(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 Andrew Cuomo, a centrist.
“We have marked history,” said his supporters Zohran Mamdani to his supporters in his fief of Queens, a popular district of the American metropolis, a democratic bastion of around 8.4 million inhabitants.
This shock result comes as Donald Trump regularly attacks major cities, led according to him by “far left democrats”.
“It finally happened, the Democrats crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani is completely a communist madman (…) I saw many radical leftists in the past, but the latter is a little more ridiculous than the others, “he wrote on his social social platform.
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.
Photo Yuki Iwamura, Associated Press
Andrew Cuomo
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.
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. If his victory is confirmed, Zohran Mamdani, 33 and born in Uganda, will go to pole position for the municipal election of November in the first American city.
“Impressive campaign”
Son of renowned historian Mahmoud Mamdani, author of the book “Saviors and Survivors” on the war at Darfur, and the Indo-American director Mira Nair, known for “Salaam Bombay”, Zohran 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.
“You faced the political, economic and media establishment, and you beat it,” said Sanders.
“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.
Photo Heather Khalifa, Associated Press
Zohran Mamdani addresses his supporters after the first round of the Democratic primary.
Former President Bill Clinton and New York Democratic tenors like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries praised “the impressive campaign” by Zohran Mamdani, even if they did not call to vote for him.
The arrows on the right
This primary 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 multiplies the arrests of migrants in big cities and from which relatives drew red bullets on the young left democrat on Wednesday.
“Democrats change politics by changing the voters,” added Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s antimigrant policy, accusing “uncontrolled immigration” of having “deeply transformed the New York electorate” for the benefit of Zohran Mamdani.
“Zohran Mamdani is too extreme for a city already on the skin,” reacted Curtis Sliwa, the republican candidate to be mayor of New York in November.
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 of prosecution for corruption.
