Democratic Socialist anti zionist wins NYC mayor Dem primary

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In a remarkable upset, 33-year-old state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani has outperformed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June 24 Democratic New York City primary for mayor. Mamdani leads Cuomo 44% to 36% among first-place votes with 96% of ballots counted.

While the outcome won't be official until the instant runoff conducted with ballots that rank up to five choices is announced in July, Cuomo conceded the nomination less than 90 minutes after polls closed at 9 p.m.

“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won," Cuomo said.

Mamdani's lead is expected to grow in the instant runoff, because in polls he had far more lower-ranked votes than Cuomo from supporters of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who came in third with 11% of first-place votes.

The Democratic nominee will begin the general election as the favorite in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Cuomo, 67, and Mamdani, 33, represented ideological poles in the 11-candidate field, with ex-governor − a centrist who appointed many Republicans to his administration − on its right, and Democratic Socialists of America-member Mamdani on its left.

Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim mayor and its first Asian American mayor.

While Cuomo pledged to hire more police and increase private housing construction, Mamdani excited progressives with promises to freeze rents in regulated apartments and make buses free.

The battle between the two of them, and a host of other local officials, on who can best stand up to President Donald Trump, lower the city's housing costs, and remove homeless people from the streets and subways drew big spending from billionaires on Cuomo’s behalf. A Super PAC backing Cuomo spent $24 million, much of it raised from Trump donors such as hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and real estate executive Steven Roth, along with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The battle between the two of them, and a host of other local officials, on who can best stand up to President Donald Trump, lower the city's housing costs, and remove homeless people from the streets and subways drew big spending from billionaires on Cuomo’s behalf. A Super PAC backing Cuomo spent $24 million, much of it raised from Trump donors such as hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and real estate executive Steven Roth, along with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But while he led in polls throughout the race, Cuomo's lead gradually diminished. A June 23 Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey released June 23 showed Mamdani edging him out in the final round of the instant runoff that will use the city's ranked-choice voting system to determine a winner. Betting markets, which showed Cuomo with a far greater chance of winning until just the day before the election, tightened considerably.

Notably absent from the ballot was incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the primary to run as an independent in the general election. Adams has seen sagging approval numbers since his 2024 criminal indictment on federal corruption charges. He subsequently aligned himself increasingly with Trump, whose Department of Justice dropped the charges.

Adams won't be the only independent candidate in November. In addition to attorney Jim Walden, Cuomo currently has a line on the November ballot as the nominee of the newly invented Fight and Deliver Party ballot line. It is not clear if he will continue that campaign.

Cuomo said he “would make some decisions” in his concession speech.

Tonight we made history'

Mamdani addressed his supporters, saying he told Cuomo they need to bring the city together.

"Tonight we made history," he boasted.

"Together we have shown the politics of the future, one of partnership and of sincerity," Mamdani said about Lander. Mamdani and Lander had cross-endorsed one another, urging their supporters to rank the other second.

A good night for Democratic Socialists
Mamdani was not the only member of the Democratic Socialists of America to perform well on June 24. Council Member Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman to serve on the Council, fended off a primary challenge from Maya Kornberg. With 94% of the votes counted, Hanif won 64% to 26%.

The race in the 39th District, which spans western Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Park Slope, hinged on some of the same issues that defined the mayoral. Like Mamdani, Hanif has been a harsh critic of Israel. Kornberg, who works for the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank affiliated with New York University, ran as a more progressive candidate than Cuomo, but she was backed by some of the same well-heeled donors.

Zohran Mamdani didn’t just score more first-place votes Tuesday night in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary — he also prompted his closest rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to concede before the night was over, making the city’s ranked choice tabulation feel like a formality.

While Mamdani’s supporters claim the outcome was no surprise, Cuomo had widely been considered a probable first-round winner until the election, with Mamdani and allied candidates organizing to deny him a ranked-choice majority via cross-endorsements.

However, several key factors ultimately swung the race in Mamdani’s favor.

Defying polling expectations
Two of the most recent pre-election, nonpartisan polls had Cuomo leading in the first round. Emerson College showed Cuomo ahead by 3 points in the first round, and before that Marist University showed Cuomo leading by 12 points in the first-choice tally. Mamdani finished the unofficial tally last night 7 points ahead.

