The former emcee-turned-assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, just pulled off the political upset of the year. Mamdani defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, a surprising development that few had seen coming and a victory many are now jubilant over.
Instead, that role fell to the 33-year-old Queens-based politician, best known as Young Cardamom for some cheeky work dropping verses in the East African rap collective Young Cardamom and HAB, who crushed it by hauling in about 44% of the first-choice votes. The Democratic heavyweight for years, Cuomo was in a distant second place with his share of the first-round votes at about 36% and ultimately conceded before all the ranked-choice votes could be counted.
He beamed as he stood before an ecstatic crowd in Astoria. “My friends, we have charted a path to victory,” he declared, through stadium-strength speakers affixed to a dilapidated stage, “and we will be the next Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. It was a full-circle moment for the son of immigrants who once rapped about racism, colonialism, and his Ugandan heritage and who now speaks for a city yearning for a fresh start.
Mamdani did not build his grass-roots campaign through flashy advertisements or political favors. It was constructed brick by brick, mobilized by local organizers, working-class voters, and progressive icons such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His message is a city where people can live, not just survive.
“We’ve won because New Yorkers stood up and decided that instead of a city for the wealthy elite, we are building a city for everyone,” Mamdani said. “A city where they can do better than struggle but achieve prosperity, where those who labor in the darkness can share in the fruits of their labors in the sunshine.”
But his platform, rooted in Democratic Socialist values, focused on radical, kitchen-table issues: fare-free buses, free childcare, and publicly-run grocery stores. The sort of stuff that strikes a note in a city where $4 cups of coffee and $2,000 rent have become all too routine.
“Mamdani ran a great campaign, and he captured the imagination of young people and inspired them and moved them and got them out to vote,” Cuomo conceded. “Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”
It’s not just what Mamdani ran on but how he reached the voters. Before that, he was electrifying rooms in Queens as Mr. Cardamom, combining six languages on a 2016 EP that paid homage to his Ugandan heritage. His 2019 viral track, “Nani,” a loving tribute to his grandmother released with the actress Madhur Jaffrey, demonstrated a flair for storytelling that proved readily adaptable to political life.
The headline he wanted at the end of his term, he said, is: “I will be a mayor for every New Yorker” whether you voted for me, for Governor Cuomo, or felt too disgusted by a long-broken political system even to vote at all.
With Democrats winning the past three NYC mayoral races, Mamdani emerges as the favorite in November’s general election. But win or lose, New York has a new rhythm, and it’s all about Mamdani’s beat.
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