidance in his first mayoral terms. But as a new face of the Democratic party, and as the first viable opposition to Trumpian Republicanism, the Democrats may have to accept that Mamdani’s strong appeal ushers in a new chapter in recent American political history.
