On July 1st, New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani officially secured the Democratic nomination in the New York City mayoral race, after the final ranked choice votes were tabulated. However, the race to the mayor’s mansion is far from over, in an election cycle that’s been filled with twists and surprises. The hectic election season was kicked off with the indictment of the city’s sitting mayor, Eric Adams, and was most recently shaken up by former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that he intends to remain in the race as a third party candidate.
How Does Ranked Choice Voting Work?
New York City first adopted ranked choice voting in 2019 through a ballot referendum, which passed with nearly 75% of the vote. The first ranked choice election was held in New York in 2021.
In New York’s version of the ranked choice system, voters are given the option to rank their top five candidates in order of preference, effectively “voting for” their first choice. If no candidate receives over 50% of the “top choice” slots outright, ranked choice analysis begins. In round 1, the candidate that received the fewest votes (or “#1 slots”) is eliminated– every voter who ranked that candidate #1 will then have their vote distributed to whichever candidate they put as their #2 preference. This process continues until either one candidate crosses the 50% threshold, or only two candidates remain, in which case the candidate who received the most votes would win.
The final two candidates that remained in the Democratic primary after candidate elimination were Zohran Mamdani and former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Between them, Mamdani won 56.2% of the ranked-choice vote, compared to Cuomo’s 43.8%, making for an over 12 point defeat. This win shocked pundits, given Cuomo’s polling leads and name recognition.
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani is a 33-year-old State Assemblyman representing the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. A 2014 graduate of Bowdoin College, he began his career working as a foreclosure prevention counselor. From there, he went on to work on a number of local Democratic campaigns in Brooklyn and Queens, eventually seeking and winning election to the state assembly in 2020 and re-election in 2022 and 2024. In the assembly, he championed a pilot program establishing a fleet of free city buses.
Mamdani’s campaign has focused primarily on affordability and addressing New York’s cost-of-living-crisis. Among his most well-known policy proposals are opening city-operated grocery stores, raising the corporate tax rate, offering free city bus routes, expanding rent freezes, building more affordable housing units, strengthening New York’s sanctuary city laws for immigrants, providing no-cost childcare for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years, and raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030.
One issue that has generated controversy in the campaign has been Mamdani’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, standing in stark contrast to former Governor Cuomo, who has declared that he is “a hyper aggressive supporter of Israel and proud of it.” Mamdani, who founded Bowdoin’s Students for Justice in Palestine, has stated that he believes Israel “has a right to exist and a responsibility also to uphold international law.” When asked about the issue on a late-night talk show, Mamdani referenced the words of a former Israeli Prime Minister, stating, “what we are doing in Gaza is a war of devastation, it is cruel, it is limitless, it is criminal killing of civilians.”
Mamdani has also been frequently criticized for what his opponents see as a lack of experience, a charge which became a focal point in the June Democratic primary debate. After Cuomo critiqued his political experience, Mamdani responded with a statement that soon went viral: “I have never had to resign in disgrace. I have never cut Medicaid. I have never stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the M.T.A. I have never hounded the 13 women who credibly accused me of sexual harassment. I have never sued for their gynecological records, and I have never done those things because I am not you, Mr. Cuomo.”
Mamdani has gone on record stating that he considers himself to be a “Democratic Socialist,” and was, in part, spurred to victory by the endorsements of high-profile progressives like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
If elected, Mamdani would become New York’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest mayor elected in over a century.
Who Else is Running?
On the Republican side, Mamdani will be facing off against Curtis Silwa, conservative talk radio host, founder of the neighborhood watch group Guardian Angels and previous candidate for mayor in 2021. Silwa ran in the 2025 Republican primary unopposed and is focusing much of his campaign on combatting “migrant crime.” Given the fact that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in New York City nearly 8-to-1, however, little attention is being paid to Silwa’s campaign on a national scale.
Running as an Independent is sitting mayor Eric Adams, who initially won as a Democrat in 2021, but chose to bypass the primaries in light of major slips in his approval rating following a federal indictment for bribery and fraud. Adams is accused of having accepted over $100,000 in illegal gifts from Turkish citizens and government officials in exchange for political favors. The charges were dropped in April at the request of the Department of Justice, which argued that pursuing the case would detract from Adams’ ability to enforce federal immigration initiatives and policies in accordance with the Trump Administration. The dismissal has not come without criticism, with US District Judge Dale Ho stating, “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
On July 14th, Cuomo announced his intent to remain in the race as an independent following his primary loss. He’s stated that he intends to remain in the race at least through September, at which point he has pledged to drop out and rally behind the leading non-Mamdani candidate. Adams has not accepted Cuomo’s proposal. Cuomo previously served as Governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, when he resigned over sexual harassment allegations. An investigation revealed that during his time as governor, he repeatedly groped aides, made sexual remarks, and ultimately created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.” Speaking about the situation in 2025, Cuomo told the New York Times, “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have resigned.”
What Does This Mean for the Democratic Party Going Forward?
It’s speculated that the November election may serve as a sort of “test run” for a more progressive strategy for the Democratic party, which has no clear front-runner for the 2028 presidential nomination. It may also go on to shape the ways in which the party will respond to the Israel-Palestine issue, with Democratic legislators split on their responses. A Mamdani win could also provide a sort of template for Democrats seeking to win on the backs of younger voters, which Mamdani won handily in the primary, but Democrats struggled to capture in 2024. Whichever way the election ultimately swings, it’s clear the outcome has the potential to influence the Democratic Party in many elections to come.
On November 4, 2025, Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race with 50.8% of the vote, securing his seat as the 112th mayor of New York City. Trailing behind Mamdani was Andrew Cuomo (Ind) with 41.3% of the New York city vote while Curtis Silwa (GOP) had 7.0%. Mayor Mamdani was sworn in on January 1st, 2026.