By: Victoria Keraj and Rami Mansi
The New York City (NYC) Mayoral race was called on the night of Nov. 4, with Zohran Mamdani winning 50.4 percent of the vote, according to The New York Times.
Mamdani’s win is historic in NY as he will be the first Muslim mayor and the youngest since 1982. The City reports that a total of two million voters went to the polls, the highest recorded in over half a century.
In his victory speech, transcribed by The NYT, Mamdani stated, “I am young [ …]. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”
President Donald Trump has implied he would cut funding to NYC if Mamdani were elected, while referring to him as a communist.
Trump stated, “If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required,” according to Reuters.
As previously reported on by The Vanguard, Democrats disagreed on whether associating with his socialist alignment might be a hindrance to the party’s attempts to win enough House seats to gain a majority.
On the same night as the NY mayoral election, Democratic candidates won for governor in both the Virginia and New Jersey elections. According to NBC News, these candidates, along with Mamdani, “were all rewarded for making affordability and economic issues the center of the campaigns.”
In his victory speech, Mamdani attributed a new period of greatness to come for the Democratic Party to his focus on issues of affordability. “Our greatness […] will be felt by every rent-stabilized tenant who wakes up on the first of every month knowing the amount they’re going to pay hasn’t soared since the month before.”
BC junior Elizabeth Vargas shared her joy at Mamdani’s win.
“I’m so excited that somebody outside of the two-party system won the election. Yes, he’s a democrat, but he’s a democratic socialist. Completely different,” Vargas continued to share what exactly she enjoyed about Mamdani’s win. “I think my favorite part about him is that all of the rich people in power are scared of him. Everyone is paying, everyone was paying to get Cuomo to beat him, and lost.”
The importance of immigrants in NYC was a topic Vargas brought up, stating, “ I love that he’s an immigrant. There are so many immigrants [in NYC]. This is a city of immigrants […] It makes me really excited to see somebody, someone who’s a person of color and an immigrant in office.”
BC senior Uthman Okunola shared a lot of the same ideals as Vargas, including Mamdani’s appeal to the younger generation.
“He reached out to a lot of young people, and he understood the pain that a lot of residents are facing, especially when it comes to cost of living crisis, when it comes to our funds are being managed across the city.” Okunola continued, “And so the fact that he has a way of approaching people and appealing to them is very beautiful, and I can’t wait to see what he does. I’m very excited for him.”
Although BC students expressed excitement over Mamdani’s mayoral win, some remain hesitant to welcome the mayor-elect fully.
“There’s that sentiment of hope. And even though that’s amazing, we still have to remind ourselves that he is a politician, and he needs to be held accountable for the things that he agreed to during his campaign, right?” said Leslie Ramirez, Program Coordinator at the Immigrant Student Success Office (ISSO) at BC.
”But I think it’s definitely a very progressive move. It’s just step forward in terms of realizing that [Mamdani] really sees the government working for the people, or serving the people rather than us living in that survival mode.”
With his transitional period in office coming to a full start, all eyes are on the mayor-elect to step up to the promises he made during his campaign.