New York City is on the cusp of electing its first-ever Muslim mayor, as Zohran Mamdani leads a trio of candidates.
This round of New York City’s mayoral elections has been the most highly contested race in recent times, with over 735,000 ballots being cast in early voting — four times the number of early ballots during the 2021 election.
The high turnout comes as the mayoral competition enters its final stretch, dominating all major headlines, and with voting closing at 21:00 EST, Mamdani is on the precipice of making history.
Polls showed that Mamdani was at 46.1%, Andrew Cuomo 31.8%, and Curtis Sliwa sat in third place at 16.3%.
Mamdani and his policies: Cheaper rent and voice for immigrants
Mamdani’s outspoken opinions, combined with his pride in his identity as an immigrant, Muslim, and his unapologetic stance as a democratic socialist, have undoubtedly contributed to the polls seeing their biggest turnout in years.
Mamdani led his campaign on a platform of affordability in one of America’s most expensive cities.
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His viral social media campaign has led to mass support among a younger demographic of voters, as well as among the city’s large Muslim and immigrant communities, who particularly identify with his slogan of “lowering the cost of living for working-class New Yorkers.”
Mamdani has also gained notoriety for his pro-Palestine positions, even saying in a debate that he would arrest wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu on behalf of his ICC warrant.
Other policies which Mamdani has championed have included freezing the rent for New Yorkers living in rent-stabilised housing, free universal childcare, free buses across the city, and opening city-run grocery stores to provide cheaper groceries in the city.
All of this would be paid for, he says, by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5% and imposing a 2% income tax on those earning over $1 million per year.
These tax impositions would also apply in neighbouring New Jersey.
The competition: Sliwa and Cuomo
Mamdani’s competitors are former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Cuomo is running as an independent candidate after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June by 13 percentage points. Cuomo has backed a strong base of support through his decades of public service, including leading New York State through the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to back Cuomo and has also been very vocal in his criticisms of Mamdani.
Trump threatened to cut federal funding for New York City if Mamdani wins, calling him a “communist”.
“It’s going to be hard for me as president to give a lot of money to New York,” Trump said after he doubled down in a social media post on Monday, stating that he would only give Mamdani “the very minimum required”.
Trump, whilst a Republican, has urged voters to cast their support in favour of independent Cuomo rather than Sliwa.
Islamophobic campaigns against Mamdani
As a Muslim, Mamdani has been at the centre of Islamophobic campaigns which have tried to discredit him and paint him as someone who is scheming for a “sharia” takeover of New York.
The Centre for the Study of Organised Hate revealed in a 20-page document on Monday that Islamophobic and xenophobic discourse surrounding Mamdani on X had a reach of over 1.5 billion views.
The content analysed came from 35,522 original posts authored by 17,752 unique accounts on X.
However, even for practising Muslims, Mamdani’s politics have not been free from controversy.
A Shia Muslim born in Uganda, his staunch support for LGBT and transgender ideology has raised some eyebrows, with some voters thinking that he is compromising on Islam in favour of left-wing ideology.
Despite this, many Muslim New Yorkers see Mamdani as their best bet in a country that seems to be criminalising Palestine solidarity and waging an Islamophobic culture war.
