So, here’s a story that sounds a bit like political fiction but actually happened: a 34-year-old South Asian-origin, African-born democratic socialist with a Muslim identity just won a New York City mayoral race with over 50 per cent of the vote. I know what you are thinking – that sentence alone sounds like political fan fiction. But it actually happened, and the story of how he did it is absolutely wild. But Zohran Kwame Mamdani pulled it off, and honestly, the whole saga reads like someone threw every political third rail into a blender and somehow produced a winning smoothie.
Let me set the scene. Mamdani wasn’t just fighting an uphill battle – he was scaling Everest in sandals while dodging avalanches. The obstacles lined up against him would have buried most campaigns before they had even ordered their first batch of leaflets.
First, there was the US president, Donald Trump, who naturally called him a “communist lunatic” and a “disaster waiting to happen”. Because apparently, subtle political discourse went out of fashion sometime around 2016. Then Elon Musk – yes, that Elon Musk – decided to stick his oar in, endorsing Mamdani’s opponent and warning voters that supporting the democratic socialist would “effectively be votes for disaster”. Nothing says “I understand local politics” quite like a billionaire from Texas telling New Yorkers how to vote, does it?
But the billionaire brigade didn’t stop there. At least 26 ultra-wealthy individuals and families threw somewhere between $22 million and $28 million into campaigns opposing Mamdani. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg alone chipped in about $13.3 million – nearly half of all the anti-Mamdani spending. That’s a staggering amount of money to prevent one person from winning office.
And then there were the accusations of antisemitism. Mamdani had described the phrase “globalize the intifada” as representing “a profound yearning for equality and rights in advocating for Palestinian human rights”. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, a major voice in fighting antisemitism, condemned him for contributing to “a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism”. The US Holocaust Museum got involved too and noted that since 1987, Jews have faced violence under that banner. Over 1,000 rabbis and cantors signed an open letter calling out the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.
Wall Street executives were having absolute kittens about his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations. They worried this would destroy New York City’s competitiveness under a socialist mayor. Because, you know, nothing says “thriving business environment” quite like workers who can’t afford rent and a transport system held together with duct tape.
Meanwhile, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo – remember him? – positioned himself as the sensible, experienced alternative. And in a plot twist that would make a soap opera writer blush, he eventually secured Trump’s endorsement. Yes, really. Andrew Cuomo, lifelong Democrat, got Trump’s blessing. The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, characterized Mamdani as someone “solidifying the transformation of the Democratic Party into a radical, big-government socialist entity”.
So here’s this relatively unknown state assemblyman from Queens, with limited executive experience, a Muslim identity in post-9/11 America, an anti-Zionist stance in a city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel, facing a coordinated assault from billionaires, a sitting president, and establishment figures from both parties. The smart money said he had absolutely no chance.
And then he won. Decisively.
So how on earth did this happen? Well, here’s where it gets brilliant.
Mamdani’s campaign, backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, knocked on over three million doors by election day. In the final weekend alone, volunteers attempted a record-breaking 200,000-door push, ultimately logging 157,678 doors in 24 hours. That’s the largest single-day canvassing operation in recent New York City history. The New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) went from 7,000 members in 2020 to over 11,000 by late 2025, with 2,400 joining during the campaign alone. Numbers aside, the real masterstroke was his social media game.
Mamdani’s mum is the renowned Indian-origin Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair. And clearly, some of that creative DNA rubbed off on him. He brought a proper filmmaker’s eye to political campaigning, creating energetic videos on TikTok and Instagram that didn’t just inform people – they inspired them to make their own content. It became this brilliant viral snowball effect that transformed him from “who?” to cultural phenomenon.
His videos were proper clever too. Multilingual messaging in Urdu, Hindi, and Spanish, reaching communities that traditional campaigns usually can’t be bothered with. He turned up at mosques, cultural centres, and late-night workplaces to chat with shift workers. He organized citywide scavenger hunts, football tournaments, and all sorts of creative engagement events that got thousands involved. One video explaining ranked-choice voting in Hindi – using mango lassi as an analogy, of all things – got over 5 million views. And here’s the brilliant part: these weren’t paid advertisements. They were just people genuinely excited about his campaign, sharing stuff because they wanted to.
Perhaps most innovatively, the campaign hosted the first-ever influencer briefing for a mayoral race. Seventy online content creators got exclusive access to Mamdani, and their livestream reached nearly 80 million followers. Self-organized groups like “Creators for Zohran”, “Hot Girls for Zohran”, “Gays for Zohran”, and “South Asians for Zohran” expanded his reach exponentially.
The youth turnout was absolutely staggering. Early voting data (as checked at around 10.30–11am IST) showed 117,042 New Yorkers aged 18–29 had cast ballots – a 130.1 per cent surge compared to 2021. A fall 2025 poll showed Mamdani leading overwhelmingly among 18–34-year-olds with 62 per cent support. Researchers at Tufts University called the young turnout “astonishing”, noting that “Mamdani’s victory shows that when campaigns focus on engaging new voters, it works.”
But here’s the thing – while the social media wizardry grabbed headlines, his success fundamentally stemmed from addressing what voters actually cared about: affordability. He relentlessly focused on three ambitious but easily understood proposals: rent freezes for over one million stabilized tenants, free and faster buses, and universal childcare for children under five. Crucially, he insisted these would be funded by taxing the rich – not through market incentives or trickle-down nonsense.
