In a strong night for Democrats, voters across the country cast ballots on Tuesday, sending their candidates to governors’ mansions in New Jersey and Virginia and to the mayor’s office in New York City.
Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, was poised Tuesday night to be the next mayor of New York City, besting former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a race that was closely watched nationwide, including by President Donald Trump.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker who ran as a democratic socialist, was projected to win the mayoral contest against Cuomo, who ran as an independent and with the last-minute backing of Trump, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the volunteer Guardian Angels crime prevention organisation.
According to preliminary results from the city’s board of elections, Mamdani held 50.3 per cent of the vote, representing more than 972 000 ballots cast. Cuomo was in second with 41.6 per cent and Sliwa in third with 7.1 per cent.
Mamdani claimed victory in a short video posted to X of a subway car coming to a stop at City Hall.
Before supporters during his victory speech Tuesday night in New York City, Mamdani framed his election win as nearly revolutionary, as the end of an old form of politics and the ushering in of a new, bottom-up form of government.
“The future is in our hands,” he said. “My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty. I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life, but let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and only answers to the few. New York, tonight, you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate for a new kind of politics, a mandate for a city we can afford and a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that.”
Cuomo, the 67-year-old son of the late former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, conceded defeat during his concession speech Tuesday night.
“This campaign was the right fight to wage, and I am proud of what we did and what we did together. This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city and the future of this country,” he said. (UPI)
