How Zohran Mamdani became NYC's everyman mayor

Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani waves on stage after winning the 2025 New York City Mayoral race, at an election night rally in the Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S., Nov. 4. Reuters-Yonhap

Zohran Mamdani, 34, has won a million-voter mandate as the next mayor of New York City. Once a politically unknown state assemblyman and proud democratic socialist, he rose from polling at 1 percent to commanding 50.4 percent of New York City’s vote in just one year — a feat that even many journalists admit they didn’t foresee, after dismissing him with little more than a throwaway interview.

Through grassroots campaigning, the younger Mamdani bested billionaire-backed former governor Andrew Cuomo, corruption-riddled former mayor Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa. For the first time in 60 years, more than 2 million New York voters cast a ballot — a record-shattering turnout. Energized by his message of affordability and working people, his landslide victory inspired hope in a time of oligarchs and authoritarians.

The mayor-elect addressed the deep economic anxieties that dog New Yorkers and offered an alternative vision: a city we can afford. Earning endorsements from various organizations, including the Working Families Party, and politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Mamdani ran as a democratic socialist. His campaign promises included freezing the rent, free child care, and fast and free buses. Seoulites already enjoy many of the things that American socialists argue the government, not companies, should provide: affordable health care, gas and electric utilities, and fast and safe public transportation. Economic anxieties in America have peaked in 2025 due to expensive rent, groceries, health insurance, not to mention ICE raids.

This general election signals a shift, making way for the next generation of Democratic leadership and coalition of voters.

It was his Hindi/Urdu Bollywood-inspired campaign video that officially charmed me. Late at night, I cackled over Zohran Mamdani’s goofy and joyful YouTube videos as he dashed around the city, earning the trust of New Yorkers across class and color lines in the five boroughs. Born in Uganda to Indian parents — the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani — Zohran felt like a familiar figure. Half the world away, I’ll always be a New Yorker, born and raised, so when I watched his videos, I hoped against hope that he’d win and contemplated whether sleep or calling voters was more important.

Seoul has NYC energy. From its bagels to its hustle to its dazzling Gwanghwamun Square, I’ve been in awe and giddy over the city’s newfound global, financial and media swagger. Jongno District chief brags that Gwanghwamun will surpass even Times Square.

But Mamdani’s message reminded me that a city’s substance lies not in its dazzling surfaces, but in its working people — "pojangmacha ajumma," delivery workers and bus drivers. Should Seoul wish to emulate New York, then it would do well to heed his victory: “We will make this city one that working people can love and live in again.”

Texting with childhood friends back home, we shared the same sentiments: I haven’t felt hope like this in a long time.

Mamdani takes New York

“Energetic, enthusiastic, quick with a joke, and good-looking in a ‘Who’s your brother’s friend?’ kind of way,” writes New York Magazine, Zohran Mamdani showed up everywhere. With earnest messaging, cheer and clear New York hustle, he brought together a coalition of voters and volunteers as never before. Mamdani won decisively across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, with only Staten Island giving to Cuomo. He earned the Black, Latino and Asian votes.

Mamdani had a mixed performance in the East Asian enclaves. He won Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Manhattan’s Chinatown handily, but he lost Queens’ neighborhoods Bayside, Flushing, Little Neck and Douglaston, home to Korean and Chinese communities, to Cuomo. Public school education and the gifted programs remain a top issue for this group.

Slick, joyful videos shot him walking and shoe-leather canvassing across the city, talking and listening to everyday New Yorkers about his run for mayor. Filmed by a scrappy agency, he snuck in surprisingly fun civic lessons. He explained ranked choice voting with a mango lassi in Hindi/Urdu and asked voters on Valentine’s Day to be his Democrat. There he is in a park, hugging and cheerily taking selfie photos with fans. There he is in Brooklyn clubs and gay bars on Halloween to the surprise of adoring voters. He showed up to hug Mahmoud Khalil on stage with the comedian. He won the endorsement of the Orthodox Jewish leader Rabbi Moishe Indig. Electronic music DJs sampled his soundbites into bangers.

By July, the former governor Andrew Cuomo lost the primary, but he decided to still run as an independent. New York billionaires, such as Mike Bloomberg, poured a jaw-dropping $55 million to back Andrew Cuomo or attack his socialist opponent. At the eleventh hour, Cuomo got endorsed by Trump and Musk. Somehow, this local election had become a national concern. Cuomo was considered the “inevitable” candidate.

Mamdani repeated his message: “Organized people beats organized money”.

In a break from tradition, Zohran for NYC sold no campaign merchandise but gave out cheery blue and yellow hats, totes and shirts for free to volunteers; 34,000 volunteers grew into 100,000. Then his campaign pleaded, “Don’t donate money. We’ve raised the maximum we can spend on this campaign. But do give us your time.” With two months remaining, they knocked on doors, made phone calls and talked to neighbors. He showed up at the subway stops, the halal carts, churches, temples, synagogues, clubs and homes. “I am one of you” was the overwhelming message of the campaign videos. Cuomo, on the other hand, hadn’t set foot on a subway station in donkey's years.

Even when the polls placed Mamdani comfortably ahead of Cuomo for the general election, the field operation never let up: Don’t underestimate the opponent. Fight for the city you love. Politics is what you do, not what is done to you.

In the days leading up to the November general election, Cuomo issued nasty, racist attack ads with Islamophobic smears — darkening Mamdani’s skin, pasting his image over the World Trade Center 9/11, and likening him to terrorists for his Muslim faith. One Republican called to deport Mamdani. Cuomo called for his landlord to evict him and his wife from their apartment. Mamdani appealed to New York’s many Muslims and named and shamed Cuomo.

He showed rare courage when he touched the American third rail, the issue of Israel, and stated: Should Benjamin Netanyahu set foot in New York City, as mayor, he would order his arrest in keeping with the International Criminal Courts. To the people who have borne witness to a livestreamed genocide, his pledge is a rare, sane voice in the political desert.

Since he was declared the mayoral-elect in July, I’ve prayed that he’ll remain safe from political violence or assassination attempts that have become too common in Trump’s America.

The road ahead

Campaigning is one thing. Governing the city is something else altogether. The mayor-elect must choose his advisors carefully to operate the levers of power in state government. If Mamdani can manage to pass even one of the three promises, he’ll have won significant battles in New York State’s legislature. Trump has threatened to pull federal funding and may send the National Guard to storm the city, as he did in other Democratic stronghold cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.

In his victory speech, Mamdani made it clear that there is a mass movement ready to fight for their city. He gave Trump only four words: “Turn the volume up,” prompting the cheers of hundreds. From now until the mayor-elect is sworn in at City Hall, this columnist will be replaying the Bollywood tune “Dhoom Machale” that closed out his speech. Jan 1, 2026 can’t come soon enough.

Esther Kim is a writer from New York. She is a guest columnist for The Korea Times. The opinions and conclusions presented here, though shared with many seekers, are her own.