The son of academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdani was born in Uganda and briefly lived in South Africa. He immigrated to the United States when he was seven years old and settled in New York City. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Mamdani earned a bachelor's degree in Africana studies from Bowdoin College. He worked as a housing counselor and hip-hop musician before entering politics. He was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, after defeating four-term incumbent Aravella Simotas, and has since been reelected without opposition.
Before running for office, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention and housing counselor, assisting lower-income nonwhite home-owners in Queens with eviction notices and efforts to remain in their homes.[23] He said the experience motivated him to run for office to address the housing and affordability crisis.[23][24]
Music career
Mamdani is a fan of hip-hop and has composed and produced rap music.[25] In 2016, under the rap moniker Young Cardamom, he collaborated with Ugandan rapper HAB on an EP titled Sidda Mukyaalo, which is Luganda for "No going back to the village".[26] In 2019, he released a single titled "Nani" under the moniker Mr. Cardamom.[27] Cookbook author and actress Madhur Jaffrey is featured in the single's music video, playing Mamdani's grandmother.[28]
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.[16][37] His Assembly district includes a section of Astoria, which has a significant population of Muslim and Arab voters.[38]
As of January 2025, Mamdani was a member of nine Assembly committees: Committee on Aging; Committee on Cities; Committee on Election Law; Committee on Energy; Committee on Real Property Taxation; Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus; Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force; Asian Pacific American Task Force; and Task Force on New Americans.[39]
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.[40] As of June, he was the only state legislator in the mayoral race not to miss a session in Albany in 2025.[41]
In this role, he cited among his accomplishments winning over $100 million in the state budget for increased subway service, launching a successful fare-free bus pilot, and organizing New Yorkers to defeat a proposed dirty power plant.[41][24][42]
On October 23, 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in 2025.[43] His platform includes support for free city buses and a rent freeze in rent-stabilized housing.[44] Mamdani also wants the city government to operate five grocery stores—one in each borough—to drive down grocery prices.[45] If elected, Mamdani would be New York's first Muslim mayor.[46]
U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional districtAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Mamdani as her first choice for New York City mayor, saying, "Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack."[47] She appeared at a rally for Mamdani, where she voiced her support for his candidacy and criticized his main opponent, former governor Andrew Cuomo, saying: "Not ranking Cuomo [...] is the right thing to do to turn the page on the future of a Democratic party that does not continue to repeat the mistakes that have landed us here. We can never get past Donald Trump if we continue to elect the same people and make the same decisions that got us here in the first place."[48] On June 13, Mamdani and Brad Lander cross-endorsed each other in the primary.[49] On June 16, Mamdani and Michael Blake cross-endorsed each other.[50] Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Mamdani, saying: "Our nation faces a fundamental choice: Will we continue with a corporate-dominated politics driven by billionaires or will we build a grass-roots movement fueled by everyday people, committed to fighting oligarchy, authoritarianism, and kleptocracy?"[51] He reiterated his support on the platform X, with a post reading, "At this dangerous moment in history, status quo politics isn't good enough. We need new leadership that is prepared to stand up to powerful corporate interests & fight for the working class."[52]
Also on June 16, the editorial board of The New York Times wrote that it did "not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers' ballots", calling his experience "too thin" and likening his agenda to "a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio's dismaying mayoralty".[53]The Atlantic's Michael Powell likened his campaign to magical realism, claiming it was "exuberantly disconnected from actual government budgets and organizational charts."[5] Donald Trump called him a "100 percent Communist lunatic". The New York Times' chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman noted the contrast between those sorts of descriptors and Mamdani's preferred dress code, which for the entirety of his mayoral campaign consisted almost exclusively of a traditional suit and tie. "Dressing like an establishment guy offers a counterargument of its own", she said.[54]
