Economic and affordability platform

Mamdani's signature platform during the 2025 mayoral campaign centered on five proposals: a rent freeze for the roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City, fare-free city buses, universal child care for children aged six weeks to five years, a network of city-owned grocery stores (one in each borough), and a $30 per hour minimum wage by 2030 [1, 2].

The minimum wage proposal would raise the city floor incrementally from the current $16.50 per hour to $20 in 2027, $23.50 in 2028, $27 in 2029, and $30 in 2030, with subsequent increases tied to cost-of-living and productivity measures [3, 1]. Critics, including the Cato Institute and business groups like the Queens Chamber of Commerce, have argued that the city does not have legal authority to set a minimum wage above the state level without Albany approval and that the magnitude of the increase would burden small businesses [3, 4].

To fund the agenda, Mamdani has proposed raising the New York City corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent (matching New Jersey's rate) and adding a 2 percent income tax on earnings over $1 million. His campaign estimated this would raise approximately $10 billion annually, or roughly 9 percent of the city's $115 billion budget [5]. Both tax changes would require Albany approval. Governor Kathy Hochul has publicly opposed tax increases on the wealthiest New Yorkers, setting up a state-city standoff on the central funding mechanism for Mamdani's agenda [6].

Housing

Mamdani's housing platform combines a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units with construction of 200,000 new affordable housing units, primarily through a city-led Social Housing Development Agency rather than through private developers [2, 7]. He has supported stronger tenant protections, debt relief for taxi medallion owners (a campaign rooted in his 2021 hunger strike), and reforms to New York's property tax system [2].

The rent freeze would apply only to the city's roughly one million rent-stabilized units and would be enacted through Mamdani's appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board, which sets annual rent adjustments. Critics, including some housing economists, argue that decades of rent stabilization have not solved the city's affordability crisis; supporters argue the freeze is needed for immediate relief while supply is expanded [4, 6].

Transit

Fare-free city buses were the highest-profile transit proposal of Mamdani's campaign and one of the few items he could plausibly point to as having Assembly precedent. He sponsored the 2022 "Fix the MTA Act," a package of proposals whose fare-free bus provisions were folded into the state budget and ran as a pilot from September 2023 through August 2024, covering one bus line in each borough [8, 9].

The pilot was widely viewed as a success on rider metrics: ridership rose 30 percent on weekdays and 38 percent on weekends, and 23 percent of riders said they made trips specifically because the service was free [10]. The pilot was not renewed by the legislature in 2024, in part over MTA budget concerns. As of April 2026, both the state Senate and Assembly's one-house budget proposals for FY2027 called for reviving the pilot under Mamdani's mayoralty, though Hochul's position is still being negotiated [8].

Estimates of the cost of citywide fare-free buses range from $600 million to $800 million annually [11, 9]. Whether Mamdani can secure that funding from a state-controlled MTA and a governor who opposes new taxes on the wealthy remains an open question.

Tax and corporate policy

Beyond the corporate tax rate and millionaire surtax, Mamdani has supported a broader set of progressive economic measures: free tuition at CUNY and SUNY (a state issue), a ban on non-compete clauses, expanded paid family leave, and the strengthening of labor protections, including new rights for warehouse and gig workers [2, 5].

His "Baby Baskets" program would provide every newborn in New York City with a starter set of supplies, including diapers, formula, and books, an idea borrowed from Finland and Scotland [12].

Israel and Palestine

Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights and a critic of Israeli government policy, positions that drew sustained attention during his mayoral run. He supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, has refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and has said he believes in Israel's right to exist but not its right to preferential treatment of one religious group [2].

In the Assembly, he was a co-sponsor of "Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act" (A610), which would have prohibited New York-based not-for-profit corporations from supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The bill did not advance to a floor vote [9]. He also supported the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Act, which created a recognized demographic category in state data collection [9].

As mayor, his first executive orders on January 1, 2026, revoked Adams-era orders adopting the IHRA antisemitism definition and prohibiting city agencies from boycotting Israel, decisions that drew sharp criticism from the UJA Federation of New York and the New York Board of Rabbis [13].

Public safety

Mamdani's platform includes a new Department of Community Safety alongside the existing NYPD, focused on mental-health response, housing instability, and other non-criminal incidents that currently consume police resources [2]. His campaign emphasized that the proposal is complementary rather than a replacement for traditional policing. Older statements from 2020 calling for police defunding and tweets describing law enforcement as "racist and wicked" resurfaced during the campaign; he was repeatedly pressed on whether he stood by them [14].

He has also called for ending qualified immunity for police officers under city law and for stronger civilian oversight of misconduct cases.

LGBTQ+ rights

Mamdani has expressed consistent support for LGBTQ+ rights, including protection of gender-affirming care for minors and adults in New York State, and has framed his administration as a "firewall" against federal rollbacks under the Trump administration [1].

Labor

Mamdani's pledge to "stand alongside unions and expand labor protections" was a recurring theme of his campaign. Beyond the minimum wage and non-compete ban, he has supported card-check union recognition, expanded paid family leave at the city level, and stronger enforcement of wage theft laws [15].

In the Assembly, his first 100 days as mayor included the recovery of more than $9.3 million in restitution for workers and consumers, framed by his administration as a worker-protection success [16].

Assembly voting record

Across his nearly five years in the Assembly (January 2021 to December 2025), Mamdani served as primary sponsor on 21 bills during the 2025 legislative session alone, and co-sponsor on 242 more [17]. Per state records summarized by Gothamist, 15 of the bills he attached his name to passed both houses of the Legislature in 2025, including the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which Hochul had until the end of 2025 to sign or veto [17].

Across his full Assembly tenure, only three Mamdani-sponsored bills became law, a figure his opponents repeatedly cited during the 2025 primary [18]. Mamdani and his supporters argued that the count understates his impact, pointing to the fare-free bus pilot (which was folded into the 2023 state budget rather than passed as a standalone bill), his role in the taxi-medallion deal, and his work on other legislation that passed under different primary sponsors [18, 8].

The Politico New York and New York Magazine reported that Mamdani cast a protest vote against the 2024 state budget partly over the failure to renew the fare-free bus pilot; Mamdani has disputed that framing [18].