Even critics acknowledged his clarity. Matt Bennett from the centrist thinktank Third Way admitted: “I don’t particularly like his ideas, but he articulated them in ways that really resonated and that people could kind of repeat back to him.”
Meanwhile, Cuomo barely added any votes throughout the campaign. He entered as the frontrunner with 33 per cent support when Mamdani had just 1 per cent. But he finished the primary with only 36.5 per cent to Mamdani’s 43.5 per cent, and in the general election, despite Trump’s endorsement, Cuomo won only 41.6 per cent.
What’s particularly delicious about this whole situation is how it defies conventional Democratic Party wisdom. You know the narrative: move to the centre, don’t scare the moderates, play it safe, don’t talk too much about class because it makes donors uncomfortable. Mamdani’s campaign essentially set that playbook ablaze and danced around the flames.
There was a particularly powerful moment in late October when Mamdani delivered an emotional speech outside the Islamic Cultural Center in the Bronx. After strategically avoiding highlighting his Muslim identity for much of the campaign, he declared: “I will be a Muslim man in New York City. I will not change who I am, I will not change how I eat, I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to. But there is one thing I will change: I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.” The video was viewed over 25 million times.
This moment of authenticity resonated far beyond New York’s Muslim community. A professor at Brooklyn College compared it to Barack Obama’s 2008 speech on race, noting that Mamdani was confronting prejudice directly rather than sidestepping it.
Here’s what’s fascinating: Mamdani’s anti-Zionist stance, which many viewed as his greatest liability, actually became an asset. Many voters, particularly young and Muslim New Yorkers, saw his unwavering position as evidence of authenticity and courage. His refusal to compromise on Palestinian rights signalled integrity not just on that issue, but more broadly.
When the billionaire class launched their coordinated assault, it probably didn’t help their cause. When Elon Musk is telling working-class New Yorkers that higher corporate taxes will hurt them, while he’s literally the richest person on this planet, the message lands with all the authenticity of a counterfeit tenner.
Now, Mamdani’s victory wasn’t happening in isolation. November 4, 2025, saw Democrats sweep elections across the country – a clear rejection of Trump’s second term. In New Jersey, Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill defeated her Republican opponent by about 12 percentage points. In Virginia, former representative Abigail Spanberger crushed the Republican lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, by an even larger margin. Both are centrists with national security backgrounds – Sherrill’s a former US Navy pilot, Spanberger’s ex-CIA – and they focused relentlessly on affordability.
California voters approved Proposition 50, a redistricting measure designed to redraw five congressional districts to favour Democrats. It was explicitly framed as a response to Trump’s similar efforts in Texas.
CNN exit polling found that in all four major contests, a majority of voters expressed disapproval of Trump. Around half or more viewed their vote as a message directed at Trump – and predominantly one of dissent. Trump’s approval rating stood at 43 per cent, reflecting a 4-point decline since March.
So what does this all mean? Well, that’s where it gets complicated.
Progressives are pointing to Mamdani’s victory as validation that bold, unapologetic left-wing politics can win even facing billionaire opposition. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, speaking from Mamdani’s victory party, emphasized that the win demonstrates Democrats can succeed by “offering a new message”. Bernie Sanders told CBS News: “If he wins, the message goes all over this country: You can stand up to the oligarchs.”
But moderates are warning that Mamdani’s success in liberal Manhattan and Brooklyn can’t be replicated nationally. Matt Bennett of Third Way argued that Mamdani’s win gives Republicans “a pretty potent set of weapons” to use against Democrats in swing districts. He compared it to “defund the police” attacks, noting that Democrats in competitive areas will need to actively distance themselves from Mamdani’s policies.
And here’s the thing – the moderate victories of Spanberger and Sherrill complicate the narrative. Both won decisively in states Kamala Harris narrowly carried during the last presidential election, which suggests that centrist messaging on affordability and opposition to Trump can also deliver results.
Perhaps the real lesson is that American voters in 2025 are united less by ideology than by exhaustion with a failing status quo. They are tired of politicians who dodge questions, serve billionaire donors, and offer incremental tweaks when transformative change feels necessary. They are frustrated by rising costs that make life unaffordable even for those with decent incomes.
Mamdani succeeded not despite his democratic socialism but because he offered clear, ambitious answers to pressing problems – and because voters believed he meant what he said. His refusal to moderate his positions under pressure from billionaires and party elites became evidence of integrity rather than extremism.
Whether his model can be replicated in other cities – in suburbs and towns rather than diverse urban centres – remains to be seen. The 2026 midterms will provide crucial data. But for now, Mamdani has achieved what was dismissed as impossible.
His victory speech captured the moment’s significance: “In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love. Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall, your struggle is ours too.”
Addressing Trump directly, Mamdani declared: “Donald Trump, since I know you are watching. Four words for you: Turn the volume up.” He vowed to protect immigrants, hold “bad landlords” accountable, freeze rents, expand labour protections, and end the “culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation”.
Then invoking India’s first prime minister, he said: “Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru – a moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new.”
The coming years will test whether these promises can be kept, whether Mamdani’s approach can scale beyond New York City, and whether the coalition he built can be sustained. But on November 4, 2025, against extraordinary odds, Zohran Mamdani proved that a different kind of politics is possible – and that millions of Americans are hungry for it.
The perfect storm everyone predicted would sink Mamdani turned out to be the one that cleared the way for his victory. Sometimes the impossible is just the inevitable wearing a disguise. And sometimes, just sometimes, the outsider with nothing to lose and everything to prove actually wins.