new York
Cnn
–
Zohran Mamdani, a 33 -year -old state assembly and a democratic socialist, moved to an astonishing victory on Tuesday in the Democratic primary for the mayor of New York, with his first challenger, Andrew Cuomo, conceding the race.
CNN projects the initial support of Mamdani will remain less than 50%, which means that the race will be officially decided by classified votes of choice which will be announced from July 1.
Mamdani’s strong performance will resonate beyond the largest American city, catapulting and political ideas – a freeze, making buses in the free city and increasing taxes on the richest – under national spotlights. It sets up a resounding triumph for progressives in the Democratic establishment while the national party debates the best way to repel President Donald Trump, a native New York.
Representing three mandates which represents parts of Queens, one of the most diverse areas of the country, Mamdani made its virtual opinion with a mixture of viral videos and attractive proposals with younger progressives.
“In Nelson Mandela’s words, it still seems impossible until it is done,” Mamdani told supporters by applauding during his campaign party. “Today, eight months after the launch of this campaign, with the vision of a city that every New York could afford, we won.”
The detractors of Mamdani argued that his limited legislative experience, his ideas of progressive policy and his criticism of Israel make him too extreme for the city. The Republicans already sent press releases criticized him and suggesting that he was the face of the National Democratic Party.
Cuomo was trying to return less than four years after resigning in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment and poorly managed the COVVI-19 pandemic. He denied allegations against him.
“Tonight was not our night; tonight, Mamdani’s night of the assembly,” Cuomo told supporters. His spokesperson Rich Azzopardi confirmed that Cuomo conceded the primary race while leaving the door open for a November race on the line of another party.
Mamdani directed each of the three largest districts of the city, including Queens, where Cuomo grew up.
Besides Mamdani and Cuomo, the only candidate obtaining more than 5% of the votes was the City Controller Brad Lander. Although all Lander voters will not go to Mamdani when their candidate is eliminated, the two had told their supporters to classify the other on their ballots.
In his speech, Mamdani thanked Lander, who joined her on stage at the songs of “Brad! Brad! Brad!” The assembly also told supporters that he had spoken with Cuomo on the phone earlier in the evening.
Mamdani is certain that the outgoing mayor Eric Adams, who presents himself as independent after having circumvented the primary he won four years ago, as well as the republican Curtis Sliwa.
The performance of Mamdani is a remarkable result for an assembly with less than five years of government which, barely months ago, staged an emerging campaign. It should also be the biggest victory to date for the Democratic Socialists in America: Mamdani is a proud member of the DSA and has designed its volunteer -oriented campaign to talk about the affordability crisis in New York thanks to movements that include proposals to freeze rents, make buses, free and open state grocery stores.
“I think that said that the New York electorate wants changes,” CNN Kaitlan Collins, former mayor Bill de Blasio, a longtime rival from Cuomo. “And they are progressive and they had a candidate who made them feel comfortable.”
The Senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders and the representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both approved. Among the participants of the Mamdani electoral night party was David Hogg, the activist of the generation Z who fought for months with leaders of the National Democratic Committee on the youngest Challengers of the Party of Holders, and Ella Emhoff, a daughter-in-law of the former vice-president Kamala Harris, the presidential candidate of the Democrats in 2024.
If he wins in November, Mamdani, an immigrant who spent much of his childhood in Uganda and South Africa, would become the first Muslim mayor in the history of the city.
Mamdani will have his own job to do on the left, including the winning support of other candidates and their supporters who can love him personally but oppose his socialist policy.
Many Democrats in New York are categorically opposed to Mamdani, both because of these socialist proposals and anger at his positions related to anti -Semitism and support for Israel. Mamdani refused to say that he thought that Israel had the right to exist as a Jewish state or to condemn the expression “globalizing the intifada”, referring to an Arab term used by the Palestinians to describe their uprising against Israel. Cuomo has repeatedly accused Mamdani of having fueled anti -Semitic hatred, an accusation of Mamdani refused.
And he will have to convince the skeptics that he is the right manager for a city faced with aggravated crises of affordability, crime rates, a global dysfunction, as well as a massive influx of migrants who complicated the three, while being able to resist Trump.
In addition, Mamdani could have a revenge match against Cuomo to come, the former governor potentially run on his own voting path, arguing that he is the person who speaks during the dominant current of the place where Democrats and New Yorkers on the whole are in the grips with crises in front of the city and the incoming pressure of Trump.
For Cuomo, losing against Mamdani would be a spicy blow.
Many Democrats still criticize him for the combination of misconduct scandals and nursing houses which led him to resign in 2021. He has a record of long bitter fights with progressives who haunted him throughout the campaign – even if he has achieved liberal objectives for a long time displayed while the governor, including the legalization of same -sex marriage.
Cuomo positioned himself as an antidote both in Trump – with whom he has combined and has led for decades – and a more progressive policy in the midst of increasing concerns concerning crime and immigration in the cities led by the Liberals.
He argued that he had the political mark to reconnect democrats disillusioned to their party and stature to postpone Trump, while being the right manager for a city confronted with aggravated attacks, crime rates, a global dysfunction and a massive influx of migrants who complicated the three.
To a certain extent, it worked. Many of these same criticisms who called him to leave the office four years ago supported his race for the mayor, citing his experience. Among them was the senator of the State Jessica Ramos, another candidate for the town hall who made a surprising approval of the former governor at the beginning of the month.
Other high -level democrats outside the city have also weighed to support Cuomo, notably the Democratic representative of South Carolina, Jim Clyburn and former President Bill Clinton, under which Cuomo was secretary to housing and urban development.
But other primary democratic opponents have not exceeded his allegations of sexual harassment. During a debate, the former state representative, Michael Blake, joked that people who feel dangerous in the city are “young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo”. Lander, who crosses Mamdani, appeared with two of Cuomo’s accusers in the last days of the race.
“The votes are still in progress, and the tabs of classified choice will take a few days. But that is clear: together, we refer Andrew Cuomo in the suburbs,” Lander told his supporters before heading to Mamdani’s party. “With our help, Zohran Mamdani will be the Democratic candidate for the mayor of the city of New York. And we are on the way to the way to win a city that all New Yorkers can afford, and where everyone belongs. ”