What are Zohran Mamdani's policies? Where he stands on rent, city-owned stores, more
While there were 11 candidates on the ranked-choice ballot, preliminary polling named Cuomo and Mamdani the front-runners by a large margin. Cuomo frequently polled above Mamdani in the weeks leading up to voting day, but the former governor ultimately ended up calling his opponent on Tuesday night to concede.
Mamdani led Cuomo 44% to 36% among first-place votes, with 96% of ballots counted as of around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25.
The Democratic nominee will begin the general election as the favorite in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. Considered the more progressive candidate of the two, Mamdani's platform has included stances on rent and housing, cost of living, safety, infrastructure and relations between the city and President Donald Trump.
Here is a brief look at Mamdani's stance on major city issues, based on his campaign page and reporting from USA TODAY.
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Mamdani is a 33-year-old politician and member of the Democratic Socialists of America party. He was born in Kampala, Uganda but moved to New York City with his family when he was 7 years old, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science, according to his assembly biography.
Mamdani is currently the three-term representative for Assembly District 36, located in Queens, in the New York State Assembly. He is the first South Asian man and Ugandan to serve in the assembly and the third Muslim person to do so.
He worked as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor prior to serving in the assembly, according to his biography. Interestingly, he also worked a stint in film, writing and as a rap music producer.
He is the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian filmmaker.
If elected, he would become New York's first Muslim mayor, as well as the city's first Asian and Millennial mayor.
Where does Zohran Mamdani stand on issues?
Rent and housing
In a city with sky-high rent prices, cost of housing was a major tentpole in all mayoral candidates' campaigns. Mamdani's vision includes freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments and building more affordable housing.
Besides "immediately" freezing rent for rent-stabilized tenants, Mamdani's platform also outlines a plan for constructing 200,000 new "affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized" units over 10 years and fast-tracking approval for "affordable" developments.
It also promises a "revamp" of the mayor's tenant protection efforts to bolster 311 services (non-emergency city services), allow tenants to request and track inspections and enable the city to step in when landlords are not meeting city standards. It would also create a new "Office of Deed Theft Prevention" for homeowners.
Public transportation
Free and faster buses are a major talking point in Mamdani's campaign. He says he would eliminate fares on all city buses and would improve their speed by building and expanding priority lanes, bus queue jump signals and dedicated loading zones.
Health and safety
Watch any NYC campaign commercial and you'll hear candidates talking about safety on the streets and subways. Mamdani plans to create the Department of Community Safety, a proposal that includes increased investment in mental health programs and crisis response, expanding "evidence-based gun violence prevention programs" and increasing funding to "hate violence prevention programs" by 800%.
Cost of living and labor; city-owned grocery stores
Another cost of living strain on New York families, beyond rent, is the price of essentials, like groceries. Mamdani has said he plans to address the cost of food by creating city-owned grocery stores that will pay no rent or property taxes, buy and sell at wholesale prices from centralized warehouses and partner with local vendors to keep prices down.
On childcare, Mamdani's campaign says it will offer free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years. He will also seek to implement the distribution of baby baskets to parents of newborns, which would include items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, books and local resource guides.
Mamdani has also said he will aim to raise NYC's minimum wage to $30 by 2030 and regulate delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats to strengthen licensure requirements and expand resources to assist app workers.
Education
Mamdani's plans surrounding K-12 education, as outlined in his campaign, include ensuring equal distribution of money and resources to city schools, creating car-free "School Streets," expanding the Bronx pilot Every Child and Family Is Known program to address homelessness in the school system and, on a collegiate level, investing in the CUNY system.
He also champions the Green Schools for a Healthier New York City initiative that seeks to renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, make asphalt schoolyards into green spaces and build hubs in 50 schools for community emergency situations.
Taxation, bills and fees
Running on a platform of pushing back against the proverbial "big guys," Mamdani has proposed a 2% tax on residents earning above $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5%.
Mamdani has also promised to "fight corporate exploration" by banning "hidden fees" and non-compete clauses, "fighting" misleading advertising and predatory contracts, limiting tax dollars given to companies under NDA agreements and funding challenges to ConEd's price increases. He plans to do so via enforcement of consumer protection laws, pushing legislation in Albany and working with the City Council, according to his campaign's policy memo.
Responding to Donald Trump
Another topline talking point among all of the mayoral candidates was handling relations with President Donald Trump and, in many cases, laying out plans to resist or respond to his policies.