For most of the campaign, Mamdani trailed Cuomo in polling. While he and Cuomo raised similar amounts of money, his donor base was considerably larger than Cuomo's.[55] However, one poll taken shortly before the June 24, 2025 primary election showed that Mamdani had caught up to Cuomo.[56]First-choice results on election night showed Mamdani had a large lead over Cuomo,[57][58] who conceded the race to Mamdani that evening.[59] The result, which has not yet become official, is considered a major upset.[60]
Shortly after Mamdani became the presumptive Democratic nominee, Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) wrote Attorney GeneralPam Bondi, alleging that Mamdani had concealed support for terrorism when he applied to become a citizen, and asking Bondi to revoke Mamdani's citizenship and deport him. In a tweet about his letter, Ogles referred to Mamdani as "little muhammad" and "antisemitic, socialist, communist".[61]
Zohran Mamdani's election advertisements used scenes from the Hindi-language Bollywood movie Deewaar, featuring Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan.[62]
Mamdani has argued that increasing policing and incarceration does little to prevent harm and that "dignified work, economic stability, and well-resourced neighborhoods" better create public safety.[68] He has advocated a more community-based approach to reducing crime, focusing on homeless outreach and anti-violence programs. He contends that there is too much reliance on police to fix societal problems, saying, "Police have a critical role to play, but right now we are relying on them to deal with the failures of the social safety net of reliance that is preventing them from doing their actual jobs."[69] He has proposed a department of community safety to expand mental health outreach.[45]
Economic policy
Mamdani has advocated capping rent increases, strengthening tenant protections, and creating a Social Housing Development Agency that would build publicly owned affordable housing.[70] He wants to build 200,000 new units of affordable, rent-stabilized homes over the next 10 years and double the amount of spending to rehabilitate homes for the city's 400,000 public housing tenants.[71] He also wants to "increase density around mass transit hubs" and "upzone wealthier neighborhoods", citing housing policies in Jersey City and Tokyo as better examples.[72]
Mamdani supports raising New York City's minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030.[73]
Mamdani supports an increase in corporate taxes in New York State from 7.25% to 11.5%, to match those of New Jersey.[74] He also supports a new 2% increase for income tax on city residents who earn more than $1 million a year,[71] to raise $20 billion to fund tuition-free CUNY and SUNY schools, statewide universal childcare, a subway fare freeze, free MTA buses, and tenant protections.[14]
Mamdani views climate action as essential to achieving social justice in New York City. In 2021, he organized volunteers and lobbied Governor Kathy Hochul to prevent the expansion of a gas-fired peaker power plant in Astoria, citing environmental concerns for low-income communities of color.[76][77] Mamdani has also backed statewide measures such as the All-Electric Buildings Act, which prohibits installing fossil fuel equipment (e.g., gas stoves) in new buildings, and supported introducing congestion pricing in Manhattan to reduce traffic-related emissions.[78][79]
As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani proposed a comprehensive decarbonization and resilience agenda. His "Green Schools for a Healthier New York City" blueprint would retrofit 500 public school buildings with rooftop solar arrays and upgraded HVAC systems, build 500 green schoolyards, transforming heat-absorbing asphalt into green space serving students and community residents , and convert 50 schools into year-round resilience hubs to offer shelter and resources during extreme heat, storms, or flooding, and extend tax incentives such as J-51 benefits to support building owners’ compliance with Local Law 97.[78][80]
Early in 2023, Mamdani introduced a bill called the "Not on our dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act", which would prohibit registered charities from donating to organizations involved in illegal West Bank settlements; a later iteration of the bill added to that organizations lending support to any war crimes in Gaza.[83][38][84] The day after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, Mamdani issued a statement which condemned Israel but made no mention of Hamas.[85] He would later characterize the Hamas attacks as a "horrific war crime."[84] On October 13, 2023, he was among several protesters arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City, part of a series of protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.[86][87][88]
