Mamdani officially wins New York City mayor Democratic primary
Zohran Mamdani has officially won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, a new vote count confirmed on Tuesday, solidifying his unexpected upset over former governor Andrew Cuomo and securing his place in the general election.
The Associated Press called the race following the release of the city’s ranked choice voting results, which showed Mamdani defeating Cuomo by a 12-point margin.
Mamdani’s victory had been widely anticipated since he surged to the front after polls closed a week ago. He narrowly missed securing the outright majority required to avoid a ranked choice tabulation. New York City’s voting system allows for voters’ secondary preferences to be counted if their top choice is eliminated.
Having declared victory on the night of the June 24 primary, Mamdani now heads to a general election that includes incumbent mayor Eric Adams, independent candidate Jim Walden, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Cuomo conceded on election night but has not ruled out a general election run as an independent.
At Mamdani’s primary night celebration in Long Island City, his family—including filmmaker mother Mira Nair, wife Rama Duwaji, and father Mahmood Mamdani—joined him on stage to mark the historic moment. The 33-year-old democratic socialist and state assemblyman had entered the race with little name recognition, but his populist message and grassroots campaign quickly outpaced Cuomo’s attempted comeback from the sexual harassment scandal that forced his resignation four years ago.
Even before results were finalized, Mamdani’s rise sent tremors through the political establishment.
His campaign, focused on tackling the cost of living, claims to have discovered a new formula for Democratic success in a party that has sometimes lacked direction during Donald Trump’s political resurgence.
Still, Mamdani’s win has been met with caution by the Democratic mainstream. While many in the party praised his campaign’s energy, some remain hesitant to fully embrace him, citing his outspoken criticism of law enforcement, his description of Israeli government actions in Gaza as “genocide,” and his alignment with democratic socialism—all contentious issues within the broader Democratic coalition.
If elected, Mamdani would become New York City’s first Muslim mayor, its first of Indian American descent, and one of the youngest ever to hold the office.
Republicans have already seized on Mamdani’s candidacy as political ammunition. Trump and other GOP figures have begun casting him as a symbol of far-left extremism, framing him as a warning sign ahead of critical elections in the near future.
New York’s ranked choice system lets voters rank up to five candidates by preference. If no candidate wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, the system redistributes votes until a winner emerges. Since Mamdani fell just short of that threshold on primary night, the ranked choice process played out over several days. The election is expected to be certified by July 15.
Although Cuomo missed the deadline last week to remove his name from the November ballot, he is still weighing whether to actively re-enter the race.
Adams, though still a registered Democrat, is running as an independent after exiting the primary in April following the collapse of a federal bribery case against him.