Voters in New York City withstood a barrage of money and racist insults against their 34-year old socialist candidate to send him to City Hall in the country’s biggest city in convincing fashion on Tuesday night.
Mamdani supporters react to his victory at a watch party in the East Village in Manhattan. (Joe Lauria)
By Jon Queally
Common Dreams
Zohran Mamdani was elected the next mayor of New York City on Tuesday in a victory he and his supporters say reflects the hope of a city—and a nation—ready for a new kind of politics that puts the needs of working people at the center after decades of failed leadership that put corporate interests and the desires of the wealthiest first.
Withstanding a barrage of negative ads and fear-mongering by the city’s elite, the democratic socialist candidate secured 50.4 percent of the vote in a three-way race that saw disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mandani, nab 41.6 percent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa just over 7 percent.
Consortium News is in New York City and will be providing continuing coverage of Mamdani’s victory.
“Hope is alive,” declared Mamdani in his victory speech from the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn after most major networks called the victory his shortly after 9:30 pm local time.
“While we cast our ballots alone, we chose hope together,” said Mamdani. “Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair. We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible. And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.”
Mamdani, a member of the New York State Assembly who ran a campaign focused on making life more affordable for the workers who make the nation’s largest city run and thrive, said that while the campaign’s unifying and inspiring spirit meant his supporters could express a collective sigh of relief after the election day win, the hard work will now be making that shred vision for the city become a reality.
“This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt,” he said. “Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia: an agenda that will freeze the rents for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants, make buses fast and free, and deliver universal child care across our city.”
Zohran Mamdani’s full victory speech. pic.twitter.com/wYhsUUg0uo
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 5, 2025
“Years from now, may our only regret be that this day took so long to come,” he added. “This new age will be one of relentless improvement.”
As progressives and Democrats nationwide took the victory in New York City as a sign of what a populist campaign focused on the needs of working people can accomplish, Mamdani also spoke to the underlying theme of Tuesday’s elections across the country, where Democrats claimed major wins in various competitive races and ballot initiatives—outcomes seen as a resounding rebuke to President Donald Trump’s scorched-earth second term.
“If we embrace this brave new course rather than fleeing from it,” said Mamdani, “We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
“If there is any way to terrify a despot,” he added, “it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump. It is how we stop the next one.”
Muslim New Yorkers erupted in celebration following the news of the prejected victory of Zohran Mamdani – NYC’s first ever Muslim mayor.
This is a win for America, Muslims and Palestine. A massive slap to Israel and American Islamophobes. pic.twitter.com/ONA9Vq1RKz
— Robert Carter (@Bob_cart124) November 5, 2025
That dynamic was front and center for many who heralded Mamdani’s win as historic and called for the Democratic Party leadership to embrace his vision on economic issues and a more populist style of politics to displace the corporate stranglehold on the party.
Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, called Mamdani’s victory “the turning point in this Democratic Party that our movement has been working towards for years: electing leaders with the moral courage to unite our voters to take on Republican authoritarianism, Democratic corporatism, and billionaire greed all at once.”
“This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.” —Zohran Mamdani
“Zohran Mamdani has never backed down from standing up to Trump and the forces that threaten our democracy,” said Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a pro-democracy advocacy group focused on the climate crisis. “This is the leadership our democracy, and the Democratic Party, needs to rebuild trust with working people and fight for a future that works for everyone.”
Michael Magazine, a campaigner with the group’s local NYC affiliate, echoed that sentiment. “Tonight, the people of New York City showed up in force and reminded the world that grassroots power can beat big money,” he said. “This is more than a win for Zohran. It’s a win for the movement and for democracy itself. We’ve proven that a bold, people-powered vision can overcome the status quo, and this is just the beginning.”
“The oligarchy came out in full force against Zohran Mamdani’s fight for a more affordable NYC,” said former labor secretary Robert Reich following Tuesday night’s victory. “It didn’t matter. Let his victory in the face of Big Money serve as a reminder that people have the power.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who endorsed Mamdani, also championed the win.
“Starting at 1% in the polls,” said Sander, “Mamdani pulled off one of the great political upsets in modern American history. Yes. We CAN create a government that represents working people and not the 1%.”
Jon Queally is managing editor of Common Dreams.
As an Australian who knows too well how the US political realm has darkened the doorsteps of so many countries, most of which deserved far better, I am pleased that the city of New York has shown some real guts.
