(New York) Despite the storm which has just poured a torrent of rain on East Village, around forty volunteers, almost all in their twenties, are at the Tumpkins Square Park to help Zohran Mamdani.
And while they receive their instructions before going to ring at the doors of this Bigarré district of Manhattan, Daniel Hickman approaches them, dressed in a t-shirt and armed with a poster in the colors of the candidate for the town hall of New York who could enter the story on Tuesday. He has just voted in anticipation in a neighborhood office, in this penultimate Thursday in June.
“I am 42 years old, I am a socialist, and it is the first time that I do not have to resign myself to the strategic vote,” said this canine educator, who arrived 20 years ago in New York of his Natal Arkansas. “Zohran is really likely to win. »»
Photo Richard Hétu, special collaboration
Daniel Hickman, New York
By showing the group of young volunteers, he adds: “You see that, that’s how we mobilize people. You give them a reason to vote. »»
In fact, if the primary democratic for the election to New York town hall was reserved for 45 years and under, Zohran Mamdani would prevail, according to the polls.
Aged 33, he could then have the chance to become, next November, the youngest mayor of New York, as well as the first Muslim to occupy this post and the first socialist to have brooded as such.
The question is whether the enthusiasm he inspires among the youngest voters will be contagious enough to surprise the former governor of New York State Andrew Cuomo, who is ahead of him in the polls.
Photo Richard Hétu, special collaboration
Idana Wilson, student
Idana Wilson, a 20 -year -old student, believes it.
“Many people want a radical change to the town hall,” she said before going to meet East Village voters. “Zohran is super good because he pays attention to people who have lived here for a long time and who have seen the city become unaffordable. »»
Proposals and clips
Elected for the first time in the New York Assembly in 2020 in a district of Queens, Zohran Mamdani is not the first member of the American Democratic Socialists to run for New York town hall under the Democratic banner. He was preceded as such by David Dinkins, the first black elected mayor of the city in 1989.
However, unlike David Dinkins, Zohran Mamdani did not abandon all his ideas on the left in order to access the town hall. His main proposals bear witness to this:
- rent freezing for more than 2 million New Yorkers;
- free of all bus circuits;
- Establishment of a universal daycare service for children aged 6 – and 5 years;
- Opening of grocery stores managed by the municipality and offering subsidized products.
And how does he intend to finance his promises? By bringing the tax rate of businesses to 11.5 % and by increasing New Yorkers by 2 % winning $ 1 million and more per year.
But its popularity is not only due to its program. Ex-recyeur and son of director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!), Zohran Mamdani perfectly masters the art of clip, multiplying interventions on social networks where he interacts with taxi drivers, street cooks and other New Yorkers who make the city walk.
Photo Richard Hétu, special collaboration
Toby Tilley, student and former New York
Toby Tilley, a 21 -year -old student, will not be able to participate in the Democrat primary, being domiciled in Hoboken, New Jersey. But this former New Yorker lends a hand in the campaign of Zohran Mamdani, due in particular to his online presence.
“I first felt helpless when I saw the advance that Cuomo had in the polls,” he said at the Tompkins Square Park. “But Zohran has really taken off in recent weeks, in particular thanks to his social networks and his online presentation. This is what attracted many people of my generation, including me. »»
AOC support, Bloomberg’s opposition
Its program and dynamism also earned Zohran Mamdani to receive a coveted support by most of its ten democratic rivals, that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During an assembly held in Brooklyn on June 14, the champion of American progressives placed the fight of the socialist candidate in a national context.
If we can change the page of the largest city in the United States in America, we can also change the page in our country.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat representative of New York
Zohran Mamdani also received the support of Bernie Sanders. But he scares the New York elites and the Democratic centrists, who see him in him a caricature of a certain left of which Donald Trump and the Republicans delight. The former mayor of New York and billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg spent at least $ 8 million to help the cause of Andrew Cuomo. This money helped finance an avalanche of pubs denouncing the “dangerous” program of the socialist candidate.
Photo Nicole Crain, The New York Times
Andrew Cuomo, ex-Governor of New York State and New York town hall candidate last Tuesday
“We do not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a place on the New York voting bulletins,” opens the editorial page of the editorial page of the editorial page of the editorial page of New York Timesreproaching him both his lack of experience and his program.
The last week of campaign was not easy for Zohran Mamdani. The latter in particular suffered criticism from the American Museum of the Shoah after having established a link between the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War and the calls to “globalize the intifada”.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, Indian parents who immigrated to the United States-his father is a professor at Columbia University-Zohran Mamdani said he was the subject of death threats in recent days.
But his most memorable declaration of the campaign may have occurred during the last debate between the Democratic candidates. Attacked by Andrew Cuomo on his lack of experience, he replied by recalling the burrs of the ex-government.
“I never had to resign in disgrace,” he said. I have never reduced (the health insurance program) Medicaid. I have never stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in (the metropolitan transport agency). I never continued the 13 women who accused me credible with sexual harassment. I never brought a trial to obtain their gynecological files. And I have never done these things because I am not you, Mr. Cuomo. »»
At the Tompkins Square Park, this argument has weight among the young volunteers of Zohran Mamdani.
“I cannot imagine having a female harasser as mayor,” says Olivia, a 21 -year -old student who prefers to keep her last name.
The suspense of the preferential vote
He could flow more than a week before New Yorkers know the winner of the Democratic primary for the election at the town hall of their city. This is due to the preferential voting method that will be used during this ballot.
This voting system allows voters to classify up to five candidates in order of preference. If none of the candidates obtains 50 % of the votes during the counting of the first choices, we eliminate from the race the one who obtained the least votes, while redistributing the second choice of his voters. If, after a second round, none of the candidates is elected, the exercise is repeated until a candidate obtains a majority.
In 2021, Eric Adams had taken Eight Tours – and more than two weeks – to be declared the winner of the Democratic primary for the election to the town hall of New York. In 2025, the mayor Adams asked a second term as an independent.
