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    Ranked-Choice Voting Helped Mamdani Score a Decisive Primary Win

    <!–> [–><!–>The Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in June was the second major election in which the city used ranked-choice voting. The results show that voters and campaigns are becoming more sophisticated in how they use the system.–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>The race had two clear front-runners, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew […] More

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    NYC Election Map: How Mamdani’s Ranked-Choice Strategy Beat Cuomo

    <!–> –><!–> [–><!–>The results certified this week from New York City’s mayoral primary election provide the clearest picture yet — down to each voter’s ranked-choice ballot — of how Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani pulled off a major upset over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Here’s what the ballots show.–><!–> –><!–> –>A majority of voters didn’t rank […] More

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    Italian Americans, for and Against Mamdani, Square Off in New York

    Feelings ran high at a colorful protest outside the Assembly district office of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee.For a political protest, especially in the dead of July in New York City, the colorful demonstration on Monday outside of Zohran Mamdani’s Assembly district office in Queens had it all.On one side, some members of an Italian American affinity group — which had taken offense at a recently resurfaced social media photo from 2020 showing Mr. Mamdani giving the middle finger to a Columbus statue — spoke of their umbrage, often in colorful terms.They vowed to fight Mr. Mamdani’s bid to become mayor. Some pledged their allegiance to Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate in November’s general election. One held a sign that was less committal, but just as dismissive. “Anyone but Communist Mamdani,” it said.Across the street, counterprotesters, many also Italian Americans, amassed. Some wore pins from Mr. Mamdani’s successful Democratic primary campaign (one woman wore a “Hot Italians for Zohran” shirt), and held up signs like “Fast + Free Buses for Nonna!”, “Paisans for Zohran!” and “You Eat Jar Sauce!”The two groups steadily held their ground, about a dozen cops between them, until the arrival of an infamous interloper — a performance artist known as Crackhead Barney — seemed to reignite the fury of the anti-Mamdani group.Yet for all of the event’s circuslike pageantry, it made no direct impression on Mr. Mamdani. He was more than 7,000 miles away, taking a vacation from the campaign trail in Uganda, where he was born.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

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    Mamdani Travels to Uganda in Break From Mayoral Campaign

    Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, said that he and his wife were going to the African country where he was born to celebrate their recent marriage.Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, said on Sunday that he was visiting Uganda, where he was born, in a break from campaigning for the general election in November.In a video posted on X and Bluesky, Mr. Mamdani said he was making the trip to Africa with his wife, Rama Duwaji, whom he married in February, to celebrate their marriage with family and friends.He left the city during the traditional summer lull in the weeks after the June primary, while, at the same time, his most formidable opponent, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was seeking to strengthen his own run on an independent ballot line with appearances across New York in the aftermath of his surprise defeat by Mr. Mamdani.In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running for re-election as an independent, criticized his opponent for taking a vacation. (Mr. Adams has taken numerous trips abroad before and after becoming mayor, including a weeklong “spiritual journey” to Ghana shortly after his election in 2021.)“At a time when public safety, housing, and education remain top concerns for working New Yorkers, the mayor is here — managing the responsibilities of running the largest city in America,” Mr. Adams said in a prepared statement. “This election is about who’s prepared to lead, not who can rack up the most passport stamps or press headlines. Eric Adams is working. Others are sightseeing.”A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Mamdani’s spokesman, Jeffrey Lerner, said in a statement that the candidate would return to New York before the end of the month “and looks forward to resuming public events and continuing his campaign to make the most expensive city in America affordable.”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

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    Mamdani Won Over N.Y.C. Democratic Voters. Can He Charm Washington?

    National Democrats are grappling with how much to embrace Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a leftist who has become the party’s standard-bearer in America’s largest city.The head of the local Democratic Party in Queens, where Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani got his political start, has never met him. The party’s longtime state chairman had not spoken to him until the day after a stunning primary night that stamped him as a rising Democratic star.And among the party’s strategists, officials and elected leaders in Washington, he’s almost entirely unknown.Now, as the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Mr. Mamdani, 33, is on a crash course to change that. He is unleashing a full-scale charm offensive of private meetings, phone calls and public promises aimed at wooing top party leaders, donors and activists.On Monday, he met with Jewish elected officials in New York City. The next day, he took pointed questions about his views on Israel and tax policy from a group of 150 business leaders in the city.A day later, he headed to Capitol Hill to offer campaign advice to dozens of Democratic members of Congress at a breakfast hosted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York before returning to Manhattan for a private meeting with younger technology executives. And on Friday, he met with Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader and a fellow New Yorker who has yet to endorse his bid.Already, some establishment Democrats have been grappling with Mr. Mamdani’s sudden standing as their party’s standard-bearer in America’s most populous city. And they want to quickly get the measure of a man who has spent much of his political life far outside of their big tent.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

