Over the past few months, you may have seen headlines in the news about the New York City mayoral election and seen an unfamiliar name as the winner. Who is this new mayor? Why is he talking about Heated Rivalry and Lucy Dacus tickets?
Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born October 18, 1991 in Kampala, Uganda, the capital located in the southeast of the country. When he was seven years old, Mamdani migrated to the United States with his parents to New York City. He later attended Bronx High School of Science, and then Bowdoin College where he majored in Africana studies and minored in government. He also worked on the staff of his college’s newspaper. He graduated in 2014 and eventually landed a job in Queens, New York as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor. In 2020, Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly. He was reelected in 2022 and in 2024 to work alongside the governor and the senate. The Assembly performs responsibilities such as establishing a budget for the state, along with imposing new laws. In his position, Mamdani represented the neighborhood of Astoria in Queens.
On November 4th, 2025, Mamdani won the New York City Mayoral Election with 50.8% of votes to his name, while his opponent, Independent Andrew Cuomo, received 41.3% of votes. Cuomo has a long history in politics. For example, nearly 34 years ago, Cuomo was working in Washington D.C. during the Presidential Election. Meanwhile, Mamdani hadn’t even learned to walk.
Mamdani is 34 years old; he is of the youngest mayors New York City has had. In fact, he is half the age of his main mayoral race opponent, Andrew Cuomo. When asked to compare a young leader to a leader who has been in the public eye for decades, Mrs. Fritz, an IHS history teacher, noted that it’s important to have somebody youthful and energetic in politics to get young people not only interested in politics, but excited about being involved.
When asking Mrs. Smith, another IHS history teacher, the same question, she provided a recent example: in a press conference held regarding the January snowstorm, Mamdani told New Yorkers to “take advantage of our public library’s offer of free access to Heated Rivalry,” the gay hockey series that has taken over pop culture in 2026. This shoutout, according to New York Daily News, caused a 529% increase of Heated Rivalry book downloads at the New York Public Library.
Mamdani is the first Muslim, as well as the first South Asian and African-born person, to be sworn in as New York City Mayor. In his midnight oath of office on New Year’s Day, Mamdani was sworn in on a Qaran, Islam’s holy text, becoming the only elected mayor to not do so on a Bible. Mrs. Fritz emphasizes that is it is important for the United States to have diversity in who leads the country: “If leaders don’t look like us physically, people won’t want to interact [with politics].” She also emphasizes that “a democracy needs participation.” Without representation in our leaders, there’s no participation in US citizens.
On the election ballot, Mamdani represented both the Democratic party, as well as the Working Families Party. He also identifies himself as a democratic socialist. According to npr.org, there is no direct definition of democratic socialism. However, it broadly supports the government taking control of certain economic sections to benefit not private corporations but rather the public, sections such as utilities and health care. According to npr.org, the party has been around since the 80s and has over 80,000 members across all 50 states. As for the Working Families Party, they describe themselves on workingfamilies.org as “regular people coming together across our differences to make a better future for us all. [They’re] a multiracial party that fights for workers over bosses and people over the powerful. [They] want an America which realizes the promise – unrealized in our history – of freedom and equality for all.”
How does a New Yorker feel about Mamdani? I asked Lucy Jepsen, IHS student and future NYU student, questions regarding the new mayor. When asked what changes could improve the city, she described one day that she remembers specifically: “I was horrified when I got a notification on my phone that NYC has the lowest air quality in history [that day]. It would be nice if [Mamdani] could fix that because it’s disgusting what we’re breathing in.” Lucy also feels that “more maintenance [in New York City] would be good, more control and security for people who are allowed to roam streets. There’s lots of lack of regulation; I would see it in things people were selling on streets. Like how are they doing this? There are weird things that could be improved for the benefit of the community.” Regarding his public figure, Lucy likes that Mamdani is younger. She visited City Hall and noticed the energy that came into the room with the mention of a potential new, young mayor. She mentions that it’s good for the city to have a new mindset rather than being stuck on topics in the past.
Mamdani has only been mayor for about a month now as of February 4th, but he has already laid out regulations for New York City, such as 12 executive orders regarding housing. In his first day of office, he passed orders encouraging city-owned land use to build homes and to make the process of finding a house speedy for New Yorkers. He also passed orders to protect tenants and homeowners from neglectful landlords. New Yorkers are looking forward to what Mamdani will provide the city within the next four years.
