New York City voters chose 33-year-old assembly member Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democrats’ mayoral primary on June 24.
Though the ranked-choice voting system in the city will not officially process results until at least July 1, Cuomo conceded shortly after the initial round showed Mamdani ahead.
Speaking to supporters, he called the outcome “Assemblyman Mamdani’s night” and praised a “highly impactful campaign.”
Cuomo sought a comeback following his 2021 resignation from the governorship, while incumbent Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary after leaving the Democratic Party to mount an independent bid.
Progressive groups backed Mamdani, who ran on rent freezes, fare-free buses, and higher taxes on high earners.
“Eight months after launching this campaign with the vision of a city that every New Yorker could afford—we have won,” Mamdani told supporters in his victory speech.
Mamdani’s upset arrives as national Democrats urge moderation after then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the 2024 presidential election.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between June 11 and June 16 found 62 percent of Democrats want new leadership and a sharper focus on bread-and-butter economics, while 86 percent favor increasing taxes on the wealthy.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—Harris’s running mate—echoed that sentiment on June 13, telling Democrats they must “sharpen [the] message” and reconnect with rural and working-class voters.
Observers who spoke to The Epoch Times after Mamdani’s win said how they saw the clash.
“I’m surprised how poorly Andrew Cuomo did,” said Democrat voter and former Democratic National Committee (DNC) delegate Kaivan Shroff.
“One takeaway for the establishment is that, of course, people do prioritize the policies. I do think a lot of establishment Democrats still are not happy Mamdani won this, but I don’t know that they were compelled by Cuomo to show up and actually make that statement at the polls.”
Adin Lenchner, a Brooklyn-based Democrat strategist with 15 years of experience, said Mamdani “beat the playbook.”
Cuomo won only the Bronx and Staten Island, while Mamdani carried Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, according to the unofficial election results. (Note that the results use county names, rather than New York’s boroughs.)
Headed into November’s general election, Adams, now an independent, quickly framed the stakes.
“What NYC deserves is a mayor who’s proud to run on his record—not one who ran from his record, or one who has no record,” Adams wrote on X, speaking of Cuomo’s controversial resignation as governor and Mamdani’s short political career so far.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor who lost to Adams in 2021, called Mamdani “too extreme for a city already on edge” in a post on X. Sliwa has an uphill battle fighting for votes in the heavily Democrat-leaning city, where he received 302,680 votes to Adams’s 753,801 in the last election.
Analysts warn against overreading the result.
“I don’t think that this election is necessarily predictive,” Lenchner said. “I don’t think it necessarily tells us where the whole country is going, but I do think that this is a window into where energy is building inside the party.”
Whether Mamdani can translate activist energy into governing remains uncertain. Cuomo said he will “take a look” at the full results before deciding on an independent run, while Adams courts moderates wary of sweeping change.
—Chase Smith; Stacy Robinson
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