NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York City Democrats chose 33-year-old Muslim socialist Zohran Mamdani as their mayoral candidate in Tuesday’s elections, stunning his opponent, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo, a political veteran who was vying to come back from a sexual harassment scandal, told supporters at an election night party.
“I called him, I congratulated him... he won.”
In what appears to be the left-leaning city’s rebuke of the Democratic party’s veteran moderates — and New York’s rarely claimed native son, Republican US President Donald Trump — Mamdani led with 43 percent of the vote with 95 percent of ballots counted, city officials reported.
The party’s primary contest featured almost a dozen candidates seeking to become mayor of the biggest US city, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one.
Voters cast ballots during a smothering heatwave before polls closed at 9 p.m., but results may take time to finalize.
The contest is ranked-choice, with voters asked to select five candidates in order of preference, and neither Cuomo nor Mamdani claimed the required majority Tuesday.
If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, election officials begin eliminating lowest-ranking candidates and recounting, a process that can take days.
With the Democrats reeling nationally from Trump’s presidential election last year, the high-profile city race has done little to calm party nerves.
But Mamdani’s upbeat campaign, built with youthful social media savvy and campaign promises to improve the city’s affordability, appears to have resonated with voters.
Cuomo stepped down as New York governor four years ago after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. He was also accused of mismanaging the state’s response to the Covid pandemic.
Staunchly pro-Israel Cuomo led in polls for most of the race, with massive name recognition as the son of another New York governor, as well as support from powerful centrist figures including former president Bill Clinton.
Mamdani, meanwhile, is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America — the kind of niche, leftist affiliation that might work in the Big Apple but many analysts warn against.
The fact that Mamdani speaks out for Palestinians and has accused Israel of “genocide” also makes him a prime target for Trump.
His supporters include two favorite Trump foils — fiery leftist Senator Bernie Sanders and progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both congratulated Mamdani on Tuesday.
“Billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.
Sanders posted on X to say: “You took on the political, economic and media Establishment — and you beat them.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, said Mamdani “is too extreme for a city already on edge.”
He added on X: “This is not the time for radical politics. It is time for real leadership. I have fought for this city my whole life. Not for fame or power but because I believe in the people who live here... Let’s win this on November 4th!”