I’m sure that this example will be re-enacted on a lesser scale in some other states.
As hopeful as it looks right now, I think everyone knows the power that will be unleashed as a consequence.
Nevertheless, whilst everyone is on such a high note, does anyone have any pull within your government to perhaps rid our country of all of those B52’s and whatever else is here that the US is planning on using to bait China into firing the first shot of a war that is merely intended to provide your military industrial complex with another means of getting richer.
I actually believe it’s another alternative to the Ukraine war, which was forced upon Russia, which you’d know if you did any worthwhile research at all.
Thanks in anticipation.
You actually think this is a good step? We in the UK have been under a quasi socialist government now for a couple of decades and the country is now circling the drain. The US is a remarkable country, the expansion and development it underwent in a very short time from when the West of the country was joined to the East is astounding. This was not brought about by socialism. You forget how you got here and your strengths. Your system is not functioning correctly, that is true, but socialism is not the answer, it has been tried many times and failed every time. This puppet you have elected will be a disaster. And strangely he is not a puppet of the left, he has been created and funded by the billionaire class. The system has lost its balance and the working people have been left behind. They are now looking for alternatives, but in twisted irony, they look to a socialist charlatan for their salvation who was created by the very people who benefitted from the system while simultaneously destroying the working people.
We will see, but all the talk around Mamdani sounds like hopium to me. I will be happy if there is anything meaningful about it, but I doubt it. From what I recall, he had already turned back on some of his views or repudiated his own past statements in order to appeal to corporate interests and Jewish Zionist interests that are critical of him.
Businessmen that meet with him seem to have only good things to say, and to be fond of him and to understand how he can be used to their advantage, in the same way that the WEF’s theme was rebranding a year or two ago, and global elites love both Trump and Milei; a fact I always state to the disbelief of their supporters, even though the way the populist right was co-opted and brought back into the fold from where the populace had appeared to oppose the elites (now with emphasis on the ‘appearing’: mere rhetoric and playing pretend) was very, very obvious.
We can expect the same for any populist leftism. People are wrong to place their hopes in the system and expect change from it. I suspect they will be met with only more disappointment, as such, and that such uncynical (perhaps unrealistic is the better word) will only lead to the crushing of naive people’s dreams and the wrecking of their will.
To call this a win for “democracy itself” sounds like the same kind of repugnantly bombastic and superlative-ridden rhetoric that has infested American politics in the past 20 years, especially since the Trump era. Must everything always be so?
This reminds me so much of the night of Barack Obama’s election win in 2008. Obama betrayed his supporters. I hope Mamdani does not.
As Jon Queally illustrates in this article, Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York was not just a victory over Donald Trump, who made it personal, or the GOP, but over the leadership of the Democratic Party as well, a leadership that for decades has betrayed the constituencies it claims to represent, working people, African Americans, the young and hopeful, all in favor of the billionaire donor class, Wall Street, the defense industry and, of course, the wielder of the one ring that rules both major parties, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The victory may well be illusory and short lived as AIPAC and its billionaire supporters will do everything possible to seduce Mr. Mamdani and, failing in that, to make him a caricature whose policies have little chance of being implemented. Still, the Mamdani election is a first step, even if he is quickly tripped up.
Long time coming, marking a new beginning. I’ll be voting for democratic socialists from here on out.
Alex Soros’ effusive praise of Mamdani gives me pause.
Yeah, Soros seems to like supporting division. I personally think he’d like a civil war to break out in the US.
Exactly Paula. Stay strong.
Jon Queally, by say Mamdani “ran a campaign focused on making life more affordable for the workers who make the nation’s largest city run and thrive” you have encapsulated what needs to be said everywhere from Eastern Europe to San Francisco. Thank you.
Congrats to Mamdani on a monumental victory, a necessary (but not sufficient) step in changing the culture of NYC. Always great to see a populist (the People) triumph over the Establishment and over the Israel First billionaire oligarchs arrayed against him. Of course, the Establishment’s Man Cuomo, a vile politician responsible for hundreds possibly thousands of Covid deaths in NY nursing homes (they even rescinded his Covid Emmy!), still surprisingly won over 41% of the vote. And Cuomo probably was hurt by Trump’s last-minute endorsement. Mamdani has the advantage of being in one of the bluest states of the Union; all major political opposition is from fellow Democrats, and if they fall in line with his policies, his win may presage a new populist Democratic Party.
