The unique candidate

The Democratic party’s candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani could face three rivals in the November election. In addition to uninspiring Republican candidate Curtis Silwa, two veteran Democrats have declared they are running as independents: incumbent Eric Adams and former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo.

While Adams has fought off federal indictments for bribery, fraud, and seeking illegal foreign campaign donations, Cuomo was compelled to resign in 2021 after 11 women charged him with harassment.

Mamdani is not burdened with such negative baggage and is unique on the US political scene. At 33, he is much younger than his rivals. He is the first South Asian to win a major party primary. As a foreign-born Muslim, Mamdani would be New York’s first Muslim mayor if elected. He is a socialist and has a pro-Palestinian record in politics. He does not shy away from his record. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, of the nine-member “State Socialists in Office” bloc in the in New York assembly and of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. His record appears to be free of corruption.

For decades US citizens have been fearful of socialists who are falsely regarded as Communists and enemies of sacrosanct capitalism. US citizens pay a high price for such beliefs. During the 1950s, the country was plagued by a Communist witch-hunt led by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy. His successors lurk in today’s Republican party ranks and leadership. Erratic, explosive Donald rump calledMamdani a “100 percent Communist lunatic.”

For decades US citizens have rejected sensible federal and state policies on a variety of issues. For example, by refusing as “socialist medicine,” they do not enjoy coverage by a national health system and are forced to rely on insurance companies which exact huge premiums to cover the high costs of expensive medical treatment. To make matters worse, the Trump administration seeks to defund Medicare and Medicaid and there are fears that social security, adopted in 1935, may not be able to meet the needs of pensioners who have paid into the system during their working lives.

After al-Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, there has been widespread suspicion and antagonism towards Muslims. This has been exacerbated and exploited by Trump. During both his terms in office, he sought to ban citizens of majority Muslim states from entering the country by claiming that some might be planning to harm the US.

Mamdani has won the support of young voters by being honest. He refused to renounce his support for the Palestinians and for the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement which seeks to punish Israel for its anti-Palestinian policies and actions. Sociology professor at New York’s City University, Heba Gowayed told Al-Jazeera, “The fact that he refused to back down from his position on Palestine is huge.” Furthermore, she added that he did this in “an atmosphere where we’ve been told that holding that position is politically disqualifying [and] insisted on taking this position.” She remarked, “The old guard personified [by Cuomo] was beaten by a democratic socialist, a young, pro-Palestinian brown Muslim kid who had 1 per cent name recognition as of February. It is phenomenal and remarkable.”

While Mamdani has adopted a pro-Palestinian stand, he has visited Jewish temples and social centres to reassure voters among the 2.1 million Jews in New York City that he intends to serve their interests. In his view, local politics should have nothing to do with the foreign Palestine-Israel conflict. He has been adopted by two influential mainstream Jewish Democrats Chuck Schumer and Jerry Nadler as well as Democrat leftist Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and Independent Bernie Sanders who is also Jewish. The progressive Jews for Racial and Economic Justice declared they were “thrilled” by his nomination.

However, during the campaign, Mamdani encountered racist attacks from New York City councilwoman Vickie Paladino and Congressman Randy Fine, both Republicans. After Mamdani won, conservative Islamophobe Republican Congressman Andy Ogles called for Mamdani to be deported and denaturalised.

On Palestine-Israel, Mamdani stated, “There are millions of New Yorkers who have strong feelings about what happens overseas. Yes, I am one of them. And while I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements.”

Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents and immigrated to the US when he was seven years old but did not become a naturalised US citizen until 2018, presumably, after deciding on a political career. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Africana studies from Bowdoin college and worked as a housing counsellor for non- white homeowners faced with eviction. He was a hip-hop musician before being elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, 2022, and 2024. His work on housing has prompted him to make affordable housing, as well as police reform and prison reform, a major issue in his campaign. He is married to Syrian American artist Rama Duwaji and the couple lives in an apartment in the Astoria neighbourhood.

Mamdani shadowed Cuomo for much of the campaign although once ballots were counted, was ahead by 43.51 per cent to Cuomo’s 36.42 per cent. Although they had raised similar funding, Cuomo relied on traditional “fat cat” donors while Mamdani appealed to a wide range of small contributors whose donations committed them to vote for him. His campaign strategy involved creating a movement, recruiting mainly young volunteers through social media and, ahead of voting day, he asked them to “knock on a million doors.” This is not a new strategy as it was used in 2008 by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Mamdani ‘s primary victory was an upset, an upset for traditional power brokers, for anti-Asian racists, anti-Muslim sectarians, and conservatives. They argued he was not a realist and too inexperienced a politician to manage New York’s huge bureaucracy and deal with the city’s mountain of problems. Nevertheless, New York is a Democrat city and unless he loses votes to Democrat rivals Adams and Cuomo who are running as independents, Mamdani is likely to defeat Republican Silwa in the November election.

Photo: TNS