Elections, Mayors

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares93 Views

      in Elections

      As Donors Work Against Mamdani, Top Democrats Stop Short of Backing Him

      by

      After Zohran Mamdani’s performance in the New York City mayoral primary, Republicans and suburban Democrats attacked him, and party leaders seemed to be hedging their bets.The day after Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani rocked the nation’s largest city by becoming the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee, New York’s political leaders declined to formally endorse him, and some donors to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo considered coalescing behind Mayor Eric Adams.In an interview, Scott Rechler, one of the city’s biggest landlords, said that in a general election race between Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, and Mr. Adams, he would put his support and potentially his financial resources behind the scandal-tarred incumbent.Mr. Rechler, who donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Mr. Cuomo, expressed hope that the former governor and Mr. Adams, who is running in the general election as an independent, would not split the centrist vote.“You want to have leadership that speaks to what New York is,” Mr. Rechler said. “It’s the capital of capitalism.”Mr. Cuomo, who for months led in Democratic primary polls, continued on Wednesday to leave open the possibility that he would run in November on a third-party line. Polls and conventional political wisdom suggest that such a move would only enhance Mr. Mamdani’s chances, at the expense of Mr. Adams.Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and supporter of President Trump who donated $500,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s super PAC, said on social media that he also “may ultimately support and endorse” Mr. Adams.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

    • 163 Shares60 Views

      in Elections

      Zohran Mamdani Reflects on His NYC Mayoral Run So Far in Post-Primary Interview

      by

      The foundation for Zohran Mamdani’s upstart bid to become a democratic socialist mayor of New York City began, oddly, with his borrowing a campaign strategy from President Trump.In November, Mr. Mamdani set out for parts of the city that had supported Mr. Trump to find out why. The answer was affordability. Mr. Trump had promised to deliver it, and for many New Yorkers, that was enough.Mr. Mamdani said he learned a lesson. He committed to a promise to make the city more affordable, adopting a campaign vow that he said Mr. Trump has shown no interest in keeping.“Both Donald Trump and our campaign can see the disillusionment in politics, the inability for so many to celebrate crumbs that cannot feed themselves and their families,” Mr. Mamdani said in an interview on Wednesday after he became the likely winner of the Democratic primary.“The difference is that Trump seeks to exploit this sentiment with no actual desire to address it,” he added.In Mr. Mamdani’s meteoric rise from unknown state lawmaker to potential mayor, he managed to maintain his message discipline on affordability. Make buses free, freeze the rent, offer free universal child care.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

    • 113 Shares71 Views

      in Elections

      A Look at Zohran Mamdani’s Stances on Key Issues

      by

      The state assemblyman ran a campaign tightly focused on issues related to affordability. Here is a look at where he stands on those issues and others.In a crowded Democratic primary for mayor of New York City that featured a former governor, seasoned candidates from past mayoral elections and an alumnus of the Obama White House, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani set himself apart early despite his lack of name recognition.He did it largely by connecting with younger voters, producing sleek, engaging campaign ads on social media and beating the drum about the need to make life in New York more affordable. This narrow focus on a single, salient issue drove Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, which his main rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, described as “highly impactful” as he conceded the race on Tuesday night.In his victory speech, Mr. Mamdani hammered home his message one last time, attributing his success to New Yorkers who had voted for “a city where they can do more than just struggle.”As Mr. Mamdani looks poised to secure the Democratic nomination and attention turns to the general election, here’s what to know about where he stands on key issues.Affordability“Every politician says New York is the greatest city on the globe,” Mr. Mamdani said in his first campaign ad, released eight months ago. “But what good is that if no one can afford to live here?”So began a campaign tightly focused on the cost-of-living crisis plaguing the city. His platform, detailed on his campaign website, was simple: “New York is too expensive. Zohran will lower costs and make life easier.”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

    • 125 Shares87 Views

      in Elections

      Is Mamdani Really a Gift to Trump and the G.O.P.?

      by

      Republicans have gleefully seized on Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a fresh boogeyman. The reality could be more complicated.The votes were still being tallied last night when Representative Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican, sought to blame a potential political rival for Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s all-but-official upset victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.“Make no mistake, it is BECAUSE OF Kathy Hochul and the NY Democrat Party’s inept weakness and sheer incompetence that this has happened,” Stefanik wrote on X, referring to Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.Never mind that Hochul didn’t so much as endorse Mamdani. Stefanik, who is contemplating a run for governor next year after President Trump pulled her nomination to be his United Nations ambassador, saw an obvious target.So has much of her party.In the hours since Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, opened up a healthy lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the first round of the city’s ranked-choice voting, Republicans have gleefully seized on a fresh new boogeyman for 2025. They’ve denigrated Mamdani’s age, his criticism of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians, and his progressive politics. Some on the right have directly vilified his Muslim faith.“We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” the president wrote on his social media site a few hours into his flight from Amsterdam to Washington today, adding that Mamdani “looks TERRIBLE.”Representative Mike Lawler, a moderate Republican from the Hudson Valley, said New York Democrats would “pay the price for this insanity.” The National Republican Congressional Committee called Mamdani “proudly antisemitic” — a charge he has forcefully rejected — and demanded that moderate Democrats like Representatives Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen of New York say whether or not they support him.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

    • 138 Shares65 Views

      in Elections

      Young Muslim Voters in NYC Loved Zohran Mamdani. Their Parents Listened.

