New Yorkers decided to leave behind a decades-old political legacy and chose a young progressive, self-styled Democratic Socialist to lead them into the 2030s. According to the Associated Press, Democrat Zohran Mamdani defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by more than 9 percentage points out of 2 million ballots cast.
The 34-year-old Uganda-born Queens assemblymember will be the first South Asian and first Muslim to occupy the Mayor’s Office when his term begins Jan. 1.
“New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change,” he said, during his victory celebration in Brooklyn. “The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”
Mamdani’s win comes to the chagrin of both moderate Democrats who would not endorse him and Republicans who bolstered efforts to defeat him, claiming that his tax-the-rich brand of politics would decimate the city, and even made Islamophobic references to his faith.
President Trump has even threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani was victorious.
“New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” he said, adding that, “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
Trump responded only: “So it begins” on his Truth Social website.
But with a young mayor, who did not have the entire city behind him and who still meets skepticism in some circles will have an uphill battle taking over from a prior City Hall that started with promise, but was riddled with scandal in the end;
Beyond the Ballot Box: NYC Residents Predict City Hall’s Trajectory
It’s easy to be curious what New York City voters are thinking about the future of City Hall as they hit the polls to decide who would be the next Mayor this week.
Regardless of whether they voted for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, or Republican Curtis Sliwa, Amsterdam News hit the streets in Harlem and Brooklyn to ask voter’s opinions. Here’s their responses:
“It’s going to be about the same, no matter who’s in there. Not much has changed. Politics is for the birds,” said Nellie Purefoy, an elderly Fort Greene resident.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting victory for the city. I am particularly moved by young voters, young volunteers, seeing themselves in this candidate,” said Roz Lee, a Harlem resident who voted for Mamdani. “A new opportunity for the city to reset ourselves and so that is not simply about partisanship, but that the partnership is really with community members themselves.”
“I think there’s definitely gonna be a lot of discourse now, like in any election, once a policy maker is put in power. There’s a discussion about whether they are going to keep up with what they’re saying,” said Mia, a younger Brooklyn voter.
But others said that the new mayor could face challenges in executing an agenda, much like incoming presidents.
“I know how hard a time they gave Barack Obama to get healthcare. If things don’t go the way he [Mamdani] wants it, it’s not because of him. Remember, it’s other people behind him. He’s not like Trump trying to make new rules so that he’s the king. He’s going to try to do it the right way. So I think things will change if people allow him to do what he wants to do. And that’s why we have a democracy,” said Linder Howard, a Harlem resident. “We have to compromise. I don’t get what I want all the time. So how are you going to get what you want all the time? That’s what’s wrong with the world today.”
Hayes Taylor, a Fort Greene, Brooklyn resident, said that he was not a fan of Mayor Eric Adams or his policies. He thinks every Mayor sets a standard for how the city operates.
“Every candidate sets a tone for the city. Whether he achieves it or not, he sets it. I think if [Mamdani] wins, I think there’ll be a lot of inspiration. I’ve been very motivated by the No King’s protests and things like that,” said Taylor. “So I’m really a person who believes in people power, and for a person who has the right sounding policies and the charisma that he has, I’m hopeful that some of the changes that he would like to make will come to fruition.”
– Ariama C. Long
Public Safety will take a different approach than in past administrations
No, Zohran Mamdani will not actually replace police officers with social workers. But he plans on fixing the existing pilot for mental health calls to a civilian response as B-Heard continues sending cops when the program dictates a non-uniform responder to address an issue that does not place anyone at risk of physical harm.
Despite previous comments surrounding defunding the police, Mamdani maintains his civilian-led blueprint for a Department of Community Safety, which boasts a roughly $1 billion price tag, will not pull from the NYPD budget. Cuomo promises to expand the department by adding 5,000 officers. Both intend on retaining Commissioner Jessica Tisch, if she accepts.
