Subterms
<!–> [–> <!–> [–> Zohran Mamdani 43.5% Andrew Cuomo 36.4% <!–> –> <!–> [–> <!–>StatenIsland–> <!–> –> <!–> –> <!–> –><!–> [–><!–>Zohran Mamdani, an upstart state assemblyman from Queens, was on the brink of winning Tuesday’s Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. While results were not yet final, Mr. Mamdani leaped ahead of […] More
Here are some of the factors that drove Zohran Mamdani to the cusp of a seismic upset, and how they will affect the general election in November.Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman who campaigned relentlessly against New York’s spiraling affordability crisis, was on the verge of a seismic upset in the Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday, powered by a diverse coalition from brownstone Brooklyn to the immigrant enclaves of Queens.The result was not final. But Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, declared victory, and Andrew M. Cuomo, his rival and the former governor, conceded defeat.Mr. Mamdani’s success in one of the first major Democratic primaries since President Trump returned to the White House reverberated across the country and offered a potential road map for Democrats searching for a path back to power. The Democratic primary winner would typically be considered the front-runner in November’s general election. Yet this fall’s contest promises to be unusually volatile. It will include Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Mr. Cuomo also still has the option of running on a third-party ballot line, though he has not committed to continuing his campaign.Here are five takeaways from the primary:Mamdani’s exuberant optimism attracted disaffected New Yorkers.Mr. Mamdani, with supporters and Councilwoman Carmen De La Rosa, far right, won over voters with his energetic and charismatic style.Shuran Huang for The New York TimesMr. Mamdani, a third-term lawmaker from Queens, entered the race last fall with a thin résumé, virtually no citywide profile and views well to the left of many Democrats. He ended Tuesday as a breakout national figure.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and democratic socialist, had a commanding lead over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who conceded in the Democratic primary. Zohran Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker whose progressive platform and campaign trail charisma electrified younger voters, stunned former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, building a lead so commanding that Mr. Cuomo conceded.Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist from Queens, tapped into a current of anxiety around New York City’s growing affordability crisis. His joyful campaign brought new voters into the fold who rejected the scandal-scarred Mr. Cuomo’s ominous characterizations of the city and embraced an economic platform that included everything from free bus service and child care to publicly owned grocery stores.The outcome was not official, and even assuming Mr. Mamdani gains the nomination, he faces an unusually competitive general election in November.Still, Mr. Mamdani declared victory at a rally early Wednesday in Queens, pledging to be a “mayor for every New Yorker” and framing his win as part of a movement powered by volunteers.“Tonight we made history,” he said. “In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done. My friends, we have done it.”The decisiveness of New Yorkers’ swing toward Mr. Mamdani reverberated across the party and the country, at a time when Democrats nationally are searching for an answer to President Trump and are disillusioned with their own leaders.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
On Tuesday night, Zohran Mamdani shocked the political establishment. There are lessons that national Democrats should take from his strong showing in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. But I worry they won’t. Democrats have a curiosity problem, and it’s losing us elections.After Bernie Sanders mounted a formidable challenge to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary, precious few Democratic leaders asked what they could learn from it. Two years later, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came out of nowhere to defeat the No. 4-ranking Democrat in the House. They again dismissed it as a fluke.The party establishment’s impulse to stifle and ignore some of its most exciting emerging voices isn’t limited to progressives. Take Chris Deluzio in Pennsylvania or Pat Ryan in New York. While decidedly more moderate than Mr. Mamdani, both congressmen campaigned last fall on bringing down costs for people in their swing districts and taking on huge corporations and billionaires, a strategy Mr. Ryan described as “patriotic populism.” Even though it won them both races, Washington Democrats have been hesitant to embrace that strategy.I saw similar complacency last year while advising Ruben Gallego’s successful Senate campaign in Arizona. Although Mr. Gallego was the only Democratic candidate in the race, we struggled to get buy-in early on from the Washington Democratic establishment. It saw his blunt-spoken style as too risky for Arizona. He went on to outperform Kamala Harris by eight points.If Democratic leaders don’t start asking themselves how these candidates won, and what they can learn from their success, we’ll be doomed to fail in the future.Since their losses last fall, Democrats have obsessed over how to reverse their declining fortunes. By and large, the consensus has been that we need candidates with a sharp economic argument that can connect with young people, men, voters of color and the working class.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
