On November 4th, 2025, Zohran Mamdani shocked the world by becoming not only the first self-proclaimed democratic socialist mayor of New York City, but also the first Muslim to hold the office. The 2025 New York City mayoral election was a unique one, marking an unprecedented shift in contemporary New York politics not seen since the mid-20th century. Here's what you need to know about this critical election.

So, who is Zohran Mamdani? Zohran Kwame Mamdani is a 34-year-old democratic socialist raised in Queens. Born in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and career filmmaker Mira Nair. After graduating from Bowdoin University, he returned to New York, where he worked as a political campaign manager.

Zohran’s age, inexperience, and multicultural Muslim identity have become a hot topic of debate among political circles, with questions of whether he’s truly qualified to hold the NYC mayoral office, and some voters even expressing suspicion that his victory may pose national security threats. Despite this, Mamdani holds fast to his New York identity and his dedication to the people.

The final three candidates in this election were former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo (IND), three-term state legislator Zohran Mamdani (DEM), and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa (REP). All three candidates ran on mostly economic platforms. Here are their policy platforms:

Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old former campaign manager for democratic socialist Khader El-Yateem, breaks the mold among previous New York mayoral candidates. Despite the controversy, the results are evident: Mamdani’s platform of creating affordable housing, universal healthcare, and free public transportation gives New Yorkers hope for an affordable future, earning him 50.4% of the vote.

Mamdani stands out among progressives for his ambitious policy agenda. To solve the housing crisis, Mamdani proposes freezing rent for rent-stabilized households, tripling housing production, and hiring union-backed workers to do so. As for healthcare, Mamdani seeks to increase accessibility to health insurance by cooperating with state partners to increase funding for public hospitals. Another key policy platform of Mamdani’s campaign was public transportation, seeking to implement more bus lanes, “bus first” intersections, and better-funded public buses and subways citywide.

Former New York governor and Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo ran on three main issues: affordable housing, improving public safety, and supporting public education. Capturing the second-highest number of votes, at roughly 41.6%, Cuomo was Mamdani’s most clear competitor. Despite running as an independent, he has historically aligned himself with the Democratic Party.

While on paper, Cuomo’s policy platforms seem to be similar to Mamdani’s, the difference is in their approach to key policy issues. To ease housing insecurity, Cuomo proposes lowering rent across the board, building 500,000 affordable homes. To combat public safety issues, Cuomo proposes a somewhat conservative approach, with promises to crack down on low-level crime and raise NYPD salaries.

Lifelong activist and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa stood as the Republican Party’s mayoral candidate. Winning only 7.1% of votes, The City’s tenure as a Democrat stronghold may have slated Sliwa to lose the race. Sliwa ran on a platform of improving public safety, affordable housing, and expanding public education.

Sliwa takes a more traditional New York approach to his policies, mirroring NYC mayors previous: hiring 7,000 NYPD officers and expanding Kendra’s law to improve access to outpatient psychological care, rehabilitating all vacant rental properties, and increasing teacher salaries and Gifted & Talented program funding citywide. While many voters were unconvinced by Sliwa’s platform, some were comforted by a perceived return to form for NYC Republicans.

As polling concluded, Cuomo gracefully congratulated Mamdani, chastising supporters who booed his victory. Sliwa reported having a “very pleasant” phone call with Mamdani on election night to congratulate him and wish him success in his mayoral run. Mamdani has likewise declared his respect for the other two candidates, as well as his thanks for their support.