In 2025, Mamdani declined to sign on to the annual New York Assembly resolution celebrating the anniversary of Israel's founding[89] because it contained the wording that Israel "continues to strive for peace with security and dignity for itself, its neighbors and throughout the world in order to fulfill the prophecy of becoming a light unto the nations", which Mamdani's spokesman said was "belied by the conduct of the right-wing government over the past 18 months".[89] His decision drew criticism from Assembly member Sam Berger, who also criticized Mamdani's condemnation of Israel during the Gaza war.[89] In response, Mamdani said he abhorred antisemitism and acknowledged Israel's right to exist,[82] but has not said whether he believes it has a right to exist as a Jewish state, saying instead that Israel "has a right to exist as a state with equal rights for all its citizens".[90][85] He has said that if Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to New York City, he should be arrested in accordance with the International Criminal Court's warrant.[91]
Mamdani was criticized for not co-sponsoring the Assembly's annual resolution for Holocaust Remembrance Day between 2022 and 2025; his campaign responded that he had voted for the resolutions and cited his social media posts from those years commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.[89][92]Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a left-wing organization in New York City, defended Mamdani, saying that his record was being misrepresented and that his policies would improve the lives of New Yorkers.[92]
The New York Times wrote that Mamdani's victory in the June 2025 Democratic mayoral primary "offered the starkest evidence yet that outspoken opposition to Israel and its government — and even questioning its existence as a Jewish state — is increasingly acceptable to broader swaths of the party, even in areas where pro-Israel Jews have long been a bedrock part of the Democratic coalition."[85]
Social issues
Mamdani supported Proposal 1, a 2024 amendment to the Constitution of New York that made it unconstitutional to engage in discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression), pregnancy and pregnancy-related outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.[99][100][101]
LGBTQ+ rights
In February 2025, Mamdani appeared at a rally in Union Square to protest an executive order signed by President Trump that threatened to "withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming treatments to trans youth".[102][103]
As part of his mayoral platform for NYC, Mamdani supports expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide. He proposes an immediate investment of $65 million for public providers to offer medical treatment and ensure hospital accountability. He also aims to establish NYC as an LGBTQ+ sanctuary city and establish the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to "expand and centralize the services, programs, and support that LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers need across housing, employment, and more."[104][105]
Transportation
Mamdani supports permanently eliminating bus fares.[106] He advocated for an MTA bus fare-free pilot program,[107][108] which was launched on the Q4, B60, Bx18, M116 and S46/96 routes in September 2023.[109][110] The program saw a 30% increase in ridership on weekdays, predominantly from people earning less than $28,000 a year. Across the five routes made free, assaults on bus operators dropped by 38.9%.[111] The fare-free program ended in August 2024 after state lawmakers did not reauthorize it.[112][113] In response, Mamdani said, "the MTA was opposed to this program... because they were saying that now is not the time to create any kind of confusion around fare collection."[107][114] He estimates that it would cost New York City $650 million per year to eliminate bus fares.[115]
In December 2022, Mamdani introduced a series of bills for the 2023 session called "Fix the MTA". He proposed free bus travel over the next four years across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and then Manhattan and Staten Island.[116] The Formula Three Act would fill the $2.5 billion shortfall of the MTA with another plank freezing fares at $2.75. Another plank would have set aside further money for more frequency, such as six-minute headways for trains and the 100 most-used bus routes, then using any additional funds to increase service by 20%.[117]
In 2023, Mamdani co-introduced a bill to enact a weight-based vehicle-registration fee to dissuade people from owning heavier vehicles in an effort to make streets safer.[118] Mamdani supports congestion pricing and drafted a bill with New York state senator Michael Gianaris titled "Get Congestion Pricing Right" to increase bus service frequency and increase the number of fare-free buses.[119]
據信紐約市打從1913年在任內去世的蓋諾（William Jay Gaynor）以來，就再也沒有過蓄鬍市長。儘管要證明這一點並非易事，但至少根據一系列紐約市長官方肖像，除了在1990年到93年擔任市長的丁勤時（David Dinkins）留有短髭（mustache，八字鬍），其他歷任紐約市長的鬍子都刮得很乾淨。
2013年，時值政治浪潮「阿拉伯之春」在埃及引發反對「穆斯林兄弟會」的政治起義之際，當時還在念大學的曼達尼在校刊上以《在開羅蓄鬚》 （Bearded in Cairo）為題，撰文描述他同年稍早在埃及讀書的經歷。曼達尼寫道，他前1年在美國蓄鬍，最初主要是作為1種反抗象徵，藉此嗆聲美國社會中把棕膚蓄鬍者與恐怖分子畫上等號的刻板印象；當他來到開羅，他卻因鬍子被當成伊斯蘭主義者，只好上理髮店進行修剪。
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