New York City has its first Muslim, millennial mayor: Zohran Mamdani. Zohran won on a bold, democratic socialist platform, promising to freeze rents, provide city-wide free childcare, and tax the rich. Much has already been said about his historic campaign, featuring viral videos, relentless public appearances, and skillful takedowns of his Trump-endorsed, disgraced rival, Andrew Cuomo.

Yet, when I think about Zohran, I find myself thinking much less about him, and much more about the everyday people who powered him to victory – it is this aspect of his win that makes me genuinely excited. I’m not a proponent of electoral politics as a vehicle for radical change, especially not in the United States where the Democratic Party maintains a vice grip on all potential challenges to Trumpism. As a working-class American born at the end of the 90s, I acutely remember my mother’s Obama-fever, and the subsequent sting of disappointment when “Yes We Can” quickly faded into distant memory. But I also think it's important that we celebrate this Mamdani win for what it really is: evidence that working people do have the power to enact political change. Elections are not revolutions, but the energy that Zohran has harnessed is evidence and a much-needed reminder of what is possible in our lifetime. The people of New York City powered Zohran to victory, and people all over the world are capable of this and much more.

As my generation of US and UK leftists have no experience with an electoral win of this magnitude, I wanted to ask the New Yorkers (current and former) in my life what this moment feels like for them. As much as I care about Zohran’s win on its own merits, I care much more about understanding what it signifies in the political imaginaries of the people who helped get him there. The answers I received come from a wide variety of perspectives: New Yorkers in London, Londoners in New York, artists, bartenders, lawyers, organisers, students, a lot of gays, and a few straights for good measure. The one thing that they all have in common is that they hold a place in my heart.

“It was so special to be at Zohran’s victory party last night. When I looked around that room, I saw every single type of New Yorker from Black trans women and non-binary folks, to Nepali uncles and West African aunties, to Sikh Punjabi young organisers and online influencers from the Latino community. That room was a microcosm of New York City, and that’s exactly what I love about it. In one day, I can go from my neighborhood, which is very Caribbean, to the neighborhood where my partner grew up in Woodside Queens, home to the largest Sherpa community outside of the Himalayas, and we can go to the kyidug together with his cousins. Then I can meet up with my friends in Astoria and get a freddo espresso at a Cypriot-owned coffee shop and enjoy dinner at an Afghan restaurant, before going out to a queer club in Bushwick later that night. That is the quintessential perfect Saturday in New York City to me. I have been exposed to so many worlds in this one place, and it is such a privilege. And to see all those worlds, coming together last night, moved me and made me proud to belong to a place where so many of us believe a better world is possible. 

Electoral politics aren't everything for me, as I believe we must build outside of the political systems that have historically failed us, but this moment still feels really joyful. New York City is the place where my grandfather was born in 1925. He actually passed away this time last year at 99.5 years old, on November 7th, so I am reflecting on his life recently and what he loved about this city the most, which was its diversity. My grandma immigrated from China to New York in the 1940s, and my mom was born and raised in the city before being pushed out. I returned to the city many times as a young person, and then moved here to start my life fully, as a queer young person from South Florida at the City University of New York. New York is just the place that has held me for a long time, and Zohran’s victory means a lot to me because it makes me think of my family. What would it have meant for us if the affordability crisis didn't happen? If my family could have kept their apartment, what type of situation would we be in now? I just wish my grandpa was here to see the day Zohran was elected. I think he would have been so excited about this and to see all the different types of New Yorkers that fought for this reality.”

– Lexie, Brooklyn-based labour organiser

“I moved here two months ago, after a collective seven years in D.C., where I lived through two of the most traumatic, disappointing, and shocking presidential elections in the recent history of our country. The feeling I associate with election night is fear, anticipation of shock and disappointment… that politics never work out the way you want them to. The feeling that a candidate is finally in office FOR US has blown my mind. I feel like there is such a sense of community in this city as a result of this election. I feel it on my runs in Prospect Park and in my walks home from Radio Bakery where I’ve stopped to chat with a man who has lived on his block for 32 years… and I feel it at my bodega when I stop in to buy toilet paper and gatorade.”

– Elsie, newly-minted New Yorker

“Might be cynical, but it feels like the work has just begun. Mamdani has made many historically ambitious promises, and he’s earned working people’s trust. For now. His positive and hopeful message is very inspiring, but I am nervous about his ability to deliver on his agenda without substantial new federal and state funding. President Trump is threatening to cut federal funding from its current levels, which are too low, and Governor Hochul is unlikely to sign on any tax increases before her election next year. I hope that his electoral popularity can be converted into the governing power he needs to enact real change.”

– Tom, PhD Student at New York University

“It’s amazing how connected you still feel to a city long after leaving it. I moved to New York in autumn of 2016, the autumn Trump was elected, the autumn I went to my first protest. This was my first real engagement with U.S. politics, and it was one defined by disgust, fury, and, even so, a small belief that we could change things. Over the years, the political landscape has warped beyond our imagination, and the scope of my own politics has expanded beyond the electoral. My feelings towards U.S. politics grew mostly cynical. But Mamdani’s victory reveals the myopia of cynicism. Change takes hope, and work, and years. 

Watching the results from London, where I now live, I’m reminded of what I felt nine years ago despite the times: an expansive, simple love for people, for what we feel and suffer and desire together, for what we might achieve together. Back then, my feelings were enlivened by the pride of being able to call New York my home. Today, I know you don’t have to call a place home to be proud of it.”

– Stacey, London-based writer & former New Yorker

“I am proud to live in a city that asks what is possible, not just what is acceptable. I am excited to follow a candidate – and now a mayor – who can advocate for my principles and values in plain, clear, and persuasive language. And I am optimistic for the future.”