Among Mamdani's plans to "resist" Trump are strengthening sanctuary city protections by ending cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and barring them from city facilities, increasing legal support for migrants, preventing personal data from being given to ICE, protecting abortion rights and increasing the budgets of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the NYC Commission on Human Rights.
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USA Today
41 minutes ago
- USA Today
Republicans are afraid of Mamdani in New York. That's a good thing.
Republicans think Zohran Mamdani will turn NYC into a socialist mecca because they forgot what a functioning government looks like. We're a few months out from New York City's municipal election, and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is still the frontrunner in the mayoral race. It's a positive sign for progressives who want to see democratic socialists transform the party. In a July poll by Zenith Research and Public Progress Solutions, Mamdani received 50% of support while the rest of the candidates trailed behind. Former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now running as an independent, received 22% of support, followed by Republican Curtis Sliwa at 13%. Current Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent, received just 7% support. Mamdani may be polling well, but his path to victory in November is anything but smooth. There are already five anti-Mamdani PACs that have formed since the primary, backed by business moguls and real estate tycoons who warn that the Democratic nominee would be bad for the city's economy. He's also having to answer for some of his previous posts about 'defunding the police' and comments on Israel. Republicans criticizing Mamdani for 'defund police' comment are hypocritical The biggest criticism of Mamdani has come from his previous comments about the New York City Police Department. In the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, Mamdani posted to X that the NYPD was 'racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety' and called for defunding the force. Mamdani has also proposed creating a Department of Community Safety separate from the police department, which would respond to mental health calls. But the Democratic nominee is attempting to distance himself from these previous claims, calling the posts 'out of step' with his current stance on public safety. He recently met with the family of Officer Didarul Islam, one of the four people killed in a recent shooting in Midtown Manhattan. Republicans criticizing him seem more than willing to ignore the way President Donald Trump pardoned Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers, or his own criminal convictions. But he is the "law and order" president, for sure. And the GOP is the "law and order" party, right? Voters are increasingly agreeing with Mamdani on Gaza Another criticism from the right is that Mamdani is too critical of Israel. Fox News recently resurrected a clip of Mamdani from a 2024 panel where the mayoral candidate claimed, 'Israel is not a place, it is not a country.' Mamdani seems to be taking these attacks to heart. He recently said he would not use the phrase 'globalize the intifada,' and would also discourage others from using it. Mamdani had previously refused to condemn the phrase. On the other hand, Mamdani's criticisms of Israel proved to be popular with voters in the Democratic primary. A poll from Data for Progress and the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project found that his 'support for Palestinian rights' was important for 96% of his voters, while his 'willingness to criticize the Israeli government' was important to 88% of his voters. Opinion: People are starving in Gaza. Why are we so comfortable just letting that happen? While conservatives are trying to attack Mamdani for his previous stances on Israel and his sympathy for the Palestinian people, it doesn't seem like it'll work. Democrats should listen to their voters, not conservatives, to know how to approach this issue. Only 8% of Democrats support Israel's actions in Gaza, according to a recent Gallup poll, while 71% of Republicans support it. Some Republicans are even breaking with the party to denounce mass starvation in the region, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who recently called the crisis a "genocide." Republicans are afraid of what Mamdani stands for. Good. Mamdani won the primary largely thanks to his mobilization of young voters. It worked out for him: voters under 40 made up 40% of early voting turnout. Now, the question is whether they'll turn out for the general election. I'm hopeful that they will. I have personally seen the way my generation has reacted to Mamdani's campaign. There is a palpable excitement reminiscent of Barack Obama's first run for the presidency, an excitement fueled by the idea that the Democratic Party can change, in spite of itself. Opinion: Zohran Mamdani rallied Gen Z voters. We can't abandon him now. The reasons conservatives are criticizing Mamdani are the reasons people my age voted for him. We believe in moving funding from the NYPD into areas like mental health care and community building. We support Palestinian rights. We want to see that working-class New Yorkers can remain in this city. We see taxing corporations and the wealthy as a good thing. Some may call these things unrealistic, and they may have a point. There's no way New York City becomes a socialist utopia if Mamdani is elected, since he must work with the city council, state and national governments to achieve many of his campaign priorities. But his very election could signal to the Democratic Party that they should run to, not from, progressive politics. Mamdani's path to victory is not an easy one. He will continue to face criticism from the right throughout the next few months. But if polling is any indication, he's still likely to be the next mayor of the largest city in the United States. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jews prefer Mamdani to other NYC mayoral candidates but worry about safety under him, poll finds