The emergence of Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is likely to divide national Democrats, who are already torn about what the party should stand for.The national Democratic establishment on Tuesday night struggled to absorb the startling ascent of a democratic socialist in New York City who embraced a progressive economic agenda and diverged from the party’s dominant position on the Middle East.As elections go, Tuesday’s party primary for mayor was a thunderbolt: New York voters turned away from a well-funded familiar face and famous name, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and in doing so made a generational and ideological break with the party’s mainstream. They turned to a 33-year-old, three-term state assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani, who ran on an optimistic message about affordability and the rising cost of living that has eluded many national Democrats.What became vividly clear on Tuesday, as votes were counted across the racially and economically diverse neighborhoods of New York, was that Mr. Mamdani had generated excitement among some — though not all — of the traditional pillars of winning Democratic voter coalitions.Democratic leaders badly want to win over young voters and minority groups in the coming 2026 and 2028 elections — two groups they have struggled to mobilize since the Obama era — but they also need moderate Democrats and independents who often recoil from far-left positions.“It really represents the excitement that I saw on the streets all throughout the City of New York,” said Letitia James, the New York attorney general. “I haven’t seen this since Barack Obama ran for president of these United States.”That Mr. Mamdani had such success while running on a far-left agenda, including positions that once were politically risky in New York — like describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide and calling for new taxes on business — may challenge the boundaries of party orthodoxy and unnerve national Democratic leaders.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
The shape of the mayor’s race in November and the future of Andrew M. Cuomo are now in flux after Zohran Mamdani’s performance on Tuesday.For months, Andrew M. Cuomo insisted he would be on this fall’s general election ballot for mayor of New York City, no matter what — even saying so as recently as Tuesday morning.But after conceding the Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday night to Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist assemblyman from Queens, Mr. Cuomo’s path forward is no longer as clear.Mr. Cuomo told The New York Times in a phone call shortly after his concession speech that he was still considering whether to run in the general election on an independent line.“I said he won the primary election,” Mr. Cuomo said, referring to Mr. Mamdani. “I said I wanted to look at the numbers and the ranked-choice voting to decide about what to do in the future, because I’m also on an independent line. And that’s the decision, that’s what I was saying. I want to analyze and talk to some colleagues.”In March, after months of equivocation, Mr. Cuomo, 67, announced he would run in the Democratic primary for mayor. From the start, he cast himself as the lone adult with the requisite competence and experience to manage a city that was spiraling out of control. He pointed to his 10-plus years as governor, when he helped legalize same-sex marriage and build the new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.But Mr. Cuomo ran what was widely considered a joyless and lackluster campaign, largely limiting his appearances to Black churches, synagogues and union halls, and rarely engaging in the kind of retail politics and ground game necessary to win a heavily contested election.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
