State Assembly from the 36th district, representing the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, he is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair. The family immigrated to South Africa when he was five years old and then to the United States when he was seven, settling in New York City. Mamdani graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and received a bachelor's degree with a major in Africana studies from Bowdoin College in Maine in 2014. After working as a housing counselor and hip-hop musician, he entered local politics as a campaign manager for Khader El-Yateem and Ross Barkan. Mamdani was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, defeating five-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in the Democratic primary. He was reelected without opposition in 2022 and 2024. In October 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election. He won the Democratic primary in an upset victory over Andrew Cuomo. His campaign platform includes support for fare-free city buses, public child care, city-owned grocery stores, LGBTQ rights, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, additional affordable housing units, comprehensive public safety reform, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. Mamdani also supports tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually.
In October 2019, Mamdani announced his campaign to represent New York's 36th State Assembly district, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City in Queens. He was endorsed by the DSA, running on a platform of housing reform, police and prison reform, and public ownership of utilities. Mamdani's June 2020 primary victory over five-term Democratic incumbent Aravella Simotas took almost a month to call, and he won the general election with no Republican opposition in November.[48] Mamdani was reelected without opposition in 2022 and 2024. Mamdani is a member of the DSA's nine-member "State Socialists in Office" bloc in New York and a member of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. Mamdani was the keynote speaker at the 2023 DSA convention, saying, "We are special as DSA electeds not because of ourselves; we are special because of our organization". As of January 2025, Mamdani was a member of nine Assembly committees: the Committee on Aging; the Committee on Cities; the Committee on Election Law; the Committee on Energy; the Committee on Real Property Taxation; the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus; the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force; the Asian Pacific American Task Force; and the Task Force on New Americans. Mamdani had been the primary sponsor of 20 bills in the Assembly—three of which became law—and the co-sponsor of 238 bills as of May 2025. As a member of the Assembly, Mamdani helped to launch a successful fare-free bus pilot program and participated in a hunger strike alongside taxi drivers.
New York City mayoral campaign (2024–present)
On October 23, 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City. His platform includes support for free city buses and a rent freeze in rent-stabilized housing. Mamdani also wants the city government to operate five grocery stores—one in each borough—to drive down grocery prices. His platform includes support for universal child care and for the construction of 200,000 new affordable housing units. He also supports public safety reform and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. His platform calls for tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually. For most of the primary campaign, Mamdani trailed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in polling. He and Cuomo raised similar amounts of money, but his donor base was considerably larger than Cuomo's. A poll taken shortly before the June 24 primary election showed that Mamdani had caught up to Cuomo. First-choice results on election night showed Mamdani had a large lead over Cuomo, who conceded the race that evening. On July 1, after the New York City Board of Elections released its ranked-choice ballot tabulation, the Associated Press announced Mamdani had won the Democratic primary. It was considered a major upset. A July 2025 poll indicated a shift in Jewish American political attitudes, with 43% of Jewish New Yorkers and 67% of Jewish voters under 44 planning to support Mamdani — levels of support suggesting waning attachment to traditional pro-Israel politics, while many Jewish leaders and voters remained critical of Mamdani. Donald Trump has issued a warning to withdraw federal funding should Mamdani emerge victorious. In response, Mamdani asserts that he will stand firm despite the threat.
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