(New York) The candidate of the left wing of the Democratic Party, Zohran Mamdani, comes first of all from the primary on Wednesday for the election to the town hall of New York, creating the surprise against the favorite Andrew Cuomo after a campaign against expensive life and the promise to tax high income.
The thirties still almost unknown a few months ago, which claims to be “progressive and Muslim”, caught up up to 30 points behind in the polls on former governor Cuomo, more centrist.
“I am honored to be your Democratic candidate at the town hall,” Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday evening to his supporters in his fief of Queens, a popular district of the Metropolis of the East Coast. New York, a city of around 8.4 million inhabitants, is a democratic bastion.
“Tonight was not our evening … He (Zohran Mamdani) won,” said a tense smile, the former governor (2011-2021) Andrew Cuomo. At 67, he saw his return to politics to the Democrats four years after his resignation in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal, but does not exclude running for the town hall as independent.
Wednesday, with almost 95 % of stripped bulletins, Zohran Mamdani led the race with more than 43 % of the vote, against 36 % for Mr. Cuomo, in this election to the complex voting mode, where voters were called to classify five candidates in order preferably.
As no candidate exceeds 50 % of the vote, the count will continue in a week to count the 2e3e Choice and following to designate a winner.
Photo Yuki Iwamura, Associated Press
Andrew Cuomo
But the advantage of Zohran Mamdani seems almost insurmountable, because the third in the race, Brad Lander (11 %), had called on his voters to choose it as a second choice. His confirmed victory, Zohran Mamdani, 33 and born in Uganda, will go to pole position for the municipal election of November for the first American city.
Against Cuomo and Trump
Son of renowned historian Mahmoud Mamdani, author of the book Saviors and Survivors On the war in Darfur, and the Indo-American director Mira Nair, known for Salaam BombayZohran Mamdani had been supported by figures on the left like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And he aroused the enthusiasm of an army of young volunteers on the ground to amplify his promises against expensive life, including free buses, crèches and the frost of regulated rents, measures he intends to finance by taxation on the highest income.
“Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani and his thousands of sympathizers for their extraordinary campaign. You have faced the political, economic and media establishment and you beat it, “said Mr. Sanders on X.
“The billionaires and lobbyists have poured millions against you and against our public finance system. And you won, ”said Mr.me Ocasio-Cortez, an arrow launched towards Andrew Cuomo who had notably received the support of the billionaire and ex-mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg.
The New York Primary Democratic has the air of a referendum on the Democratic personality who will be able to stand up to Donald Trump, a republican president whose government notably multiplies the arrests of migrants in big cities and from which relatives were shooting red balls on the young left democrat on Wednesday.
Photo Heather Khalifa, Associated Press
Zohran Mamdani addresses his supporters after the first round of the Democratic primary.
“Zohran Mamdani is too extreme for a city already on the skin (…) The time is not radical politics,” reacted the republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. Senator Texan Ted Cruz, a pillar of the Republican Party, called him the New Yorkers “who are not communists” to flee the metropolis to settle in Texas.
“Democrats change politics by changing the voters,” Stephen Miller wrote on X Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s antimigrant policy, accusing “uncontrolled immigration” of having “deeply transformed the New York electorate”.
New York deserves “a proud mayor to present himself according to his assessment, and not (…) a mayor who has no balance sheet”, launched the outgoing mayor Eric Adams, who suffers from an image deficit, accused of compromising himself with the Trump administration in exchange for the burial for corruption.
Mr. Mamdani was also criticized by his rivals for his Propalestinian positions and the fact that he accuses Israel of “genocide”. But one of the strong themes of the campaign was the cost of living, prohibitive in New York, by proposing a series of social measures which risk plumming the finances of the city according to its rivals.
