Zohran Mamdani defeats Andrew Cuomo in stunning NYC mayoral upset

The Fox Information Determination Desk has predicted that New York Metropolis will elect Democratic Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani as its subsequent mayor. The self-described democratic socialist toppled former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a contentious battle for the way forward for New York Metropolis — and probably the route of the Democratic Social gathering.

Mamdani, the 34-year-old Ugandan-born state commissioner from Queens, precipitated a political earthquake when he declared victory within the Democratic mayoral major in New York Metropolis in June, angering a former governor who was broadly anticipated to win the occasion’s nomination.

He has since been catapulted to the nationwide stage, teaming up with progressive energy duo Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Assemblywoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to persuade New York Metropolis voters of his affordability agenda, which incorporates bold marketing campaign guarantees akin to hire freezes, quick and free buses, city-run supermarkets and free little one care.

It is a race that President Donald Trump himself has stored an in depth eye on, labeling Mamdani a “100% communist lunatic” and “my little communist” — names Mamdani has rejected. On the eve of Election Day, Trump endorsed Cuomo and despatched federal funds to New York Metropolis if Mamdani gained.

FINAL STRETCH: MAMDANI’S BIG LEAD SHRINKS AS CUOMO GAINS GROUND IN NYC’S MAYORAL RACE

New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks briefly to reporters as he leaves the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing in Washington, DC on July 16, 2025 (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures)

Within the days main as much as the election, Mamdani vowed to make use of the “pulpit” and the authorized system to battle again in opposition to Trump’s “threats.”

“Donald Trump might converse as if it is his determination, however that is cash this metropolis owes. That is cash we count on to gather,” Mamdani stated Monday.

CUOMO CLOSES GAP ON MAMDANI NOW NYC MAYOR’S RACE DRAMATICALLY GAINED IN NEW POLL

Mamdani’s major success uncovered a rift throughout the Democratic Social gathering, which suffered main losses in final yr’s elections and has since struggled to mount a united entrance in opposition to the Trump administration with out clear occasion management.

Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid a number of controversies, together with a number of sexual harassment claims, which he has denied. After dropping the first he was anticipated to win, Cuomo challenged Mamdani as an unbiased candidate within the basic election, and has since accused Mamdani of being extra of a socialist than a democrat.

“The reality is there’s a silent civil warfare happening throughout the Democratic Social gathering proper now,” Cuomo advised Fox Information final week. “You’ve gotten the far left. Radical left. Bernie Sanders, AOC – Mamdani is simply the poster little one for that motion – ​​versus the mainstream reasonable Democrats. They name me reasonable now. They used to name me liberal. Now I am reasonable as a result of the entire occasion has shifted.”

New York Democrats had been reluctant to help Mamdani’s mayoral marketing campaign after he gained the Democratic nomination.

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer declined to endorse Mamdani, regardless of telling reporters he has a “good relationship with him” and that they’ll “hold speaking.” Mamdani was arrested for protesting the warfare in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire outdoors Schumer’s Brooklyn dwelling in 2023.

Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries issued an announcement of help for Mamdani after months of ambiguity. The announcement got here the day earlier than early voting started.

Unbiased candidate, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaks throughout a mayoral debate, Thursday, October 16, 2025, in New York Metropolis. (AP Photograph/Angelina Katsanis, pool)

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., endorsed Mamdani’s marketing campaign in September and later joined him on the marketing campaign path. When requested if Mamdani would help Hochul, he declined to verify his help for the incumbent governor.

Hochul shall be essential to Mamdani’s plan to boost taxes on companies and the highest 1% of New Yorkers to pay for his radical marketing campaign agenda, as any tax improve would require state approval.

The governor has insisted she is not going to elevate taxes, which precipitated her some unrest at a latest Queens rally when Mamdani’s supporters shouted, “Tax the wealthy!”

Mamdani has confronted a brutal information cycle since successful the Democratic nomination.

Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder and CEO of the Guardian Angels, have stated Mamdani wouldn’t do sufficient to guard Jewish New Yorkers if he had been elected mayor.

Throughout the primaries, Mamdani refused to sentence the time period “globalization of the Intifada,” which is broadly seen as a name for violence in opposition to Jews. He has since dedicated to discouraging others from utilizing the time period.

