Zohran Mamdani – from rank outsider to possibly being New York’s next mayor

As Zahran Mamdani walked the streets of the Upper East Side to a campaign event to greet early voters, he could barely walk a few steps without being stopped by his supporters.

Two smiling young women looked startled and told him they followed him on Instagram. The millennial Democratic mayoral candidate thanked them before posing with another young man who had his phone ready to take a selfie.

Throngs of journalists surrounded Mamdani and captured his every moment, such as running into the street to shake hands with a taxi driver shouting “We support you, man.”

With a comfortable lead in the polls, the 34-year-old is on the verge of making history when New Yorkers vote on Tuesday as the youngest mayor in more than a century and the city’s first Muslim and South Asian leader.

He was a relatively unknown figure just a few months ago, and few could have predicted his rise, from hip-hop artist and housing consultant to New York State Assembly member and front-runner to lead the largest city in the United States, a job that comes with a $116 billion budget and global scrutiny.

Through viral videos and outreach to content creators and podcasters, Mamdani has reached disaffected voters at a time when trust in the Democratic Party among its members is at an all-time low.

But there are questions about whether he can deliver on his ambitious promises, and how a politician with no executive experience will handle the onslaught that is sure to come from a hostile Trump administration.

There is also the complicated relationship he has with his party establishment, where he has become a national figure for left-wing Democrats.

He describes himself as a democratic socialist, which essentially means giving a voice to workers, not corporations. It’s the politics of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom Mamdani often shared the stage.

Trump threatened to withdraw federal funds if New Yorkers elected a “communist.” Mamdani’s response is that he’s like a Scandinavian politician, only brown.

The victory will be seen as a rejection of politics as usual by New Yorkers struggling with the cost of living — a No. 1 issue for Mamdani.

His main competitor in Tuesday’s election is former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary.

Cuomo accuses Mamdani of anti-business agenda that will kill New York. He says he has shown he can stand up to Trump but Mamdani calls Cuomo the president’s puppet.

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, mocks them. “Zorhan, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin,” he said in the final debate. “And Andrew, your failures could fill a New York City public school library.”

Mamdani’s message focused on issues of affordability and quality of life. He has promised universal child care, a rent freeze in subsidized units, free public buses and city-run grocery stores.

It’s a message that’s reaching New Yorkers fed up with high prices.

“I support him because I’m a housing lawyer and I see how the cost of living keeps going up and up,” Miles Ashton told the BBC outside the candidates’ debate earlier this month. “We all want an affordable city.”

The costs of Mamdani’s agenda will be covered by new taxes on corporations and millionaires that he insists will raise $9 billion, although some experts like the libertarian Cato Institute He tells him the amounts don’t add up. He would also need the support of the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to implement new taxes.

She supported it but says she is against raising income taxes. However, she wants to work with him to achieve universal health care, which is by far the largest item on his $5 billion agenda.

As he rode the M57 bus through Manhattan to highlight his free bus plan, he told the BBC why his focus on affordability was the right approach in the Trump era.

“It is time to understand that defending democracy does not just mean standing up against an authoritarian administration. It must also ensure that democracy can meet the material needs of working-class people here. This is something we have failed to do in New York City.”

Among the New Yorkers who told the BBC they would not vote for Mamdani, doubts about his ability to fund his agenda and his lack of experience were among the biggest factors.

After Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June, Wall Street leaders could hardly celebrate. Some threatened to leave the city.

But there has been a noticeable shift since then – the mood is less panicky, more cooperative. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon even said he would offer his help if Mamdani is elected.

Real estate developer Jeffrey Goral, who met Mamdani, says he lacks enough experience to lead the country’s largest city. He believes his plan to freeze rents will hurt renters and that his taxes on the wealthy will drive away high-income earners.

However, he supports Mamdani’s comprehensive childcare plan, a provision he makes to his employees at his casino upstate.

Part of the change in tone since the primaries is due to Mamdani’s concerted efforts to meet his critics.

