A pro-Palestine American-Muslim candidate vying to become the Democratic candidate for New York mayor is polling strongly ahead of the primary results day, sparking panic and upset in pro-Israel circles.
As New Yorkers head to the polling stations on Tuesday for the Democratic Primary, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a 33-year-old American of Indian heritage, may secure a shock win in a tight race.
The Democratic primary often determines the likely mayoral winner due to the city’s strong Democratic lean.
And Mamdani, buoyed by a stunning campaign, has risen to become the main challenger to the favourite, fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, who is backed by the party’s centrists and billionaire donors.
Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment, was the clear frontrunner earlier in the year and has been endorsed by senior Democratic figures including former president Bill Clinton.
Mamdani has enjoyed a meteoric surge in the polls in recent weeks and could benefit from the primary’s ranked-choice voting system, which could see second-choice votes as the deciding factor.
Mamdani is a politician from the state of New York who has served as a member of the New York State Assembly for the 36th District in Queens since 2021.
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A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani was first elected in 2020 after defeating a four-term incumbent and has since been re-elected without opposition.
Mamdani’s legislative priorities in the Assembly have included housing reform, transport, and energy, but his outspoken condemnation of President Donald Trump and Israel’s actions in Gaza has seen him labelled the “anti-Israel candidate” in some right-wing and pro-Israel press.
Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian rights during his campaign has invited further criticism and allegations from pro-Israel forces who have accused Mamdani of antisemitism.
Mamdani was heavily criticised for refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and for defending the slogan “globalise the intifada,” which he described during a podcast appearance as “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights.”
He also claimed that the Arabic term “intifada” has been used by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to describe the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, based in Washington DC, condemned the comparison, without naming Mamdani.
“Exploiting the museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitise ‘Globalise the Intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors,” the museum said in a statement.
Amid accusations of antisemitism, Mamdani gave a teary-eyed interview to CBS about the challenges he is facing being a Muslim candidate for mayor during a time of rampant Islamophobia.
“I get messages which say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life. On the people that I love,” Mamdani said.
Despite the attacks, Mamdani’s movement is surging. He has received endorsements from prominent left-wing figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Attorney General Letitia James, the New York Working Families Party, United Auto Workers Region 9A, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.
The city’s Board of Elections will release unofficial first-choice-only votes after the polls close at 9 p.m. local time on primary night, June 24 2025.
However, the contest, which appears to be neck-and-neck at this stage, may not be decided until the results from the losing candidates are redistributed among the remaining second-choice votes, due to the primary’s ranked-choice system.
The next New York City mayor will be elected on November 2025.
