A Brown, Muslim man with Indian and Ugandan roots, born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, before moving to New York City at the age of 7.
An immigrant.
And now, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City.
A little after midnight on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani walked out onto the rooftop of a restaurant in Long Island City, thronged by a large crowd of supporters and reporters at his watch party. It had been close to two hours since the former governor of New York, household name and front-runner in the mayoral race Andrew M. Cuomo, conceded the primary for the city’s top job and had announced that he had called the 33-year-old New York state assemblyman to congratulate him.
“Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘it always seems impossible until it is done.’ My friends, we have done it,” said Mamdani to rapturous cheers and applause from his supporters. He said New Yorkers had stood up to ask for a city “where the mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trump’s fascism, to stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors.” The crowd of hundreds roared in full-throated support.
Mamdani, whose campaign claimed having more than 36,000 volunteers across the five boroughs, thanked those who canvassed for him. “This is not my victory, this is ours,” he said “It is the victory of the Bangladeshi aunty who knocked on door after door until her feet throbbed and her knuckles ached. It is the victory of the 18-year-old who voted in their first ever election. It is the victory of the Gandhian uncle who finally saw himself and his struggle in a campaign for the city that he calls home.”
Sasha Wijeyeratne, a member of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence and a volunteer on the Mamdani campaign, told Documented amid the cheers, “It’s been a ton of working class [individuals]: immigrants, Black and Brown people, who fought to take their city back, who think that New York City should be affordable, and who threw down with this campaign.” Wijeyeratne added, “It’s Mamdani’s victory tonight and it’s also our victory tonight. We did it.”
In attendance at the watch party were advocates, politicians and faith leaders among several other supporters. John Liu, a Taiwanese American state senator in New York and a former comptroller of the city, weighed in on the critical role that immigrants played in the election. “All the candidates say they support immigrants and immigrant rights, but Zohran is an immigrant, and he understands what families go through, and he’s in the best position to be the mayor of the capital of the world,” said Liu, who had moved to the United States from Taiwan when he was 5 years old.
Also Read: On Election Day, Immigrant Communities Split on Mamdani and Cuomo
In the midst of celebrating Mamdani’s victory at the watch party, Jamaal Bowman, former House Representative from New York, spoke to Documented about the impact a Mamdani mayoralty could have on tackling the immigration challenges facing New York under the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement overdrive. “Because of [Zohran’s] personal experience, he’s going to have tremendous empathy and compassion for immigrants overall. We need to treat people with dignity and respect, and his whole campaign and who he is, is all about that.”
On the campaign trail, Mamdani had spoken up about repeatedly facing anti-Muslim hate, including death threats. He had also accused a super PAC backing Cuomo of “blatant Islamophobia” for artificially lengthening and darkening his beard in a mailer to voters. At a campaign stop, Mamdani had said, “We know that to be Muslim in public life in this city, and in this country, is to face these kinds of responses, to be called a terrorist […].”
Khalid Latif, executive director and chaplain of the Islamic Center of New York City, was also at the watch party. He told Documented, “There are always going to be people who utilize fear as a mechanism to mobilize.” Reflecting on Zohran’s similarities with his own experiences, Latif said, “I’ve had the difficult realities of being detained, profiled, surveilled, in New York City. Those are things that no demographic should have to experience.”
He added, “Zohran’s following is made up of people of all backgrounds and all walks of life and it gives me hope. Our love is always going to triumph over their hate and their bigotry.”
The primary may be over, but this doesn’t mean Mamdani will be mayor. Cuomo may yet run in November with a ticket from the Fight and Deliver Party that he founded to tackle this exact eventuality, a loss in the Democratic primary. Incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, plans to run as an independent. Lastly, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who has been called a long-shot candidate, will be on the ballot in the general election.
But Mamdani will no longer be a David up against a Goliath. The mayoral official tallies will be released on July 1, but it is clear that Mamdani has defied the odds and secured the Democratic party’s nomination last night. He is now poised to be the frontrunner in the general election on November 4, 2025, which will determine whether the city will get its first Muslim immigrant mayor.
“What we’ve built, we intend to keep,” said Wijeyeratne. “So, if Cuomo’s trying to run again in November, he better be ready to come up against this whole entire crew of people. If he thinks he can run again, we’re willing to beat him again.”