However, Blue state politicians are entrenched and likely will protect their corruptions at Mamdani’s expense. The big Democratic donors mostly oppose Mamdani’s policies. Generally, Democrats listen to their big donors who speak louder than the People.
Whilst Zohran’s win is of historic importance, his travails are just beginning because both the Republican Party & Democratic Party will band together to sabotage his agenda.
They did during the campaigning. The neolib Ds showed their true ugly colors by conspiring with the Rs; running nasty ads appealing to bigotry and even having Trump endorse Cuomo. In whose concession speech was “this is about socialists trying to take over the D party.” Tellingly left out the ‘democratic’ part, something else the neolib elite D party abhors. If only democratic socialists were listened to! I’d be happy if the Ds resurrected the New Deal they dumped. You bet they resent the loss and will do everything they can to sabotage Mamdani.
Yaaay, Mamdani, & yaaay, New Yorkers! We have all needed this shot-in-the-arm. & May this hope-filled newcomer, who speaks with such eloquence, survive the sabotage we’ve already seen in play from “Established” political operatives. Big Money never possesses Big Ideas. It’s too busy looking for the next grift to see, too busy trying to kneecap the Good, the True, even the Possible to imagine a better future. May this young Outsider succeed where Obama & Biden failed so miserably. Yaaay all ‘round. May this mark America’s Mazzini moment, refreshing our understanding of democracy. Wouldn’t that be lovely….
Tongue-in-cheek!
Trepidation: Despite “Mamdani, slated to be inaugurated on January 1, “(2026), it is only a full 56 days off; and his being “one of just a handful of self-proclaimed socialists to win the mayoral election in New York City, (the following is the most significant sentence in the paragraph). He is also the first Muslim person to ever win the seat for the largest city in the U.S.”
‘On top of it’ – New York City, being the largest Jewish populated city in the entire world, with its Jewish population comprising approximately only 12% of New York City’s population, its diverse Jewish ‘community’ nevertheless, is the largest such in the world, outside of Israel, Netanyahu and his ilk be damned.
Does this in fact actually mean that religion, for the first time in U.S. history, is no longer the determining factor in who is permitted even a minor leadership role in “our” system of democracy?
Is this election win for ‘democratic socialism’ a true reflection of the undermining of presupposed overarching AIPAC power?
If so, not only a breath of fresh air, but a gasp, after having felt strangulated for too many years, and become blue in the face from the effort to escape its hold over our country’s domestic politics.
“Miracles never cease to amaze”!
The politics of philosophy in the changeability of human mindset is ever intriguingly stimulating.
What a boon it would actually be for one and all Americans if kowtowing was no longer a prerequisite in American system of politics.
“A large majority of New York City Jews voted for Andrew Cuomo for mayor, with 63% of the Jewish population voting for him and 33% for Zohran Mamdani, a Wednesday CNN poll found following Mamdani’s mayoral victory.”– yahoo news. Generally the Jewish vote goes 60% or so Democratic (Establishment) in presidential elections this century.
Yahoo claims that Jewish voters made up 15% of those who voted. If the third who voted for Mamdani had chosen Cuomo (thus an unlikely 100% of Jewish, a bloc bigger than even most Black voting blocs), all the rest being equal, Cuomo might have won 46% to 45%. Don’t write off religion’s effect so naively.
Re: “Speculation runs rampant”
An aside to your incomplete, and therefore more unreliable statistical analysis in relation to the role of religions in relation to the outcome of Mamdani’s great election win.
CNN polls and yahoo news as reliable unbiased sources of news as facts???
Query: What was the actual total number, overall, of eligible NYC voters who cast votes?
Not naively writing off religion’s effect in American elections; unhappily, it is obvious that the bigotry’s contained in separate hierarchical institutional religious faiths; not excluding the Judaic still tend to influence and sway resultant outcomes, adversely affecting the more consequentially critical role of political governance of the country in general.
In a country where religion and state are purportedly separate institutions – the governance of the country overall, not being about inconsequentialities such as diverse religious belief systems; actual democratic elections must center around the more consequential details, such as real comity in community.
Democratic socialism is but another step in a more progressive direction, other than the narcissistic, dictatorial trajectory the country is on now.
Even so, religion (or former religion for many Jews) is not a determinant, manifestly, and now provingly, anti-current-Zionism is not anti-Semitism — if anti-Semitism means something sinister, which is doubtful with the “new, improved definition”.