But polls tend to be a lagging indicator based on time in the field and release dates, especially in primaries. You could see momentum for Mamdani between those two polls, and it’s possible his surge really did come with the broader electorate in the final days of the campaign. It’s also possible a municipal primary election is just a tough type of race to get accurate polling results.

The ‘Mamdani Mirage’ mirage
A recent trend in general elections has been red and blue “mirages” — patterns in election returns that have developed around the way people choose to vote.

Mail ballots in recent elections have become a very Democratic-friendly group. Election Day ballots, on the flip side, are typically more Republican-friendly votes. And when one set of ballots is reported first without the other, it can lead to a false sense of the race — a “mirage” for observers looking at the vote count.

There was reason to believe a similar pattern might emerge in the primary elections. In the 2021 mayoral primary, Eric Adams won the mail vote by a point (23% of the first-choice votes, to Kathryn Garcia’s 22% and Maya Wiley’s 15%). But when it came to the Election Day vote, Adams was beating his nearest rival, Wiley, by 10 points (32%-22%).

The first report from New York City last night showed Mamdani winning a combination of mail and early votes by 9 points (43%-34%) over Cuomo. But an anticipated significant divergence between those figures and the Election Day vote never materialized. An estimate at the end of the night of votes cast Election Day had Mamdani winning 44%-38% over Cuomo among that group.

Democrats grow in Brooklyn
New York City’s most populous borough is also home to the most registered Democrats — and Mamdani was able to make the most of them.

While Brooklyn has seen some growth in its Democratic population since 2021, Mamdani’s significant achievement this year was turning out its voters in droves.

Brooklyn’s share of the electorate grew compared to the 2021 Democratic primary, and Mamdani posted better numbers than Adams — who was Brooklyn borough president at the time of the 2021 primary.

A unique coalition
Mamdani, 33, clearly appealed to younger voters. His near-ubiquity on social media, in both earned and unearned media, undoubtedly bolstered his appeal through Election Day.

An analysis by Gothamist found that nearly half of early voters were younger than 45, meaning turnout in 2025 was likely younger overall than the 2021 turnout.

But another key commonality among Mamdani’s supporters may have been the typical signs of gentrification: mobility and an influx of new residents. This includes young individuals moving to the city for the first time, young professionals seeking more affordable rents and families relocating for more space.

StreetEasy, Zillow’s New York City brand, annually puts out a list of the city’s “top neighborhoods to watch.” As it describes the list, these are the neighborhoods that have experienced the largest surge in searches among buyers and renters in New York City.

These neighborhoods, popular with new arrivals, are the front line of gentrification, representing the most burgeoning areas for the modern city dweller.

In these Top 10 neighborhoods, Mamdani decisively beat Cuomo 57%-21% in the first-choice tally.

In all other neighborhoods not on this list, Mamdani still led the former governor, but by a narrower margin of 42%-38%.

Mamdani’s best performance in Queens was the neighborhood of Ridgewood, which he carried 80%-11% over Cuomo, who is 67 years old. The neighborhood is 40% white, 45% Latino and 9% Asian. It’s a diverse population — and also No. 1 in terms of where new residents are flocking and looking to flock to in 2025, according to StreetEasy.

Mamdani’s best performance in Brooklyn, meanwhile, was in a neighborhood just to the south of Ridgewood: Bushwick. It’s a majority-Latino neighborhood, per census data. But it has also been a place where young people have clustered in recent years. The median age here is 31.0, census data shows, compared to a 36.8 average for the city as a whole.

Overall, Mamdani showed strength in places with the highest concentration of young voters — outside of the Orthodox Jewish population centers — in neighborhoods across the city. Cuomo, either by name, reputation or his platform, performed best in older neighborhoods.

Zohran Mamdani’s dramatic, strong showing in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, where he forced a concession from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, amounts to a massive shot in the arm for progressives and other Democrats who have been imploring their party’s elder statesmen to step aside for a new generation of leaders.

Mamdani ran his campaign as an unapologetic progressive against an established favorite who argued his pragmatism would best meet the moment; a 33-year-old fresh face against a field of experienced candidates; a democratic socialist at a time when many Democrats worry whether that moniker alienates them from swing voters; and a critic of Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas, despite criticism from moderate Democrats who accused him of stoking antisemitism.

