When he introduced his run for mayor again in October, Zohran Mamdani was a state lawmaker unknown to most New York Metropolis residents.
On Tuesday night, the 33-year-old marked his gorgeous political ascension when he declared victory within the Democratic main from a Queens rooftop bar after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded.
Whereas the race’s final end result has but to be confirmed by a ranked selection rely scheduled for July 1, right here’s a take a look at the one-time rapper looking for to turn out to be town’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor, and its youngest mayor in generations.
Mamdani’s mom is a well-known filmmaker
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian mother and father and have become an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating faculty.
He lived along with his household briefly in Cape City, South Africa, earlier than shifting to New York Metropolis when he was 7.
Mamdani’s mom, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose credit embody “Monsoon Wedding ceremony,” “The Namesake” and “Mississippi Masala.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is an anthropology professor at Columbia College.
Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earlier this 12 months. The couple, who met on the relationship app Hinge, reside within the Astoria part of Queens.
Mamdani was as soon as a fledgling rapper
Mamdani attended the Bronx Excessive Faculty of Science, the place he co-founded the general public faculty’s first cricket staff, based on his legislative bio.
He graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin School in Maine, the place he earned a level in Africana research and co-founded his faculty’s College students for Justice in Palestine chapter.
After faculty, he labored as a foreclosures prevention counselor in Queens serving to residents keep away from eviction, the job he says impressed him to run for public workplace.
Mamdani additionally had a notable aspect hustle within the native hip hop scene, rapping underneath the moniker Younger Cardamom and later Mr. Cardamom. Throughout his first run for state lawmaker, Mamdani gave a nod to his transient foray into music, describing himself as a “B-list rapper.”
“Nani,” a tune he made in 2019 to honor his grandmother, even discovered new life — and a vastly wider viewers — as his mayoral marketing campaign gained momentum. His critics, in the meantime, have seized on lyrics from “Salaam,” his 2017 ode to being Muslim in New York, to argue his views are too excessive for New Yorkers.
Early political profession
Viral marketing campaign movies
Progressive guarantees
Mamdani has supplied a extra optimistic imaginative and prescient, in distinction to candidates like Cuomo, who’ve largely centered on crime and legislation and order points.
His marketing campaign has been filled with huge guarantees geared toward decreasing the price of residing for on a regular basis New Yorkers, from free baby care, free buses, a lease freeze for individuals residing in rent-regulated flats and new inexpensive housing — a lot of it by elevating taxes on the rich.
The large guarantees have, unsurprisingly, endeared him to the Democratic social gathering’s liberal wing.
Mamdani secured endorsements from two of the nation’s foremost progressives, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Professional-Palestinian views
Mamdani’s outspoken assist for Palestinian causes was some extent of pressure within the mayor’s race as Cuomo and different opponents sought to label his defiant criticism of Israel as antisemitic.
The Shia Muslim has known as Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and mentioned the nation ought to exist as “a state with equal rights,” reasonably than a “Jewish state.” That message has resonated amongst pro-Palestinian residents, together with town’s roughly 800,000 adherents of Islam — the biggest Muslim neighborhood within the nation.
Throughout an interview on CBS’s “The Late Present” on the eve of the election, host Stephen Colbert requested Mamdani if he believed the state of Israel had the fitting to exist. He responded: “Sure, like all nations, I imagine it has a proper to exist — and a accountability additionally to uphold worldwide legislation.”
Mamdani’s refusal to sentence calls to “globalize the intifada” on a podcast — a typical chant at pro-Palestinian protests — drew recriminations from Jewish teams and fellow candidates within the days main as much as the election.
In his victory speech Tuesday, he pledged to work intently with those that don’t share his views on controversial points.
“Whereas I can’t abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a requirement for equality, for humanity, for all those that stroll this earth, you may have my phrase to succeed in additional, to know the views of these with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with these disagreements,” Mamdani mentioned.
