The Democratic Party's Zohran Mamdani handily defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa and Trump favorite Andrew Cuomo in today's New York City mayoral election. With most of the votes counted, Mamdani had about 50% of the total, with Cuomo on 41% and Sliwa on 9%.
It's the second time in five months that Mandani, 34, made a meal of Cuomo, having beaten him likewise in the party's primary election.
The victory caps a meteoric rise through New York politics for Mamdani since he launched his campaign roughly one year ago, transforming him from a virtually unknown state assemblyman who barely registered in polling to the incoming leader of America's largest city. … Now a nationally known political figure, Mamdani will attempt to enact the sweeping policy platform that inspired his supporters while managing an enormous municipal bureaucracy — and influencing national politics, as one of the most prominent democratic socialists and Democrats in the country. Among other goals, Mamdani wants to freeze rent on rent-stabilized units, enact universal child care, create a free bus program and launch city-run grocery stores.
Exit polling found Mamdani won with every racial demographic; his overwhelming popularity with young voters, attracted by his affordability message, made the margin of victory. He will be the first Muslim mayor of New York City (see also: London's Sir Sadiq Khan, now in his ninth year of office) but not its first socialist.