Tuesday night’s election was far from a clear test case for any single one of those factors, with Cuomo’s 2021 resignation as governor amid allegations of sexual harassment and Covid mismanagement also in play. And New York City Democratic primary voters are hardly representative of the swing-district and swing-state electorates that determine who holds power in Washington — one reason why Republicans are already using Mamdani as a rhetorical foil to swing-seat Democrats.

But Mamdani’s surge — putting him on the precipice of the Democratic nomination, with the results of the ranked choice tabulation set to come next week — is putting the rest of the Democratic Party on notice.

"Voters are sick of the status quo, sick of being force-fed these old, uninspiring candidates and told to vote for them or else, and they want change. If mainstream Democrats don't understand that and offer that, voters are gonna look elsewhere," said Lis Smith, a longtime Democratic operative who was a key part of Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential bid and who previously worked for Cuomo.

"Andrew Cuomo as a candidate combined the worst qualities of Joe Biden and Donald Trump," Smith continued. "He left office in disgrace like Donald Trump did and was running on a vengeance tour, and like Joe Biden, he was old, he didn't have any new ideas, no ability to inspire people."

During his victory speech Tuesday night, Mamdani discussed not only the impact he hopes to have on the city, but how he believes his win will echo across the country.

“The mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trump’s fascism, to stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors and to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working people with no apology,” Mamdani said.

He added, “If this campaign has demonstrated anything to the world, it is that our dreams can become reality.”

Maya Rupert, a Democratic strategist who managed the 2021 mayoral campaign of Democrat Maya Wiley, told NBC News that Mamdani’s “decisive victory” is a signal to the left that its candidates can run unapologetically authentic campaigns that take tough issues head-on with progressive solutions.

“These issues aren’t unpopular; we just need a way to communicate them across geography, across a multiracial coalition, across partisan divides. He was able to do that, and more than that, show other people across the country how it can be done,” she said.

“We’ve heard this so much since the election: Democrats have gone too far afield, the vilification of talking about social justice, talking about racial justice, that you can’t do that stuff and also win. You can, and if it’s where your politics are, you can’t do it any other way, I really believe that. So I hope there are more people that are going to take this moment and decide to run like this because it really does seem to be our path forward,” she said.

Not everyone in the party agrees. Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, two New Yorkers who are veterans of battleground congressional races, put out statements criticizing Mamdani after his victory — Gillen called him “too extreme” and Suozzi said that his “concerns remain” about Mamdani.

A focus on the economy and affordability
As he did on election night, Mamdani spent much of the campaign grounding his appeal to voters around the economy. His campaign website prominently declares that he’s running to “lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers.”

His most-talked-about policy platforms centered around affordability: proposals like free city buses, freezing rents, reforms to make housing more affordable, city-owned grocery stores and free child care, all paid for by raising taxes on the top 1% and corporations.

"What Zohran did that was so important was he was talking about finances the way New Yorkers talk about finances," Rupert said.

"Instead of talking about New York as a whole, he brought it down to a granular level for people, what it meant."

The focus on the economy is something many Democrats, Mamdani supporters or not, say is a key takeaway for party members looking to glean something from his victory.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, who did not endorse a candidate in the mayoral primary, repeatedly referred to Mamdani’s economic message during an interview Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when asked to explain the election result.

“The relentless focus on affordability had great appeal across the city of New York. He also clearly outworked, out-organized and out-communicated the opposition. So when someone is successful at being able to do all three things at the same time, it’s usually going to work out,” he said.

While Cuomo also discussed his plans to make the city more affordable, much of his campaign was based around his unique experience and history standing up to Trump. But that experience was a double-edged sword, and Mamdani repeatedly reminded voters of Cuomo’s checkered past, at a moment when many Democrats are calling for new faces in their party.

David Hogg, the Florida activist and former national party official who broke with the Democratic National Committee over his decision to support primary challengers running against Democratic officeholders, said that the result reinforced the movement to energize young voters around a push for a new direction.

“The people have spoken — and they’re saying that the establishment is cooked,” he said in a statement.

Hogg’s group, Leaders We Deserve, was the top donor to one of the leading outside groups backing Mamdani’s effort.

Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party who ran Ray McGuire’s 2021 mayoral campaign, told NBC News that the result was a “repudiation of establishment politics that I think will ripple across the country.” But he also cautioned that Cuomo’s “baggage” was tied up into that anti-establishment fervor, and the consistent anti-Cuomo message from virtually every other candidate in the field was a unique dynamic that wouldn’t exist in most other races.

Smith, the Democratic operative, added that she does believe Democrats of all stripes can learn from Mamdani's positive message and his "go-everywhere media strategy." But the longtime party strategist didn't believe the result was an unconditional victory for the progressive policies.

"Obviously, I'm skeptical that everyone who voted for Zohran Mamdani agreed with all his economic and public safety policies, and I say that as someone who ended up ranking him. A lot of his ideas are going to be nonstarters in most places," she said.

The race isn’t over
Unlike most Democratic primaries in deep-blue territory, victory for Mamdani won’t assure him a glide path to general election victory in the fall.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election as an independent, after Trump’s Justice Department dropped federal corruption charges he was facing. And Cuomo could do the same, running on a ballot line his campaign created months ago. Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday night that he was considering whether to take that path.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the MSNBC host and longtime civil rights activist, said during an interview Wednesday on “Morning Joe” that the dynamics make for a “very interesting fall election.”

Regarding Mamdani, “you have The New York Times saying he’s not qualified; you’re going to a broader base of voters. Will some of the older voters, even in the Black and Latino community, come out and vote for him when you have Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor, on the ballot? … What about Jewish voters where Mamdani, rightly or wrongly, has been called antisemitic?” Sharpton asked.

“He made history last night, the question is whether or not it can stick with a general election,” Sharpton added.

Jeffries and Democrats’ Senate leader, Chuck Schumer (also a New Yorker), put out statements congratulating Mamdani, but they didn’t explicitly call for the party to fall in line behind him.

Rupert told NBC News that after years and years of progressive Democrats being told to unite around the nominee when the establishment’s choice wins a primary, she hopes the party will do the same now that the shoe is on the other foot. She was heartened to see Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin’s quick congratulations for Mamdani on Tuesday night.

“This is going to be a moment for the establishment, for a lot of the people who lined up behind Cuomo. It has to mean something to win the nomination,” she said.

“Democrats have spoken, they made a selection, and I would really, really hope that if he is facing headwinds from different directions, that the party would come together the same way I’ve seen the party come together over and over again when progressives need to say: ‘All right, let’s make sure that people turn out and vote for [someone] who wouldn’t have been our first choice.’

Pundits are saying Mamdani nomination guarantees him the win in the general election due to the Democrats having an overwhelming registration advantage. I am not so sure.

The New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) has called on the federal government to strip Zohran Mamdani of his citizenship and deport him.

What To Know
Mamdani won the Democratic Party primary for November's New York mayoral elections with 43.5 percent of the vote against 36.4 percent for Andrew Cuomo, his closest challenger, according to The Associated Press.

Responding to the results, the NYYRC wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "A CALL TO ACTION FROM THE NYYRC. The radical Zohran Mamdani cannot be allowed to destroy our beloved city of New York.

"The Communist Control Act lets President Trump revoke Zohran Mamdani's citizenship and promptly deport him. The time for action is now—Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan, New York is counting on you."

Miller is the White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, and Homan is Trump's border czar.

Miller framed Mamdani's upset victory as a result of a failure to control migration.

The NYYRC was founded in 1911 and exists as a political and social club for Republicans aged between 18 and 40 in New York.

Mamdani was born in Uganda in October 1991. His family moved to New York City when he was 7 years old in 1998. Mamdani was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018.

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act into law. In theory, this outlawed the Communist Party of the United States and banned communists from serving in certain roles. In practice, the act was rarely enforced and was stymied by numerous legal challenges.

On Wednesday, President Trump hit out at Mamdani, currently a New York State Assemblyman, branding him "a 100% Communist Lunatic" on his Truth Social website.

Betting website Polymarket gave Mamdani a 73.6 percent chance of winning November's New York Mayoral election on Wednesday, ahead of incumbent Mayor Eric Adams on 19.4 percent. Adams has announced he is running again as an independent and the Department of Justice has dropped corruption charges against him. He consistently denied any wrongdoing.

