Zohran Mamdani wins New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo

NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani has won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, a new vote count confirmed Tuesday, cementing his stunning upset of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and sending him to the general election.

The Associated Press called the race after the results of the city’s ranked choice voting tabulation were released and showed Mamdani trouncing Cuomo by 12 percentage points.

Mamdani said he was humbled by the support he received in the primary and has started turning his attention to November.

“Last Tuesday, Democrats spoke in a clear voice, delivering a mandate for an affordable city, a politics of the future, and a leader unafraid to fight back against rising authoritarianism,” he said in a statement.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state Assembly since 2021, was virtually unknown when he launched his candidacy centered on a bold slate of populist ideas. But he built an energetic campaign that ran circles around Cuomo as the older, more moderate Democrat tried to come back from the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation four years ago.

Mamdani’s win had been widely expected since he took a commanding lead and declared victory after the polls closed a week ago, but fell just short of the 50% of the vote needed to avoid another count under the ranked choice voting model. The system allows voters’ other preferences to be counted if their top candidate falls out of the running.

He will now face a general election field that includes incumbent Mayor Eric Adams as well as independent candidate Jim Walden and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

The former governor, down but not out

Cuomo conceded defeat on the night of the primary but is contemplating whether to continue mounting a campaign on an independent ballot line.

After the release of Tuesday’s vote count, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said: “We’ll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps.”

“Extremism, division and empty promises are not the answer to this city’s problems, and while this was a look at what motivates a slice of our primary electorate, it does not represent the majority,” Azzopardi said.

The results of the primary have already sent a shockwave through the political world.

Mamdani’s campaign — focused on lowering the cost of living, promising free city buses, free child care, a rent freeze for people living in rent-stabilized apartments, government-run grocery stores and more, all paid for with taxes on the wealthy — claims it has found a new blueprint for Democrats who have at times appeared rudderless during President Donald Trump’s climb back to power.

The Democratic establishment has approached Mamdani with caution. Many of its big players applauded his campaign but don’t seem ready to throw their full support behind the young progressive, whose past criticisms of law enforcement, use of the word “genocide” to describe the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza and “democratic socialist” label amount to landmines for some in the party.

Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani came to the U.S. at age 7 and became a citizen in 2018. If elected, he would be the city’s first Muslim mayor and its first of Indian American decent. He would also be one of its youngest.

Cuomo’s campaign centered on his extensive experience, casting himself as the only candidate capable of saving a city he said had spun out of control. He focused heavily on combating antisemitism and leaned on his name recognition and juggernaut fundraising operation rather than mingling with voters. He denied the sexual harassment allegations that ended his tenure as governor, maintaining that the scandal was driven by politics and that voters were ready to move on.

Trump and others are already on the attack

For Republicans, Mamdani has already provided a new angle for attack. Trump and others in the GOP have launched broadsides at him, moving to cast Mamdani as the epitome of leftist excess ahead of consequential elections elsewhere this year and next.

“If I’m a Republican, I want this guy to win,” said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University. “Because I want to be able to compare and contrast my campaign as a Republican, in a national election, to the idea of, ‘This is where the Democratic party is.’”

Trump, in remarks to reporters on Tuesday, appeared to have taken notice of Mamdani’s meteoric rise, saying “He’s still has a race to win, and so far he’s winning.”

Meanwhile, Adams, while still a Democrat, is running in the November election as an independent.

He dropped out of the Democratic primary in April after he was severely wounded by his now-dismissed federal bribery case.

Though he had done little in the way of campaigning since then, he reignited his reelection operation in the days after Mamdani declared victory, calling it a choice between a candidate with a “blue collar” and one with a “silver spoon.”

Echoing Cuomo’s message, Adams has sought to cast Mamdani as an unqualified radical whose agenda would sow chaos across the city.

“Right now, we should not be doing an experiment when we have real results and expertise to make New Yorkers safe,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.

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Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.

Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press