Zohran Mamdani: New York's Next Mayor?
The wealthy progressive Muslim anti-Zionist has a realistic possibility of winning
I have not lived in NYC for close to 30 years, but I am interested in what happens there. I like to know that the Yankees are winning more games than losing and that the Mets are doing well, too.
Likewise, as anyone reading my latest book knows, I take more than a cursory interest in the politics and people of New York City and my old neighborhood on the Lower East Side.
The basics about NYC are as follows: The City has a population of about 8 million. A third of its residents are foreign-born. Thanks to illegal immigration — New York is a sanctuary city — more people are arriving than leaving, which has stabilized the population. The courts recently blocked the city from letting non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, vote in municipal elections.
Demographically, most New Yorkers are people of color; there are 3 million presumably colorless people formerly known as whites. Of the five boroughs, only Manhattan has a slight white majority.
Just under 1 million Jewish people remain in the City, primarily concentrated in Brooklyn. Those who are identifiably Orthodox comprise about 20 percent of the community and tend to vote conservatively. The rest, to paraphrase the late sociologist Milton Himmelfarb, live like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.
In November 2025, NYC will elect a new mayor. While the power of the office has diminished with changes in the City Charter since I left, the mayor remains the face of the City. The City is overwhelmingly Democratic, so whoever wins the Democratic Primary (which begins on June 14 and culminates on June 24, 2025) will likely become the next mayor. Curtis Sliwa is the Republican mayoral candidate; if he is super lucky he can capture the same 30% of New Yorkers who voted for Trump in 2024. The discredited incumbent, Eric Adams, is running for re-election as an independent
From 6,000 miles away, it looks like Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of the state, and Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, are the top contenders in a field of nine candidates. The primary does not operate by a winner-take-all system. Instead, voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference. Only if a candidate gets 50 percent of the vote do they automatically win; otherwise, it comes down to ranking preferences. Analysts suggest that ranked-choice voting could give Mamdani a leg up. The latest polls show Cuomo pulling 40% of first-choice votes, with Mamdani drawing 27% of first-choice votes.
The race interests me because Mamdani, a wealthy progressive running on the Democratic Socialist line who identifies as Muslim, is vitriolically anti-Israel and pro-BDS. To draw Jewish support, he let it be known (kind of) that he did not oppose the existence of Israel as a state. Mamdani isn’t the only anti-Israel candidate, but I think he is the only one that matters.
To draw the support of Gullible People, Mamdani pledges to create a socialist utopia. If elected, Mamdani says he will impose a rent freeze on landlords, make buses free for everyone, provide free childcare, establish city-owned grocery stores, build 200,000 new housing units, and establish a $30/hour minimum wage. Oh, and every new mother will get a free baby basket.
Some polls show Cuomo, who was forced to resign as governor after being accused of sexual harassment, ultimately defeating Mamdani as the ranked-choice system plays out. If Mamdani wins (*), he can be expected to encourage the City government to divest from Israel financially. At City Hall, Zionist Jews and Israeli diplomats will probably be personae non gratae.
Like any big city, New York has its fair share of problems. There were 377 homicides, 29,417 felony assaults, and 345 antisemitic attacks in 2024. Tens of thousands of vagrants sleep in the streets. Quality of life crimes have gone unchecked. Or as the woke New York Times put it delicately a few months ago: “Some New Yorkers have complained that a sense of chaos is pervasive, with mentally ill people wandering the streets and subways and a spate of high-profile attacks.”
So, whoever is elected mayor will have their hands full. If it is Mamdani, my hunch is that he will somehow find the time to engage in relentless Israel-bashing.
(*) Andrew Cuomo concedes New York City Democratic mayoral primary to Zohran Mamdani