Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda.

Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a postcolonial scholar who has taught at Makerere and Columbia. His mother, Mira Nair, is the Indian-American filmmaker behind Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding. The family lived in Cape Town for three years before moving to New York City when Mamdani was around seven [1].

He attended the Bank Street School for Children, then graduated from the Bronx High School of Science [2]. From 2010 to 2014, he studied at Bowdoin College, majoring in Africana studies with a minor in government and working on the staff of The Bowdoin Orient. While at Bowdoin, he co-founded the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine [3].

After graduation, Mamdani worked in Queens as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor, a role he has cited as the formative experience that shaped his housing platform [3].

After graduation, Mamdani worked in Queens as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor, a role he has cited as the formative experience that shaped his housing platform [3]. In 2016, he served as a music supervisor and "third assistant director" on his mother's Disney film Queen of Katwe, about a Ugandan chess prodigy, with a brief on-screen cameo, and one of his songs featured in the film [4].

He also pursued music under the names Mr. Cardamom and Young Cardamom from roughly 2017 to 2019. He is best known for the 2019 single "Nani," featuring his grandmother and actress-cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, and the earlier "Salaam," which sparked controversy for praising the Holy Land Five [1].

Mamdani's first campaign volunteer role came in 2015, on Ali Najmi's Queens City Council bid, after he read a Village Voice profile of the campaign and the rapper Heems [1].

Mamdani's first campaign volunteer role came in 2015, on Ali Najmi's Queens City Council bid, after he read a Village Voice profile of the campaign and the rapper Heems [1]. Between 2017 and 2019, he managed the campaigns of Khader El-Yateem (2017 City Council) and Ross Barkan (2018 State Senate). Neither candidate won, but both connected him to the New York DSA infrastructure he would later run with [1].

In June 2020, Mamdani defeated five-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in the Democratic primary for New York's 36th Assembly District in Astoria, running with the Democratic Socialists of America [1].

In June 2020, Mamdani defeated five-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in the Democratic primary for New York's 36th Assembly District in Astoria, running with the Democratic Socialists of America [1]. He was sworn in the following January, representing Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and Astoria Heights, becoming the first South Asian man and the first Ugandan-born member of the New York State Assembly [5].

That fall, Mamdani joined New York City taxi drivers in a 15-day hunger strike protesting predatory medallion loans. The Bill de Blasio administration ultimately reached a deal capping drivers' debt loads and monthly payments, an outcome Mamdani has cited as a defining moment of his political career [6, 5]. He was re-elected in 2022 and again in 2024 [3].

Between September 2023 and September 2024, he championed a fare-free bus pilot that made one route in each of the five boroughs free for a year, securing more than $100 million in the state budget for related transit investments [1]. By May 2025, he had served as primary sponsor on 20 bills (three signed into law) and co-sponsor on 238, sitting on nine committees, including Aging, Cities, Election Law, and the Asian Pacific American Task Force [1].

Mamdani announced his mayoral run on October 23, 2024, polling at roughly 1 percent in a Democratic primary field that came to be dominated by former Governor Andrew Cuomo's comeback bid [5].

Mamdani announced his mayoral run on October 23, 2024, polling at roughly 1 percent in a Democratic primary field that came to be dominated by former Governor Andrew Cuomo's comeback bid [5]. The Working Families Party endorsed him as their first-ranked-choice pick over Cuomo on May 30, 2025 [7]. A week later, on June 5, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement, alongside Bernie Sanders's, was widely treated as the inflection point of the primary. Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times she was endorsing the candidate closest to her own political mold [6].

On June 24, 2025, Mamdani defeated Cuomo in a ranked-choice upset that was widely considered one of the biggest in modern New York political history [7]. The general election was bruising. Cuomo continued running as an independent under the "Fight and Deliver" line, Republican Curtis Sliwa refused to drop out despite pressure from Cuomo allies, and President Trump endorsed Eric Adams, who later withdrew but remained on the ballot [7].

The closing-stretch "New York Is Not For Sale" rally at Forest Hills Stadium on October 26, 2025, brought Mamdani together with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez [8]. On November 4, he won the general election with 50.78 percent of the vote, the closest NYC mayoral election since 2009. He became the first NYC mayoral candidate to clear one million votes since 1969, and turnout was the highest since 1993 [7].

Mamdani's transition team was announced the day after the election, 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, with Elana Leopold as executive director [9].

Mamdani's transition team was announced the day after the election, 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, with Elana Leopold as executive director [9]. On November 10, he named Dean Fuleihan, who had held the same role under de Blasio, as his first deputy mayor, with Elle Bisgaard-Church staying on as chief of staff [9].

He was inaugurated as the 112th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2026. Sworn in just after midnight at City Hall station by Attorney General Letitia James, with a public ceremony at 1 p.m. presided over by Bernie Sanders, he became NYC's first Muslim mayor, first South Asian mayor, and youngest since 1892. Speakers at the public ceremony included Ocasio-Cortez, Javier Muñoz, Lucy Dacus, and Mandy Patinkin [9].

His first executive orders, signed the same day, revoked all of the executive orders Eric Adams had signed after his September 2024 federal indictment, including ones adopting the IHRA antisemitism definition and prohibiting city agencies from boycotting Israel. Mamdani also revitalized the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants under tenant organizer Cea Weaver [10].

On February 6, 2026, Executive Order 13 reinforced limits on city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, prohibiting ICE from entering city property, including schools, shelters, and hospitals, without a judicial warrant [11]. By the 100-day mark in April, the administration reported $9.3 million in restitution recovered for workers and consumers, finalized rules banning hidden hotel fees, secured a $5 million settlement with delivery-app companies, and committed to closing Rikers Island. Stanley Richards became the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the NYC Department of Correction [12, 13].