On October 14, Alexis Bitar, a self-taught jewelry designer who has grown his business into a global company, hosted Mamdani and 40 business leaders at his 1850s home in Brooklyn.

They were a mix of CEOs or business owners from the financial, fashion and arts sectors. More than half of them were Jews, and all of them were either neutral or opposed to Mamdani’s candidacy.

There were questions about the business, his management experience, and how he would finance his agenda.

“I think he was in a great position,” Bitar told the BBC. “The great thing about him is that he is incredibly equipped to answer them and answer them seriously.”

Part of Mamdani’s dealings with his critics was his desire to change his position.

In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, Mamdani called on the city to defund the police and called the NYPD “racist.” But he has since apologized and said he no longer holds those views.

Crime is the No. 1 issue for Howard Wolfson, who worked for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is now a Democratic strategist. He was present during a meeting last month between the mayoral candidate and Bloomberg, who spent $8 million during the primary race trying to beat him.

Wolfson told the BBC that he would judge Mamdani on how police are run in the city.

“I think it’s great that he’s communicating and participating, but I’m much more interested in how he governs,” he said. “Public safety is really a prerequisite for success or failure.”

Many see Mamdani’s pledge to ask Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on as a way to allay fears that he might go easy on crime.

He says he would maintain the current level of NYPD staffing and create a new community safety division that would deploy mental health care teams instead of armed officers for non-threatening psychiatric calls.

One position that Mamdani has stuck to is his criticism of Israel and his constant support for Palestinian rights.

It represents a departure from the Democratic Party establishment and could be a deciding factor for many voters in a city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

He sparked anger during the preliminary process when he refused to condemn the term “globalization of the uprising.” But after Jewish New Yorkers expressed their discomfort to him and told him they felt unsafe hearing about it, he said he discouraged others from using it.

A letter signed by more than 1,100 rabbis cited Mamdani as he condemned the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.

Jewish voters are largely split between Mamdani and Cuomo in the polls.

Brad Lander, the city comptroller who teamed up in the Democratic primary with Mamdani to endorse their respective candidacies against Cuomo, says many Jewish New Yorkers like him are very enthusiastic about Mamdani.

Lander told the BBC that he is a mayoral candidate who is deeply committed to keeping everyone safe, regardless of religious beliefs.

Soumya Chowdhury and Farhana Islam from the group Muslims for Progress voted for the mayoral candidate.

Although they are all excited that he may be New York’s first Muslim mayor, he does not need to rely on his identity for support, Ms. Islam said.

“His policies speak for themselves and are enough to make him popular.”

Since his victory in the primary, Mamdani’s Islamophobia has increased. He now has a police escort, and last month a Texas man was arrested on charges of making terroristic threats against him. “Muslims do not belong here,” the man said in one of the messages.

Mamdani decided to give a speech about Islamophobia after Andrew Cuomo laughed at a radio talk show host that Mamdani would cheer for another September 11-style attack.

In an emotional speech, he said he hoped that by ignoring racist attacks and sticking to a central message, it would allow him to be more than just his faith. “I was wrong. There’s never enough redirection.”

What might propel Mamdani to victory in liberal New York may not be a recipe for success at the national level. Democrats in Congress appear concerned about the consequences of his rise as partisan tensions continue between moderates and progressives.

Senator Chuck Schumer did not endorse Mamdani, while his colleague, New York House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, endorsed him a few hours before early voting began.

Democratic strategists said the problem Mamdani poses for the party’s founding is that Trump and Republicans view Democrats, no matter how moderate, as socialists. This tactic is believed to have had some influence among Cuban and Venezuelan voters in the 2024 elections.

Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democratic representative from New Jersey. He told the Washington Post Mamdani is believed to have “extremist views” at odds with the Democratic Party and fears Republicans will use him as a kind of “bogeyman.”

At a campaign event on the Upper East Side, Mamdani told the BBC that he plans to deal with intense scrutiny if he wins, citing the energy behind his candidacy.

He said that there is no doubt that there will be opposition, but the mass movement behind him will overcome it.