Who is Zohran Mamdani, the first millennial mayor of New York?
New York City has its first Muslim and South Asian mayor in Zohran Mamdani. But more than that, he's also the first millennial mayor of the "Big Apple."
Mamdani, 34, recently toppled Andrew Cuomo, 67, who governed the state for more than a decade, in the 2025 United States election. He garnered overwhelming support in the city, with over 1 million votes or 50.4% of ballots cast compared to Cuomo's 854,995.
The young mayor-elect will take office on Jan. 1, 2026, succeeding fellow democrat Eric Adams.
Who exactly is Mamdani, and where does he stand on political issues?
Roots
Mamdani was born in 1991 in Kampala, Uganda, to parents of Indian descent. When he was seven, he and his family moved to New York, where he attended Bronx High School of Science. In 2018, he became a naturalized American citizen.
He finished his Africana Studies at Bowdoin College and even founded a Pro-Palestine organization there.
Before joining the mayoralty race, he was a housing counsellor, helping economically disadvantaged residents in Queens keep their homes.
He then became a relatively unknown state assemblyman of a district in Queens.
Democratic socialist
In October 2024, after hard launching his engagement to illustrator Rama Diwaji—whom he met on a dating app—Mamdami announced that he would run for New York City Mayor. In his campaign, he promised fare-free buses, freezing stabilized rents, providing universal child care, increasing the minimum wage, and lowering the cost of living by raising taxes on the wealthy.
Mamdani is a democratic socialist and is at odds with U.S. president Donald Trump, who has since repeatedly called the mayor-elect a "communist" and threatened to take away funding from the city should the 34-year-old win.
Mamdani doesn't shy away from the threat, standing up to Trump in his victory speech, saying, "So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up. To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
His first course of action is to appoint four co-chairs in a transition team, which includes former state officials, a move that will shun his detractors, criticizing him as "inexperienced" to lead the city.
While he has resonated with young voters and people of color, he has yet to gain a very large Jewish demographic that has qualms about his criticisms against the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza.
Millennial mayor
Born in 1991, Mamdani is New York City's first millennial mayor. A lesser-known fact about him is that he was formerly a rapper who went by the moniker "Mr. Cardamom" sometime in 2015, according to Rolling Stone. He even made a rap song titled "Nani," a sassy rap song for his social worker grandmother.
And in true millennial fashion, Mamdami is also very digitally savvy, making his online presence felt among the youth by exploring boroughs, food stalls, and even beaches while sparking conversations about pressing social issues. He even made use of funny parodies during his campaign, including ones referencing reality shows The Bachelor, The Ultimatum, and Survivor.
As the New York Times puts it, he was able to tap into the "Gen Z loneliness" by encouraging them to engage in community hangouts.
Some of his supporters even organized events like arts & crafts events and board game nights, and found a sense of belonging. This then turned into votes in the hundreds of thousands.
"After the presidential elections, there were all of these obituaries written about the Democratic Party's ability to motivate young voters and there's just this condescension in the language that we use about young people," he said in an interview on The Daily Show before the Nov. 4 polls. "And I can just tell you that what we found in this campaign is that young people have been at the heart of believing that something could be more than this."
"You look at the fluency that people have with what it is that we're talking about, and it comes from the fact that we're talking to young people like we would talk to anyone. We're not patronizing, not condescending. We're not like, you know, hanging a shiny little thing and saying, 'Please come follow it.'"