What People Are Saying
Republicans for National Renewal, a group that says it campaigns for President Trump's "America First agenda" within the GOP, replied: "We fully support this initiative. Communist radical Zohran Mamdani should be remigrated as soon as possible."

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X following Mamdani's upset victory: "NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration."

On June 2,New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino, a Republican, wrote: "Let's just talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who hasn't even been a US citizen for ten years—much less a radical leftist who actually hates everything about the country and is here specifically to undermine everything we've ever been about. Deport."

Her team later said: "Councilwoman Paladino stands by this statement, and while Zohran has clearly achieved US citizenship and thus is not eligible for deportation, the fact remains that under current administration policy Zohran likely would have been removed from the country before achieving citizenship due to his involvement in multiple antisemitic and far-left organizations in college." Zohran has strongly denied allegations he is antisemitic.

Mamdani hit back at Paladino on X, saying: "Like nearly 40% of all New Yorkers, I wasn't born in this country. I moved here at age 7. It's my home. And I'm proud to be a citizen, which means standing up for our Constitution. Councilmember Paladino might consider reading it."

What Happens Next
The New York City mayoral election takes place on November 4.

I'm not so sure either.

There are a lot of people who are registered Democrats simply because the Democrats just happen to be the majority party These people are Democrats merely because being a registered Democrat enables them to vote in the primary elections that are most likely to matter. These people would be just as happy -- maybe even happier -- being Republicans, if only the Republicans just happened to be the majority party.

There are even some (probably many, I would hazard a guess) organized Democratic clubs whose members are primarily DINOs, and who are members of the club solely because it gives them opportunities to lobby their local New York State Assembly member. (The Democratic clubs in Queens are, or at least were in 2016-2017, organized by State Assembly district.)

I attended some meetings of such a Democratic club back in 2016-2017 and was shocked by the rather extreme right wing sentiments expressed by some of the people there, including a former City Council member.

So indeed it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of Cuomo's voters end up voting Republican in the general election.

People who want Socialism are going to end those words when people stuff are getting stolen and stores are being looted in mass numbers.

am hoping this guy runs for President and the remaining real humans vote for him. And maybe even finally jails Rump for his felonies....bad night tonight.

He is not qualified to ever run for the White House

There are multiple reasons why the "bad old days" or "New York's Nadar" occurred,

Robert Moses was known as the master builder. He built highways that broke up neighborhoods.

Around the same time, William Levitt filled a need, the lack of housing for returning WWII by building a prefab suburb called Levittown, which had clauses banning blacks. This became the prototype for suburbia and resulted in "white flight".

In 1965, New Yorkers elected John Lindsey. He was the stereotypical wealthy person who feels that they should use their wealth and privilege to help the less fortunate, figures that throwing money at problems would solve them, and is clueless about the people they are trying to help. Unlike the South, welfare and other social benefits greatly increased during the Lindsey years. Naturally, a lot of southern blacks in order to escape minuscule benefits and segregation, migrated to New York. I have found no evidence that the conventional wisdom that Lindsey invited them happened, but I have found no evidence that he discouraged it either.

The sudden influx of people created problems with social cohesion and finances. Paying for all these benefits became a Ponzi scheme, paying off the debt by incurring more debt. Somehow, with Nelson Rockefeller of the Rockefeller family being governor, nobody batted an eyelash. When the Rockefeller administration ended, the banks called in their debts. NYC came within hours of default, which President Ford and the American public were glad to let happen. But Ford was told that a New York default would mess up the world's finances. Long story short, the elected government lost control of its finances to an "Emergency Control Board" of bankers and elites that imposed austerity. In austerity, the first thing to get slashed is infrastructure and basic maintenance. When an area looks bad, bad things happen. New York's population dropped by almost a million during the 1970s.

The above is very oversimplified and misses context and important events. But what it does show is generous government spending, ie, socialism was one of many factors leading to the bad old days.

It seems like a stretch to blame socialism as the root cause, or even among the root causes.

Overspending and poorly implemented social spending aren't synonymous with socialism and from the sounds of things, the social programs weren't out of line with the sorts liberals pursued in other places. It can only be blamed on socialism if one accepts the notion that social spending is inherently socialist, which doesn't withstand scrutiny.