New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul maintain arms on stage as they attend a ‘New York is Not For Sale’ rally at Forest Hills Stadium, within the Queens borough of New York Metropolis, on October 26, 2025. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

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Weeks earlier than Election Day, a roster of outstanding New York Metropolis rabbis joined greater than 650 rabbis throughout the nation to signal “A Rabbinic Name to Motion: Defending the Jewish Future,” which asserted that Jewish People “can’t be silent” about discrimination in opposition to Jewish folks and cited Mamdani’s views essential of Israel.

Mamdani, who’s of Indian descent, will grow to be the primary South Asian and first Muslim mayor of New York Metropolis.

Faith has been a defining concern within the mayoral race, as many Jewish New Yorkers have rejected Mamdani’s positions on Israel, together with his labeling of the Gaza warfare as a “genocide” and his refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state.

Mamdani has insisted that he “wouldn’t acknowledge the proper to exist of a state with a system of hierarchy primarily based on race or faith.”

When requested throughout final week’s mayoral debate whether or not Mamdani has any regrets about his “long-standing” anti-Israel positions, the democratic socialist reaffirmed his dedication to defending Jewish New Yorkers, as he has accomplished all through the marketing campaign.

Mamdani has a protracted observe file of supporting the pro-Palestinian motion, together with at Bowdoin Faculty, the place he based the College students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

Supporters of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani collect outdoors 30 Rock in New York Metropolis on Thursday, October 16, 2025. (Fox Information Digital/Deirdre Heavey)

With weeks till Election Day, Mamdani accused his opponents and Mayor Eric Adams, who finally suspended his re-election marketing campaign after dropping out of the Democratic major to run as an unbiased candidate, of Islamophobia over the various feedback made about him through the marketing campaign.

Mamdani additionally drew criticism for his previous feedback in regards to the New York Metropolis Police Division, together with these wherein he in contrast the NYPD to the Israel Protection Forces and referred to as the NYPD “racist, anti-queer and a serious menace to public security” in 2020, amongst different insults.

“I’ll apologize to the law enforcement officials right here, as a result of that is the apology that I’ve shared with many rank-and-file officers, and I apologize due to the truth that I need to work with these officers, and I do know that these officers, these women and men who serve within the NYPD, put their lives on the road daily,” Mamdani stated on Fox Information.

As voters in New York Metropolis went to the polls for early voting, billionaires together with Pink Apple Media CEO John Catsimatidis and hedge fund CEO Invoice Ackman urged Sliwa to drop out of the race to consolidate help for Cuomo, however the Republican candidate refused to droop his marketing campaign.

Comparable strain mounted after the primaries, so both Cuomo or Adams needed to drop out to spice up the anti-Mamdani vote. After Adams suspended his marketing campaign, he finally endorsed Cuomo. Trump’s Justice Division dropped bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy prices in opposition to Adams earlier this yr.

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa is interviewed by Fox Information Digital on August 18, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)

Mamdani may also grow to be the primary millennial mayor of the nation’s largest metropolis.

That was evident from the early days of Mamdani’s marketing campaign, when he strategically used social media, together with TikTok, to construct a recognizable model and encourage a slew of low-propensity voters.

His marketing campaign performed into the arms of an evolving – and chronically on-line – voters in New York Metropolis.

As he scrolls by means of Mamdani’s social media, his TikTok and Instagram pages resemble these of a New York Metropolis influencer. From the film-like filters and constant fonts on his vertical movies to the superstar cameos together with mannequin Emily Ratajkowski and comic Bowen Yang, Mamdani’s movies repeatedly rack up thousands and thousands of views.

Throughout the basic election, Mamdani’s marketing campaign started working with content material creators, inviting New York Metropolis’s micro-influencers to a “New Media” briefing, sometimes reserved for mainstream media, and persevering with by means of the revolving door of podcast appearances, much like such efforts by the Trump administration in 2024.

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Like Trump in 2024, Mamdani targeted his mayoral marketing campaign on affordability, promising to create a New York Metropolis wherein voters may truly afford to reside.

Mamdani advised Fox Information within the last days of his marketing campaign that he heard from a girl who wore a “MAGA for Zohran” hat at his rally in Queens, evoking Trump’s well-known slogan “Make America Nice Once more.”

“It tells me that it doesn’t matter what your political background is, you expertise the identical disaster, and this can be a motion that desires to handle this disaster of affordability,” Mamdani stated. “It does not matter who you’re, the place you reside.”