Celebrities like Lorde, Emily Ratajkowski, Cynthia Nixon and Bowen Yang have expressed support for Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, whose insurgent candidacy in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary was defined in part by an adept use of social media, has received a veritable buffet of endorsements in the race’s final days from celebrities with large online followings.The latest nod came from Emily Ratajkowski, a model and actress with more than 29 million followers on Instagram, who posted a video Tuesday with Mr. Mamdani. Wearing a “Hot Girls For Zohran” shirt, Ms. Ratajkowski, a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders, reminded New Yorkers of the tight margins that decided the last Democratic primary, in 2021. She added that younger voters would be pivotal in Tuesday’s outcome and encouraged her New York City followers to go to the polls“We know it’s hot, but the time is now,” she said.Like Mr. Sanders, who recently endorsed him, Mr. Mamdani has benefited from being perceived as the candidate of New York’s cool kids, who have embraced his message that government must urgently address the city’s affordability crisis. The backing of stars like the pop star Lorde and the “Saturday Night Live” cast members Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang has excited Mr. Mamdani’s supporters as the candidate has surged to a close second place in the polls behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a moderate.On Tuesday, Ms. Sherman participated in a phone bank for Mr. Mamdani along with Cynthia Nixon, the actress and former candidate for New York governor. Ms. Nixon has held fund-raisers for Mr. Mamdani and has regularly slammed Mr. Cuomo, whom she ran against in 2018.Other high-profile figures who have backed Mr. Mamdani include the singer Maggie Rogers, the actress and activist Laverne Cox, the comedian John Early and the leftist podcaster Stavros Halkias, who lives in Astoria, Queens, which is part of Mr. Mamdani’s Assembly district.Whether these endorsements will translate to votes is unclear. At the very least, they serve as a stark reminder of the generational divide that has played out in the race, as Mr. Mamdani, 33, has fired up young progressives while Mr. Cuomo, 67, seeks to hold onto the support of older voters. Several notable older New Yorkers have backed Mr. Cuomo, including the former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the singer Billy Joel and the fashion designers Michael Kors and Tory Burch. More
The candidates have struck alliances and made cross-endorsements to take advantage of the ranked-choice voting system.This year’s Democratic primary will be only the second time New York City has used ranked-choice voting — which allows voters to list up to five candidates on their ballots in order of preference — to select a nominee for mayor.The campaigns have worked hard to educate voters about how to make the most of their rankings, and some candidates have struck alliances to improve their chances of winning.A critical partnership emerged the day before early voting began this month when two progressive candidates — Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker, and Brad Lander, the city comptroller — cross-endorsed each other in an effort to beat the front-runner, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.The two candidates’ hope is that if most of their supporters rank them in the top two spots on their ballots — and leave Mr. Cuomo off — they can combine their share of the vote and overtake Mr. Cuomo.Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist who is not working on any of the mayoral campaigns, said that it was a smart move by Mr. Mamdani, who has been second in the polls and catching up to Mr. Cuomo.“Given how close the polls are, and the likelihood that Lander will be the last candidate eliminated before the Cuomo-Zohran climax, the X-factor is how overwhelmingly Lander’s votes go to Zohran,” he said.If 65 to 70 percent of Mr. Lander’s votes go to Mr. Mamdani, “then we might have our first Muslim, socialist mayor,” Mr. Yang said.Under the ranked-choice system, if a voter’s top choice is eliminated, their vote is transferred to the next candidate on their ballot, and so on.Before the city began using ranked-choice voting in citywide elections in the 2021 primary, New Yorkers would cast their votes for only one candidate. If no candidate received more than 40 percent of the vote, the top two finishers would go to a runoff. The ranked-choice system amounts to an instant runoff.Mr. Cuomo led in the polls for months, but Mr. Mamdani has generated momentum and the race narrowed considerably. Mr. Cuomo has struck his own alliances, but has not made a cross-endorsement with another candidate.Mr. Cuomo was endorsed by Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who is running for mayor and who had reservations about Mr. Mamdani. Another candidate, Whitney Tilson, a hedge fund executive, also opposes Mr. Mamdani and said he would rank Mr. Cuomo second on his ballot.The left-leaning Working Families Party endorsed a slate of four candidates, including Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Lander, and held a rally on Sunday to show unity against Mr. Cuomo.Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who is part of the slate, said she supported the group, but chose not to make a cross-endorsement with Mr. Mamdani.Mr. Mamdani and Michael Blake, a former state lawmaker from the Bronx, also cross-endorsed each other. Mr. Blake has trailed the others in polls, but had a strong debate performance. More
