The first time I heard of Zohran Mamdani was during the New York City Democratic mayoral primary debate earlier this year.
The moderator asked the candidates where they would visit were they to be elected the city’s mayor. One candidate said that she would visit the Holy Land, another said he would visit Israel, and the third said he would go on his fourth visit to Israel. Mamdani’s response defied the expected norms. He said he would stay in New York to address New Yorkers’ needs.
The moderator found this to be an opportunity to pursue the point further, and she asked Mamdani if he would visit Israel. In a calculated response, he said that “as mayor I will be standing up for Jewish New Yorkers, and I’ll be meeting them wherever they are in New York.” The moderator then asked Mamdani if he believed that Israel had “a right to exist,” turning the debate into an Israel-Palestine one instead of focusing on local issues.
His response was, “like all nations, I believe it [Israel] has a right to exist and a responsibility also to uphold international law.”
What mystified me most about this question was why a local lawmaker was expected to show his allegiance, via visiting choices, to another country, but undoubtedly it is a stark illustration of the role Israel has come to play even in local US elections.
Zohran Mamdani went on to win the primary and become the Democratic Party nominee for mayor of New York City. If he is elected in November, he will become not only the youngest mayor in New York City’s recent history but also the first Muslim one and the first of South Asian descent.
Mamdani stands out as an unconventional and compelling candidate for the city’s mayor. He is only 33 years old and is the son of Indian-origin immigrants to the US. Born in Kampala, Uganda, Mamdani came with his parents to the US when he was seven years old and became a citizen in 2018. His mother, Mira Nair, is a celebrated film director, and his father, Mahmoud Mamdani, teaches at Columbia University in New York. Both his parents are Harvard University alumni. He is married to the Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, whom he had met on a dating app.
Mamdani finds strength in his origins and heritage, posting one campaign video entirely in Urdu. He has also made his Muslim faith a visible part of his campaign by visiting mosques regularly and saying that “we know that to stand in public as a Muslim is also to sacrifice the safety that we can sometimes find in the shadows.”
Mamdani was virtually unknown when he entered the race for the Democratic Party nomination for the city’s mayor, as the polls set his chance of winning at only one per cent while the formidable frontrunner, former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, was at 33 per cent. But Mamdani soon skyrocketed in the polls, especially amongst younger voters, stunning contenders and lawmakers alike.
To young Democratic voters, Mamdani is a breath of fresh air amidst the disillusionment of losing the 2024 US presidential elections to Donald Trump. Mamdani is very different from the usual old school choices. His platform focuses on affordable housing, free public buses, and lowering the cost of living by raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthiest one per cent of New Yorkers.
This is why we should scrutinise this deviation from the norm to understand the current climate in the US political arena and its implications for the whole country.
While winning the primary is exceptional, it is just one battle, and it also underscores the challenges Mamdani will face in the months ahead. In November, he will face a seasoned Republican Party candidate whose campaign will be backed by impressive financial resources, and beyond that he must translate his promises into policies, all the while staying true to his roots and vision.
More importantly, he will have to defend his agenda, his views on Israel, and his ethnicity and faith in a city where past mayors have always supported Israel, since the city’s one million Jews make up the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
His defiant stand against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank will be criticised and will be an uphill battle. Mamdani has been a vocal critic of Israel throughout his career, and he has stood with the Palestinian cause. He supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. He has also said that he believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, is an apartheid state, and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested if he visits New York. His critics say he is antisemitic, while he says that he holds Israel accountable for its actions.
His statement after the events of 7 October 2023 read that “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path towards a just and last peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”
A New York Assembly bill that he has promoted proposes an “ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act” that would prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorised support of Israeli settlement activity.
If he is elected as the first Muslim mayor of New York City, he will face racism and bigotry. He was teary eyed as he described the venomous language he has faced over his faith on the campaign trail in the primaries. “I get messages that say that the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” he said. “I receive threats to my life and to the lives of the people I love.”
Mamdani won the primary race despite being the target of intense criticism for his controversial stances and his identity from US lawmakers, Jewish organisations, and regular citizens. Cuomo, his opponent, called on the other mayoral candidates to denounce Mamdani for his refusal to denounce the phrase “globalise the Intifada.” He also said that “we all know too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder.”
US President Donald Trump weighed in on the results. On his Truth Social social media platform, Trump said that Mamdani “looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart.”
“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump said.
Mamdani has a challenging incline to climb, and for us watching the elections there will be widespread hopes that Mamdani will win in November.
The writer is a former professor of communication who is based in Vancouver, Canada.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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