      by

      Many Muslim Americans in New York City were impressed by Mr. Mamdani’s campaign and thrilled at being able to see themselves reflected in a mayoral candidate.It was late in the afternoon on Tuesday, and Bilquees Akhtar was still at work as an assistant to the principal of EPIC High School North in Richmond Hill, Queens. Suddenly her phone exploded with text messages and DMs on Instagram and TikTok from her five adult children. Each of them had already cast a vote for Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.“MOM, WHY ARE YOU STILL AT WORK?” Ms. Akhtar’s 24-year-old son, Humza Mehfuz, wrote to her. “YOU HAVE TO VOTE!”While Ms. Akhtar had previously supported Mr. Mamdani’s main opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo, when he ran for governor and, years before that, had voted for his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, she told her children to calm down. After their relentless campaign of showing her TikTok videos of Mr. Mamdani — “This kid is brilliant,” she had to admit, “and so friendly!” — she had made her decision.“All of Cuomo’s ads tried to make Mamdani look like a terrorist,” said Ms. Akhtar, 56. “But he’s a New Yorker like me.”Bilquees Akhtar lives in Richmond Hill, a neighborhood in Queens that went heavily for Zohran Mamdani.Donavon Smallwood for The New York TimesBy Wednesday, Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, had won 43 percent of votes counted, all but clinching perhaps the greatest political upset in New York City politics in a generation. (The final tally is not expected to be completed until next week, but Mr. Cuomo conceded the race on Tuesday night.) If Mr. Mamdani were to win the general election this fall, he would be the first Muslim mayor in the history of New York, and also the first mayor of South Asian descent.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

    • 138 Shares93 Views

      in Elections

      Polls Underestimated Mamdani. Here’s Why It’s So Hard to Poll Primaries.

      by

      Accurately gauging support in primaries can be notoriously difficult. Pollsters face multiple challenges.Polls largely underestimated Zohran Mamdani’s support in the Democratic primary for the New York City mayor, illustrating once again just how difficult it can be to accurately poll primary elections.When polling general elections, pollsters are helped by the fact that increasing polarization has led Americans to sort neatly into their political camps, with more than 90 percent of partisans supporting their party’s candidate. But in primary elections, partisanship no longer factors into voters’ decisions in the same way. Voters’ preferences are more fluid in partisan primaries and more difficult to track over time.Primaries also tend to be much more volatile than general elections, making the timeliness of a poll more relevant. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, nearly every Republican contender in the field took a turn as the front-runner in the polls before Donald J. Trump ultimately pulled ahead. And in the 2020 Democratic primary, Elizabeth Warren, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Bernie Sanders ping-ponged in the polls.The New York City mayoral primary presents an additional challenge because of its use of ranked-choice voting. Pollsters took different approaches to try to mirror the process, but it is challenging to accurately simulate what voters actually experience at the ballot box.While most polls did not show Mr. Mamdani leading in the first round of balloting, they did appear to show him gaining support in the final weeks of the campaign.Polls in March and April of this year showed former Governor Andrew Cuomo ahead by 20 to 30 percentage points. Surveys conducted in May and June showed Mr. Mamdani cutting that lead down, often to single digits. And an Emerson College poll taken within a week of the election found Mr. Mamdani neck and neck in the first round and winning in the final round of voting. More

    • 125 Shares105 Views

      in Elections

      How NYC Neighborhoods Voted in the 2025 Mayoral Primary: Map

      by

      <!–> [–> <!–> [–> 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

    • 113 Shares58 Views

      in Elections

      Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s Wife, Is Thrust Into the Spotlight

      by

      Rama Duwaji, a 27-year-old animator and illustrator, married the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor this winter.Zohran Mamdani stood before a cheering crowd late Tuesday night at a Long Island City bar, his victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City all but guaranteed. His wife, Rama Duwaji, stood at his side, smiling, as he concluded his speech.Many already knew Ms. Duwaji, 27, from the wedding photos that Mr. Mamdani posted to Instagram last month, showing the couple holding hands on the subway and in the streets of downtown Manhattan.Ms. Duwaji is an animator and illustrator whose designs have appeared in The New Yorker, the BBC and The Washington Post, according to her portfolio website. She is ethnically Syrian and was born in Texas, a campaign spokeswoman said, and she holds a master’s degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York.Mr. Mamdani, 33, a state assemblyman from Queens, charmed younger New Yorkers throughout his campaign with his videos on social media, in which he speaks Spanish over a plate of sweet plantains, breaks down “halal-flation” while eating chicken over rice at a food cart and poses with celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski and Laverne Cox.Ms. Duwaji has an active social media presence, too, showcasing her work on Instagram to more than 70,000 followers (a number that has grown since Mr. Mamdani surged ahead in the primary). Many of her designs portray Middle Eastern life and champion social justice issues. Like her husband, she is a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.Ms. Duwaji was not seen publicly throughout much of Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, prompting his critics to ask on X if he was “hiding” his wife. Mr. Mamdani pushed back in the May Instagram post showing off their wedding photos, declaring that he and Ms. Duwaji had married three months before.“Rama isn’t just my wife; she’s an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms,” Mr. Mamdani said.The couple married in a civil ceremony at the New York City Clerk’s Office. Kara McCurdy“Omg she’s real,” Ms. Duwaji joked in a comment on the post.Theirs was a Hinge success story. Speaking last week on a podcast from The Bulwark, Mr. Mamdani said there was “still hope in those dating apps.”The couple married this winter in a civil ceremony at the New York City Clerk’s Office. Separately, they held an engagement party and a Muslim wedding ceremony known as a nikkah in Dubai, where Ms. Duwaji’s family lives.Early on Tuesday, before the election results had come in and while her husband was still canvassing across the city, Ms. Duwaji posted a carousel of images on Instagram that included a black-and-white photo strip of the two of them, a voter registration form tucked into a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a picture of Mr. Mamdani as a child.“Couldn’t possibly be prouder,” she captioned the post. More