Mamdani becomes New York’s youngest ever mayor

Zohran Mamdani, 34, is set to become the youngest mayor of New York City since 1892, the first of Indian background, the first Muslim and the first born in Africa. A state assembly member, he took on Democrat party heavyweights, ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, and Republican talk show host Curtis Silwa, 71. Mamdani won without the backing of mainstream Democrats, bags of money and widespread name recognition. Unlike his rivals, Mamdani ran for a major office unburdened with the negative baggage carried by predecessors. This was a major advantage as he could promise to honour campaign pledges without being blamed for failing to deliver as is the case of many politicians repeatedly running for office.

Mamdani previously worked as a foreclosure prevention and housing counsellor to lower-income immigrant homeowners in Queens who were faced with eviction notices. His job was to help them to remain in their homes. He said the experience motivated him to stand for office to address the housing crisis. He has focused on bread-and-butter issues by promising to improve living conditions by providing affordable housing and food and called for an increase in the minimum wage to $30 an hour.

"It means to not just diagnose the despair in working people's lives as the cost-of-living crisis, but to deliver on it," Mamdani said. "And that's the contrast between myself and President (Donald) Trump." Mamdani called himself a "democratic socialist" despite the fact that US citizens in the hinterland regard the term "socialist" with fear and disdain. While his ethnicity reflects the diversity of Democratic party supporters, Mamdani is young and charismatic and has made good use of social media to reach voters. He has focused on affordability, a core issue for working-class voters in an expensive city by calling for free childcare, additional public transport networks, and regulation of prices of household goods.

His wife Rama Duwaji, 28, is an artist of Syrian descent, was born in Texas and grew up in Dubai. They were married three months before he declared his candidacy which she supported. In January she will become the youngest first lady of New York City.

While Mamdani was electable and elected in largely liberal New York City, major cities in the US south and mid-west would be unlikely to choose such a candidate. From the White House, Trump has portrayed him as a radical and communist, which Mamdani has rejected. Resentful Trump has vowed to withhold federal funds from the city.

Mamdani was elected despite his strong support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel. While in the state assembly, he introduced a bill to end tax-exempt status of New York charities funding Israeli settlements that violate international human rights law. He has said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, is an apartheid state, and that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested if he were to visit New York City. Israel rejects these charges but they are supported by Israeli human rights organisations.

While Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and pledged to increase funding for countering hate crimes, he has said, "I'm not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else, I think that in the way that we have in this country, equality should be enshrined in every country in the world." In response, Israel says all religions have equal rights under the law in that country. His stand is notable in a country where the pro-Israel lobby has been for decades the most powerful of multiple foreign influencers and most politicians have toed the Israeli line. Israeli impunity has, however, diminished considerably since Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu waged his deadly and destructive war on Gaza.

Former President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told the BBC that Mamdani had "changed the electorate" by calling on young people and immigrants to vote. "He most importantly built a movement," Rhodes said.

Mamdani was not the sole Democratic party candidate to win. In Virginia, a former CIA agent was chosen as the state's first female governor and in New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot who criticised Trump and defeated a rival backed by Trump. A backlash against Trump and the Republicans appears to be developing.

These victories should encourage the poorly led and divided Democratic Party to reshape its leadership, recharge, and unite behind a carefully crafted policy ahead of next November's mid-term elections for the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate.

Unfortunately, Mamdani's grassroots triumph has frightened the Democratic party establishment which did not support him in his bid for office while a normally pro-Democrat New York Times editorial urged party members to shift to the centre. To win, the party will have to adopt a two-faced approach: backing moderately progressive Mamdani policy lines in east and west coastal campaigns where liberals predominate while sticking to centrist themes in the more conservative Mid-West and South.