Mamdani is pulling the largest share of Jewish voters at 37%, with the rest dispersed between his competitors, according to a poll conducted by GQR. Jewish New Yorkers support Zohran Mamdani more than any candidate for mayor, but they strongly disagree about how he would shape their future, says a new poll from a pro-Israel nonprofit. Mamdani is pulling the largest share of Jewish voters at 37%, with the rest dispersed between his competitors, Mayor Eric Adams (25%), former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (21%) and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa (14%), according to the poll commissioned by New York Solidarity Network and conducted by GQR. The results largely align with a poll by Zenith Research and Public Progress Solutions earlier this week, which had Cuomo ahead of Adams, but still showed Mamdani holding a significant lead without a majority of Jewish support. Public Progress Solutions is run by an ally of Mamdani, while New York Solidarity Network campaigned against him in the primary. The new survey explored Jewish voters' sentiments about antisemitism, Israel, and their concerns as New Yorkers. Among the 800 people surveyed, 74% said they worried about antisemitism. But they differed on where that threat came from — about half said they believed Mamdani was antisemitic, while nearly all of his Jewish supporters disagreed. They also diverged on the overlap between pro-Palestinian slogans and antisemitism: Three in five Jewish voters said the phrases 'globalize the intifada' and 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' were antisemitic. (Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel, has come under fire for declining to condemn the former slogan.) But they said they were basing their votes primarily on local matters: 76% said they based their vote on issues like affordability and crime, with only 17% centering their future mayor's views on Israel. The Jews who supported Mamdani were most motivated by his promises to tax the wealthy, build affordable housing, and focus on mental health officers rather than police to prevent crime. Israel and Palestine still the main issue with Mamdani Mamdani's stance drove 17% of Jewish voters, the poll found. In comparison, 62% of all Mamdani voters said they were driven by his pro-Palestinian advocacy, according to another recent poll by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project. Many Jews surveyed by New York Solidarity Group said they believed their future is in danger — 58% believe the city will be less safe for Jews under Mamdani's leadership, including a large contingent of older voters. Sara Forman, the group's executive director, told Politico she wanted Mamdani to understand the concerns weighing on Jewish New Yorkers. Her message for him signaled that even staunchly pro-Israel Jewish leaders may be resigning themselves to the idea that Mamdani will prevail in November, leaving them no choice but to collaborate with him. 'It's a very good overview in terms of a roadmap for how, if you want to represent everyone, how you can take the first step to do that,' said Forman. Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Bill Maher on possibility of Mamdani as New York City mayor: 'We've never had someone this radical'
Comedian Bill Maher sparred Friday with one of his guests, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., when the lawmaker dismissed criticism of New York City's Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as a "contrived villain or boogeyman." "He's not contrived. He's gonna be the mayor of New York," Maher argued. The late-night show host cited Mamdani's "Marxist" positions, such as the "abolition of private property," after he declared that the Big Apple has "never had someone this radical." "There's a lot of opposition [to Mamdani] because we've never had someone this radical," Maher warned. "Some of the things he says, you know he quotes Marxists, 'each according to their need.' I mean, that's straight up Communism." Meanwhile, Rep. Crow maintained that a "boogeyman" like Mamdani comes around every election cycle for Republicans. "They always try to create a villain is my point," he said. "They always try to create some boogeyman or bogeywoman." "No, these are quotes. I'm not creating anything, I'm quoting [Mamdani]," Maher debated. The comedian's second guest, columnist James Kirchick, did not hesitate to chime in about the criticism Mamdani has received from conservatives. "Everything that the crazy far-right alleged about Obama – wasn't born in America, Islamist, socialist, antisemite, hates America, it's all true about this guy [Mamdani]," Kirchick claimed. Kirchick went on to describe what he finds the "most appalling" about Mamdani. "He defends the expression 'globalize the intifada,' which explicitly means – and I don't wanna hear anyone deny this – it means kill Jews whenever and wherever you can find them," Kirchick added. The "Secret City" author hit both sides of the political aisle, comparing Democrats who are not refusing to endorse Mamdani to Republicans 10 years ago, who were "letting Trump go on and on and they weren't standing up to him." "I feel with this guy we're seeing the same sort of cowardice and spinelessness," Kirchick asserted. In July, the New York Times reported that Mamdani told a group of business leaders he would not use the phrase "globalize the intifada," and he would "discourage" others from using it. The American Pulse polling firm conducted a survey in July, in which it found that 30% of New York City voters support Mamdani's refusal to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" and his backing of the anti-Israel boycott movement.
