Mad for Mamdani
THE victory was not entirely unexpected but it was historic. For a while, the polls had shown that Zohran Mamdani, the immigrant Muslim of South Asian origin, was leading in the polls for New York City mayor. But it was not entirely guaranteed as pundits predicted that a larger-than-usual turnout of older voters who favoured Andrew Cuomo could cause an upset. That upset never came and on the night of Nov 4, America’s largest city elected a Muslim mayor for the first time.
For Democrats, particularly progressive Democrats, who had balked at their party’s tacit support for the genocide in Gaza, its lack of action over ICE raids, and lack of real solutions to inflation, the victory was a vindication. In Mamdani — against whom more than 20 billionaires put up millions of dollars — they could finally show where the energy of the party lay. Gen Z turned out in droves to support and vote for him. Here, finally after years of centrist fakes favoured by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, was someone who spoke the language of party voters. The margin of his victory shows how wrong the Democratic establishment had been.
The real story is also one of immigrants and of Muslims. New York is the city burdened with the memory of 9/11, which both the Republicans and the Democrats used to start and fund wars everywhere, thus triggering the age of Islamophobia. For over two decades, the memory of 9/11 has been used by politicians in NYC to justify racial profiling and the open targeting of Muslims or even anyone who ‘looks’ like one. Dubious security rationales and unsubstantiated ‘possibilities’ of attacks were used to terrify Muslim men and women. FBI and NYPD agents were sent to infiltrate mosques; Muslims were often coerced into informing on other Muslims even when there was nothing to inform on. Plans to build a mosque were met with vitriolic Islamophobia, including by Jewish-American groups in the city who used 9/11 to institutionalise the marginalisation of Muslims.
This leads to another facet of Mamdani’s win. NYC is the most Jewish city in the world outside of Israel. Many might have thought that in the shadow of the Gaza genocide and Mamdani’s open support for the Palestinians, such a victory was not possible. However, while large numbers in the Jewish community voted against him — exit polls showed Russian Jews had been especially mobilised against Mamdani — a decent number of young American Jews voted for him. Unlike older American Jews, most of whom tend to be Zionists and feel that criticism of Israel is antisemitism, younger American Jews have a more nuanced view.
The real story is also one of immigrants and of Muslims.
This is likely to be very concerning to Israel whose lobby AIPAC funds both Republican and Democratic candidates in the US in exchange for their support. In the mayoral debate for NYC, Mamdani was the only candidate who said he was not interested in taking a trip to Israel and would rather stay in NYC. He was criticised by the other candidates who doubled down on him, but he remained firm. He is also the man who won. This is likely to worry lobbyists who may wonder if politicians realise that Americans are quite exhausted with their politicians supporting Israel while they cannot afford rent or food.
Beyond NYC, Democrats won with big margins, which is being seen as a clear preview of what midterm elections in the US are likely to serve up next year. Voters voted against the Republicans and by default the Trump agenda by notable margins; even lacklustre Democratic candidates managed to win. This is welcome news for everyone in America who has been watching the gutting of the government that has been underway since the beginning of this year. Usually, presidents have a bit more time before the public tires of them. Not so this time.
As for immigrants and Muslims, the news was good from places beyond NYC as well. Virginia elected Indian American Ghazala Hashmi as their first Muslim American woman lieutenant governor; Muslims were elected as mayor of Dearborn, Michigan and Dearborn Heights.
Zohran Mamdani was nine years old when the events of 9/11 happened. His Oscar-nominated filmmaker mother Mira Nair, who is married to the well-known postcolonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani, likely never imagined that the grade schooler, who was a Muslim kid in a city that had begun to grow wary of Muslims overnight, would go on to become the youngest mayor of New York City in 100 years. But miracles do happen and the churn of history means that the outcast can be reborn as a leader in the same lifetime. Zohran Mamdani’s story is a lesson and an inspiration to all those who doubted the possibility of better times.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2025