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    How a Sequoia Capital Partner’s Mamdani Posts Dragged the Firm Into Politics

    Sequoia Capital, which backed Nvidia, Google and Apple when they were start-ups, has long stayed above the fray. But one partner’s post about Zohran Mamdani set off a chain reaction.Roelof Botha arrived last week at the annual Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, to meet and mingle with tech and media moguls. A controversy brewing back home followed him to the exclusive retreat.Mr. Botha, the managing partner of Sequoia Capital, a storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm, was repeatedly asked at the event about a colleague, Shaun Maguire, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Maguire — perhaps Sequoia’s most outspoken partner — had posted on X on July 4 that Zohran Mamdani, the progressive Democrat running for New York City mayor, came from a “culture that lies about everything” and was lying to advance “his Islamist agenda.”Mr. Maguire’s post was immediately condemned across social media as Islamophobic. More than 1,000 technologists signed an open letter calling for him to be disciplined. Investors, founders and technologists have sent messages to the firm’s partners about Mr. Maguire’s behavior. His critics have continued pressuring Sequoia to deal with what they see as hate speech and other invective, while his supporters have said Mr. Maguire has the right to free speech.In Sun Valley, Mr. Botha listened, but remained neutral, the people with knowledge of the matter said.Roelof Botha, the managing partner at Sequoia Capital, arriving at the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where people repeatedly asked him about Mr. Maguire. Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersFor half a century, Sequoia has tried to maintain that neutrality, even as rival venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund started taking political stances. But as Mr. Maguire has increasingly made inflammatory comments, including saying that diversity, equity and inclusion “kills people,” Sequoia is now in a place that its leaders never wanted to be: smack in the middle of the culture wars.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

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    Mamdani Meets Jeffries in Brooklyn as He Seeks to Expand His Coalition

    No endorsement emerged from the meeting between Zohran Mamdani and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, but both said the gathering had been productive.In the weeks since Zohran Mamdani decisively won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, many elected officials and prominent unions have become converts, embracing his viral messaging about making the city more affordable.But some leaders, like Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, have been more cautious, praising Mr. Mamdani but still needing some persuasion. On Friday, Mr. Mamdani began making inroads on his persuasion tour, meeting for an hour with Mr. Jeffries in his Brooklyn congressional district in East New York in an effort to get to know him better.There was no endorsement announcement after the meeting, but both leaders spoke positively afterward.The meeting was “constructive, candid and community-centered, with a particular focus on affordability,” said Justin Chermol, a spokesman for Mr. Jeffries.The men discussed public safety, antisemitism, gentrification and efforts by Democrats to take back control of the House next year, and they “agreed to reconvene shortly” with other leaders, including other members of the New York City congressional delegation, Mr. Chermol said.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

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    NY Agrees to Settle Ex-Cuomo Aide’s Harassment Claims for $450,000

    The former executive aide, Brittany Commisso, accused Andrew M. Cuomo of groping her when he was governor. The state did not admit wrongdoing.New York State has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle claims from a woman who accused Andrew M. Cuomo of groping her in 2020, when he was the governor and she was an executive aide, according to a settlement document reviewed by The New York Times.The settlement, with Brittany Commisso, is the second one the state has made this year in connection with Mr. Cuomo’s treatment of women while in office. Mr. Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid accusations he harassed 11 women, including Ms. Commisso. He is now running for mayor of New York City.Under the terms of the agreement, which will need a judge’s approval, Ms. Commisso would drop all claims against the state, including an accusation that she was retaliated against after coming forward about her experience. She also agreed not to seek employment with the executive chamber through 2030. The deal does not include any admission of wrongdoing on the part of the state or Mr. Cuomo.Mariann Wang, a lawyer for Ms. Commisso, called the settlement “a complete vindication of her claims.”It is a blow to the former governor, who has been trying to reinvent himself as a friendly and trustworthy figure as he struggles to mount a political comeback. A representative for Mr. Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said that the state had agreed to settle the suit over Mr. Cuomo’s objections.This week, Mr. Cuomo announced that he would continue his bid for mayor as an independent after losing the Democratic nomination to Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist from Queens.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