Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and state lawmaker, is on track to win the Democratic primary for New York City’s next mayor, marking a major upheaval of the city’s political landscape with all eyes on the future of the fractured party.
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo — widely considered a front-runner against a field of progressive candidates who urged supporters to keep him off their ballots — called Mamdani to concede Tuesday night.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said in remarks to supporters. “Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”
Mamdani’s campaign — fueled by a groundswell of grassroots support that stretched across the boroughs — had “inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote,” Cuomo said.
“He really ran a highly impactful campaign,” he said.
Mamdani received 43.5 percent of first-place votes in the city’s ranked-choice voting system to Cuomo’s 36.3 percent, according to early results from the New York City Board of Elections on election night.
The board will continue tallying votes from ranked-choice ballots, which allows New Yorkers to pick up to five candidates in order of preference, with votes for lower-ranked candidates adding to top choices in subsequent counts. The system is designed to avoid a runoff election by having voters rank their top five candidates for citywide races.
Cuomo has said that, if he loses the primary, he will, much like current Mayor Eric Adams, run as an independent in November’s general election.
A poll released on Monday by Emerson College showed Cuomo leading with 35 percent on election night, followed by Mamdani at 32 percent, and New York City comptroller Brad Lander at 13 percent.
But in a simulation of the city’s ranked-choice voting system, Mamdani came out on top throughout eight rounds, with 52 percent to Cuomo’s 48 percent.
Unlike Cuomo, Mamdani worked alongside other Democratic challengers, including cross-endorsing with Lander, urging voters against ranking Cuomo at all.
Cuomo, who was pulling ahead in public opinion surveys in weeks leading up to the race, was powered by a multi-million dollar political action campaign that flooded mailboxes and the airwaves with anti-Mamdani advertisements.
Mamdani, meanwhile, relentlessly focused a campaign around affordability, including pledging to freeze rent in tens of thousands of rent-controlled apartment units, boosting taxes on the wealthiest residents to fund free buses, and create city-owned grocery stores to avoid a growing cost of living crisis in one of the country’s most expensive places to live.
His social media savvy campaign included more than 50,000 volunteers who canvassed across the city.
If elected, Mamdani would also be the New York’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor.
This is a developing story