While Cuomo boasts a tougher-on-crime approach than Mamdani, he signed many key criminal justice reform bills into law as governor. Bail reform, Raise the Age and the HALT Solitary ban seem particularly maligned by law enforcement proponents as “soft-on-crime”, including Tisch.
Republican wildcard Curtis Sliwa continues pointing to his work with the Guardian Angels vigilante group, which patrolled New York City streets and subways in signature red berets. He boasts the toughest-on-crime agenda but previously drew ire from NYPD officers for his extrajudicial methods.
The incoming mayor will contend with a federal monitorship over racist police stop-and-frisk practices and a federal receivership over the city’s jail system as Rikers Island continues crumbling and will almost certainly miss a key 2027 deadline to shut down.
– Tandy Lau
Education expecting boosts but challenges as well
New York City public schools will receive a major financial boost over the next four years to help the Department of Education expand and renovate school buildings. The funding will also ensure that it can push forward with reform-focused teaching strategies, like its NYC Reads and NYC Solves math skills curriculums.
The School Construction Authority’s capital plan for 2025 through 2029 designates $20 billion to roof repairs, heating and electrical upgrades, asbestos abatement, code compliance, and for the repair of athletic fields. Funding is also set aside for more than 33,000 new student seats to help schools comply with the new state law mandating reduced class sizes. Schools are also set to expand the free “After School for All” program for elementary and middle school students by adding 15,000 new seats by 2027.
The next mayoral administration, which will still have the responsibility of shepherding 2 million students from K-12, must also decide if it will stick with mayoral control of the schools or switch back to a school board system.
Currently, Community and Citywide Education Councils advise the Schools Chancellor, but have no decisionmaking power.
During this tenure, Mayor Eric Adams has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction and expanding career education programs. His reelection campaign is widely considered to be a long shot, leaving the next mayor to decide whether to continue those efforts.
Mamdani’s education agenda includes ending the current system of mayoral control of the Education Department in favor of an approach that includes more community voice, though he has not shared details about his vision for changing the governance system. He also favors mental health support and school integration.
– Karen Juanita Carillo
A possible contentious relationship with Washington
New Yorkers of a certain age will remember this iconic New York Daily News headline from 1975: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” These words captured, with tabloid flair, the spirit of President Gerald Ford’s refusal to bail out New York City when it was teetering on bankruptcy. It also summarizes Donald Trump’s contemporary attitude toward his birth city that has since spurned him.
New Yorkers have already been fighting back against aggressive ICE raids and Trump has held out the possibility of sending the National Guard to patrol the streets of NYC. But what’s financially at stake for New York City is not entirely clear. At the very least, this week’s election result sets off a showdown between Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani. When endorsing Andrew Cuomo on the eve of the election, Trump offered to reward New Yorkers if they elected Cuomo, and punish them by denying federal assistance if Mamdani is elected. The city must now await the consequences.
A New York State Comptroller report estimated that the city will require $7.4 billion in federal operating funds in the 2026 fiscal year and that New York City could lose as much as $535 million or higher in fiscal years 2025 and 2026, which doesn’t even account for the finalization of the 2026 federal budget. Trump has already frozen $18 billion for infrastructure projects, but it’s questionable whether the Trump administration can legally withhold congressionally authorized funds. The Adams administration is in court now fighting Trump’s attempt to block $12 million in federal money that would be used for counterterrorism in the subway.
Mamdani has indicated that, in the best interests of the city, he is willing to work with Trump. But given Trump’s resolve to bring the hammer down on urban Democratic strongholds, he has little incentive to cooperate with the mayor-elect. While President Ford’s antagonism towards New York City may have led Republicans to lose New York State in the 1976 presidential elections, Trump already lost New York State in 2024.
Come January, Mamdani will have to fight to quell his many sceptics at home who question his campaign promises. But that’s just the beginning. He must simultaneously marshall all his political skills to not simply restore federal funding, but protect the city from active federal harm.
– Mark Winston Griffith