Zohran Mamdani: Relationships, Campaigns, and Elections
Zohran Mamdani's political career has been built on coalition politics: the New York Democratic Socialists of America infrastructure, the Working Families Party, a younger generation of progressive elected officials, and a sprawling volunteer base. The list below walks through his major campaigns and the relationships that defined them, with citations to primary or strong secondary sources.
Pre-campaign: building the network (2015 to 2019)
Mamdani's first political volunteer role came in 2015 on Ali Najmi's Queens City Council campaign. He has since said he became interested in the race after reading a Village Voice article about Najmi and the rapper Heems, co-founder of Das Racist [1].
Between 2017 and 2019, he managed two losing campaigns that nonetheless connected him to the network that would later lift him to office. He managed Khader El-Yateem's 2017 City Council bid in Brooklyn and Ross Barkan's 2018 State Senate campaign in Queens. Neither candidate won, but both connected him to the New York Democratic Socialists of America infrastructure and to organizers who would back his own 2020 Assembly bid [1].
2020 Assembly primary: defeating Simotas
In June 2020, Mamdani ran for the 36th Assembly District in Astoria against five-term Democratic incumbent Aravella Simotas. He ran as a DSA-endorsed candidate, with the chapter providing volunteer infrastructure and small-dollar fundraising. He won the Democratic primary, becoming the first South Asian man and the first Ugandan-born member of the New York State Assembly [1].
The 2020 win was part of a broader DSA-aligned wave that also elected state Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assemblymembers Phara Souffrant Forrest and Marcela Mitaynes that cycle. The four came to be referred to in left-wing organizing circles as a Queens-and-Brooklyn progressive bloc [1].
Assembly re-elections (2022 and 2024)
Mamdani was re-elected to the Assembly in 2022 and 2024 without a serious primary challenge. His progressive base in Astoria proved durable across cycles [1].
2024 to 2025: the mayoral campaign
Mamdani announced his mayoral run on October 23, 2024, polling at roughly 1 percent of the Democratic primary field. The race came to be dominated by former Governor Andrew Cuomo's comeback bid, which was backed by an independent expenditure group, Fix the City, that raised more than $25 million for anti-Mamdani advertising [2].
Endorsements and key coalition members
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both endorsed Mamdani well before the June 2025 primary. Sanders has been an early supporter; Ocasio-Cortez announced her endorsement on June 5, 2025, in a New York Times op-ed in which she described Mamdani as the candidate closest to her own political mold [3]. Ocasio-Cortez, whose congressional district overlaps with Mamdani's Assembly district, headlined the closing-stretch Forest Hills Stadium rally on October 26, 2025 [4].
The Working Families Party endorsed Mamdani as their first-ranked-choice pick over Cuomo on May 30, 2025. The party's "Don't Rank Cuomo" effort was a defining feature of the primary's ranked-choice strategy [5].
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, a primary rival who finished third with 11.2 percent of first-choice votes, cross-endorsed Mamdani as his number-two pick weeks before the June 24 primary. The cross-endorsement is widely regarded as a decisive moment in the primary, particularly after Lander's late-campaign profile-raising arrest by ICE officers while escorting immigrants from a federal immigration hearing [5, 6].
Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in a September 14, 2025, New York Times op-ed, the first major statewide Democrat to do so. Hochul and Mamdani have disagreed publicly on tax increases on the wealthy and on Israel policy, with Mamdani crowds chanting "tax the rich" at Hochul during the Forest Hills rally [7].
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Mamdani in late October 2025, days before the general election, after months of withholding endorsement. Jeffries acknowledged disagreements but said the party should unify against Republicans and Trump [4].
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams entered the primary late, finished fourth, and was part of the WFP's endorsed Democratic slate that put Mamdani at the top [5].
Notable non-endorsers
Several senior New York Democrats did not endorse Mamdani before the June 2025 primary, citing concerns about his positions on Israel: Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie [8]. Schumer in particular did not endorse Mamdani through the general election, citing his criticism of Israel; he and Mamdani spoke after Mamdani's November 4 win, with Schumer saying they had a "very, very good conversation" [8].
Volunteer-based and fundraising
Mamdani's campaign raised more than $8 million for the primary and general elections combined, the bulk from small donors. The campaign claimed an army of 50,000 volunteers and reported one million doors knocked in the primary alone [9].
Adversaries and opponents
The most consistent opponent across both phases of the race was Andrew Cuomo. After losing the primary to Mamdani by 12 points in the final ranked-choice tally, Cuomo continued as an independent in the general election under the "Fight and Deliver" line. Cuomo's primary tactic was attacking Mamdani's experience and on his views on Israel; Mamdani pressed Cuomo on the sexual harassment allegations that led to his 2021 gubernatorial resignation [9, 10].
Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary, then ran briefly as an independent before withdrawing in September 2025 and endorsing Cuomo. At the rally announcing his Cuomo endorsement, Adams suggested a Mamdani victory would put New York in league with European countries where, he claimed, Islamic extremism ran amok. Mamdani's campaign and Lander called the framing Islamophobic [10].
President Trump endorsed Cuomo on Truth Social on November 3, 2025, the eve of the general election, calling Mamdani a "Communist" who would turn New York into a "Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster" [10].
2025 Democratic primary results
On June 24, 2025, after the first round of ranked-choice tabulations showed Mamdani with 43.5 percent of first-choice votes and Cuomo well behind, Cuomo conceded the primary the same night [11, 12]. The official ranked-choice tabulation released on July 1 confirmed the result: Mamdani 545,334 votes (56 percent), Cuomo 428,530 votes (44 percent), after the elimination of all other candidates and the redistribution of ranked-choice ballots [13]. The 12-point margin made it the most decisive Democratic mayoral primary upset since Mike Bloomberg's 2001 run.
2025 general election results
On November 4, 2025, Mamdani won the general election against Cuomo (independent), Republican Curtis Sliwa, and minor candidates. With nearly 97 percent of ballots counted on election night, Mamdani led with over 50 percent, Cuomo 42 percent, and Sliwa 7 percent [14]. The certified count put Mamdani at 50.78 percent, the highest mayoral vote share in a competitive race since 2009, with turnout the highest since 1993. He became the first NYC mayoral candidate to clear one million votes since 1969 [9].
At 34 years old, he became the youngest NYC mayor in over a century, the first Muslim mayor, the first Asian American mayor, and one of the most prominent democratic socialists holding elected office in the United States [14].
Post-election coalition
Mamdani's transition team was co-chaired by former first deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer, former FTC chair Lina Khan, Grace Bonilla of United Way of New York City, and Melanie Hartzog. Elana Leopold served as executive director [15]. The mix of progressive and establishment figures signaled an attempt to govern broader than the campaign coalition, though tensions with the DSA left flank emerged within months of the inauguration over Mamdani's endorsement of Hochul's 2026 re-election bid [16].