Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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1 Comments
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New York State Assemblyman – and former rapper – Zohran Mamdani became the presumptive Democrat nominee in New York City’s mayoral race on Tuesday in a stunning upset.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was the favorite going into the election but conceded the race to Mamdani late in the evening. After polls showed Cuomo winning for most of the campaign, Mamdani suddenly surged ahead just days before votes were cast.
With Decision Desk reporting 91 percent of ballots counted, the 33-year-old Mamdani holds a significant lead with 43.5 percent of first-place votes. Cuomo is in second place with 36.4 percent. The former governor was seen as the more centrist candidate compared to Mamdani, who ran on a platform of freezing rent, creating city-owned grocery stores, turning New York into a “LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city,” and protecting illegal aliens from deportation.
The Democrat primary is determined by ranked choice voting, an electoral system where voters rank candidates in order of preference—first, second, third, and so on—instead of choosing just one. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and those votes are redistributed to the voters’ next choices. This process continues until one candidate secures a majority.
“Tonight was not our night. Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night, and he put together a great campaign, and he touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote, and he really ran a highly impactful campaign,” Cuomo stated in his concession. “I called him. I congratulated him.”
Mamdani was known for promoting far-left policies before running for mayor. In a post dated June 28, 2020, he said that the New York City Police Department (NYCPD) was “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” In another post later that year, he stated that “queer liberation means defund the police.”
The assemblyman also issued several posts in 2020 claiming that his goal was to build a “socialist New York.” He is a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America. As recently as last year, Mamdani accused Israel of “genocide” in several posts. “I will always be clear in my language and based in facts: Israel is committing a genocide,” he stated in a post dated October 31, 2024.
Despite Mamdani claiming to represent the interests of working-class New Yorkers, early exit polling shows that lower-income voters backed Cuomo by about 13 points, while middle- and high-income voters backed Mamdani by 10 points and 13 points, respectively.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk claimed on X that the city’s Democrat primary was a result of mass migration into the country.
“The lesson from New York City is that BOTH illegal and legal immigration can ruin your country,” he said. “It’s not just the open border, it’s also our suicidal mass LEGAL migration policies bringing in over 1 million people a year: green cards, chain migration, refugee resettlement, anchor babies, and asylum scams. This all needs to be ended.”
Mamdani is a migrant from Africa who only became a citizen in 2018. Critics have accused Mamdani, a Muslim, of being a radical Islamist, particularly following comments where he defended the chant of “globalize the intifada,” long seen as a call for genocide against Jews and the destruction of Israel.
Mamdani’s apparent affinity for anti-Jewish extremism is also reflected in his failed rapping career, where he “rapped about his ‘love’ for Hamas terror-funding group ‘Holy Land Five.’” Some reports have alleged that Mamdani’s mother directed his rap videos.
Mamdani is now set to face off against Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Adams was originally charged and indicted by the Biden administration for allegedly obtaining illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel. However, the Trump administration dropped these charges in February amid accusations that the Biden administration’s charges were politically motivated after Adams criticized the former president’s immigration policy.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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