NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani briefly speaks with reporters as he leaves the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 16, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
In the days leading up to the election, Mamdani vowed to use the "bully pulpit" and the judicial system to fight back against Trump's "threats."
"Donald Trump may speak as if it is his decision, but this is money that this city is owed. This is money that we will expect to collect," Mamdani said Monday.
CUOMO CLOSES GAP ON MAMDANI AS NYC MAYOR RACE TIGHTENS DRAMATICALLY IN NEW POLL
Mamdani's primary success exposed a divide within the Democratic Party, which suffered big losses up and down the ballot last year and has since struggled to put up a united front against the Trump administration without clear party leadership.
Cuomo resigned from office in 2021 in the face of multiple controversies, including several sexual harassment claims, which he has denied. After losing the primary he was expected to win, Cuomo challenged Mamdani as an Independent candidate in the general election, and has since charged Mamdani of being more a socialist than a Democrat.
"The truth is, there's a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now," Cuomo told Fox News last week. "You have an extreme left. Radical left. Bernie Sanders, AOC — Mamdani is just the banner carrier for that movement — versus the mainstream moderate Democrats. They now call me moderate. They used to call me liberal. Now, I'm a moderate because the whole party shifted."
New York Democrats were reluctant to endorse Mamdani's mayoral campaign after he secured the Democratic nomination.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to endorse Mamdani, despite telling reporters he has a "good relationship with him" and that they are "continuing to talk." Mamdani was arrested for protesting the war in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire outside Schumer's home in Brooklyn in 2023.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave an 11th-hour endorsement for Mamdani after months of equivocating. The announcement came the day before early voting began.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul hold hands on stage as they attend a "New York is Not For Sale" rally at Forest Hills Stadium, in the Queens borough of New York City, on Oct. 26, 2025. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
Weeks before Election Day, a slate of prominent New York City rabbis joined more than 650 rabbis nationwide to sign "A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future," asserting that Jewish Americans "cannot remain silent" on discrimination against Jewish people and citing Mamdani's stances that are critical of Israel.
Mamdani, who is of Indian descent, will be the first South Asian and first Muslim mayor of New York City.
Religion has been a defining issue in the mayoral race, as many Jewish New Yorkers have rejected Mamdani's positions on Israel, including his calling the war in Gaza a "genocide" and his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Mamdani has maintained that he "would not recognize any state's right to exist with a system of hierarchy on the basis of race, of religion."
When asked during last week's mayoral debate if Mamdani has any regrets about his "long-standing" anti-Israel views, the democratic socialist affirmed his commitment to protecting Jewish New Yorkers, as he has throughout the campaign.
Mamdani has a long record of supporting the pro-Palestinian movement, including at Bowdoin College, where he founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.
Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa is interviewed by Fox News Digital, in New York City on Aug. 18, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Mamdani will also be the first millennial mayor of the nation's largest city.
Such was clear from the early days of Mamdani's campaign, as he made strategic use of social media, including TikTok, to build a recognizable brand and motivate a swath of low-propensity voters.
His campaign played into the hands of an evolving – and chronically online – New York City electorate.
Scrolling through Mamdani's social media, his TikTok and Instagram pages resemble that of a New York City influencer. From the film-like filters and consistent fonts on his vertical videos to the cameos from celebrities, including model Emily Ratajkowski and comedian Bowen Yang, Mamdani's videos regularly amass millions of views.
During the general election, Mamdani's campaign began collaborating with content creators, inviting New York City's micro-influencers to a "New Media" briefing, which are typically reserved for mainstream media, and continuing to walk through the revolving door of podcast appearances, akin to such efforts by the Trump administration in 2024.
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Like Trump in 2024, Mamdani centered his mayoral campaign on affordability, vowing to deliver a New York City that voters could actually afford to live in.
Mamdani told Fox News in the final days of his campaign that he learned of a woman wearing a "MAGA for Zohran" hat at his Queens rally, eliciting Trump's renowned "Make America Great Again" slogan.
"It tells me that no matter what your politics are, you're feeling the same crisis, and this is a movement that looks to address that crisis" of affordability, Mamdani said. "No matter who you are, no matter where you live."
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/socialist-shockwave-zohran-mamdani-stuns-nyc-voters-hand-power-democrats-far-left-flank