Reportage
New New York
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani: ‘Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice: Hope is alive. Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair.’
“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light.” Zohran Mamdani, newly elected mayor of the Big Apple, addressed the crowd at New York's Paramount Theater with the words Democratic voters had been waiting to hear since Donald Trump's re-election: words of redemption, defiance, hope, and resistance, on a night that marks the first major break from the defeat of last November.
Mamdani won. Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governorship in New Jersey. Abigail Spanberger won in Virginia, becoming the state's first female governor. Proposition 50 passed in California, approving the state legislature’s redrawn electoral maps to counter Republican gerrymandering elsewhere.
They Not Like Us – the Kendrick Lamar song – played as Zohran Mamdani's victory was announced at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn. “Them” and “us” was now a rallying call for the community that the audience here, at Mamdani's headquarters, felt they belonged to. The community of the new mayor of New York.
“Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice: Hope is alive,” Mamdani said as he took the stage, before an audience composed mainly of his supporters. “Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair.” His thanks went to the “more than 100,000 volunteers” who contributed to his victory, putting power “in [the] hands … of the working people of New York.” They were there to celebrate, shouting themselves hoarse when he announced from the stage that “as of tonight,” New York will be “led by an immigrant.”
The crowd roared as he repeated his campaign cornerstones: free childcare, free buses, rent freezes, thousands of new teachers. They roared when he stressed both that New York will fight “against the scourge of antisemitism” and that it will no longer be a place “where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”
“I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this,” he added, turning all the lies, accusations, insinuations, and racist hatred that had been heaped upon him for months into a source of strength.
“Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community” or “one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job,” Mamdani said. And there was a clear message to the president: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up. … To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us!”
For those in his audience, the unspoken “them” also included Andrew Cuomo, the rival who accepted Donald Trump's endorsement, and the segment of the Democratic establishment that refuses to see Mamdani's rise as a viable path forward for the party.
Cuomo's speech did not stray far from the style of his campaign. It was a rather atypical concession, as he dedicated a significant portion to criticizing his opponent's positions before finally congratulating Mamdani, which earned boos from his own supporters. He tried to silence them, saying, “No, that is not right and that is not us.” He then changed his tune, saying he intended to remain in New York, continue fighting, and help the new administration do what is best for New Yorkers.
According to voting data, Cuomo won in the very areas of New York that Donald Trump – whose support he never turned down – won in the last presidential election.
According to final data, Zohran Mamdani won with 50.4% of the vote. As Bloomberg noted, with over two million votes cast, it was the highest-turnout mayoral election since 1969. Cuomo took 41.6%, and Republican Curtis Sliwa received a meager 7.1%.
Finally, on stage, Mamdani took his leave of his supporters. This time, he no longer had Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose presence had legitimized his run and bolstered its final phase, up on stage with him. Standing with him were his wife and his parents. He is now the new face of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/new-york-new-york-mamdani-eletto-sindaco on 2025-11-05