– Anonymous, Crown Heights resident in their late 20s

“I’m worried for a few reasons. Zohran’s win may likely allow the Democratic party (a party of genocide and corruption) to redeem its image among younger voters and thus stifle more revolutionary movements. It largely depends on what he actually gets done and/or chooses to do. But he no longer centres Palestine in his politics in the way that he did in 2023 or 2021 or 2017. He condemned the resistance, and he pivoted to focusing on antisemitism. He has already walked back on replacing the current head of the NYPD who greenlit the violent arrest and abuse of pro-Palestine protestors across the city. In this way, he has betrayed his pro-Palestine and Palestinian supporters who were largely responsible for his campaign’s momentum. Instead, he has decided to cater to liberal and centrist Democrats, evidenced by his summer campaign team hires and recent statements he’s made about the genocide. He needs to be held accountable for that. He’s a politician now and should be treated as such. He serves the interests of rich, capitalist New Yorkers as well as the rest of us. At the end of the day, this is not a win for socialism because Zohran is not a socialist; he’s a capitalist who wants a welfare state.

Nonetheless, I want to say that any working class solidarity is beautiful, and it is clear that people in the Working Families Party are trying to do admirable things. The immigrant communities in New York who are responsible for this win also deserve to feel hope. But there is a dark side to the co-optation and dilution of working class movements. It is up to us to recognise that real victories in the fight against capitalism, racism, settler-colonialism, and fascism will not happen easily in the imperial core, as the result of one election. 

I always expect the worst from politicians. Who is to say what will happen? At the bare minimum, he needs to fully implement BDS into New York economics and politics. Any abandonment of free and total liberation of Palestine and anti-imperial politics is dangerous. Zohran should realise there is absolutely no benefit to reneging on promises or sacrificing principles. The right will come for him anyways. I really am relieved that he won and not Cuomo, but Zohran earned my vote – not my loyalty.”

– Anonymous, New York-based organiser

“I work in a restaurant, and I can’t think of another place where I would have felt the impact of Mamdani’s victory so palpably. New Yorkers were coming in off the street into our bar, hugging me as I greeted them at the door, and tourists shared excitement and hope that this momentum might reach across the country to their own cities. The bussers cleaning tables had smiles on their faces, and at the end of the night, the line cooks were dancing in the kitchen and gave me some free cookies to take home.

In his victory speech, Mamdani mentioned calloused and burned workers’ hands rarely being allowed to hold power — it makes me think of us working at that restaurant and how happy and excited we all are. Politically, I’ve felt very demoralized for a long time. It’s brutal to fight so hard for not even the bare minimum. Mamdani reminds me that we can ask for so much more — we really can have politicians who are intelligent, compassionate, engaged in their communities, and care about real working people. And it felt refreshing, even if only briefly, to shift focus from the Trumpian chaos and have real, tangible political conversations with my community about what we want for our city and how we can achieve it. It was just a magical New York night. I love my city, I love my community, and I feel like Mamdani’s victory is a glimpse at a very bright and very real future.”

– Carlos, musician and bartender 

“Like so many others in my generation and of my politics, I have been so disillusioned by any kind of electoral campaign or candidate. When I first moved to New York four years ago, I joined DSA, in the hopes of making community. And in my first meeting, Zohran was there. I remember being so taken aback by him, his charisma and commitment to the movement. I’ve continued to see him rise in so many different ways throughout my time in New York. One of my more recent memories was in November 2023, shortly after the brutal Israeli response to the events of October 7th. Zohran was arrested while protesting outside of Kirsten Gillibrand’s apartment.

Seeing his remarkable rise has been astounding. I try not to get too representation-pilled, but as a Brown, gay Muslim, you see someone like him and it’s such a stark juxtaposition to the post-9/11 America that I grew up in. Last night, I was amidst many other Brown, gay people watching the events unfold on the screen. And when AP called it, we were all looking around at each other like “wow, is this fucking real?” That was a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

At home, I watched the election speech live, and I sobbed throughout so much of it. I think the most defining moment of that victory speech was when he said “I’m a Muslim and I will not be apologizing for that”, and it did push a button of like “oh my god, I didn’t even know I had all of this pain within me from all of the Islamophobia that I had become so normalized to.” To see the mayor of the most influential city of the world say I will never apologise for being Muslim, it took me so aback. I do feel like the tide is changing – and the tide has changed. Like we saw, the Cuomo campaign relied on blatant Islamophobia, and to see that fail? That alone made me think: perhaps the bigotry that has felt so powerful, perhaps it doesn’t actually hold the gravity and weight that whiteness and western religion has told us that it does. 

Then Zohran says thank you and fucking Dhoom Machale plays at the end of his speech. For South Asians, that song is like the most representative song of what it felt like to grow up in the western world in the 2000s. It was like “I’m gonna play fucking Dhoom Machale at the end of my victory speech in New York City and you’re gonna look at me as a Brown, Muslim man with my Syrian wife and my mom who has directed some of the best Indian cinema of all time, and you have voted me in as mayor and you’re gonna - I don’t know - embrace all of that.” Seeing the crowd cheer and all of the reactions to it, the only thing I can really repeat in my mind is Brown, Muslim boys are so so up right now.”

– Shahamat, Brooklyn-based writer

Reflecting on your voice notes, Instagram DMs, and texts has filled me with what I am tempted to call a feeling of awe, a feeling that I don’t let myself experience nearly often enough. So much of left politics is focused upon the forces that we’re up against that I think we risk forgetting the power we hold in our hands. At the core of our collective movement is the belief that we are capable of doing things differently – that another world is possible. Whether or not Zohran’s mayorship succeeds in enacting real change remains to be seen, but the people of New York have shown us that the majority of people do not want the far right or the establishment: they want a choice.▼