Mira Nair's Son Making Waves In NYC Politics
With bold, subversive ideas, TikTok tactics, and small-dollar donor energy, Mamdani is shaking up NYC politics as the city gears up for its mayoral election in November 2025. And yes, he's even going head-to-head with big names like Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who resigned in 2021 amid controversy but remains a heavyweight in the state's political scene.
Here are a few things to know about NYC's millennial maverick:
He's the son of a critically acclaimed director and a Ugandan academic—born in Kampala, raised in NYC, now eyeing City Hall.
His mom is the iconic Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, anyone?) and his dad is Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani. Talk about a power parent combo. Born in Kampala on October 18, 1991, Zohran spent early childhood in Uganda and South Africa before moving to NYC at age 7.
NYC-raised, Bowdoin-educated, and already organizing in college—Zohran didn't wait to get political.
Zohran grew up in Morningside Heights, crushed it at Bronx Science, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014 with a degree in Africana Studies. Oh, and he didn't just chill, he co-founded the 'Students for Justice in Palestine' chapter there.
His middle name, Kwame, was chosen to honour Ghana's former President.
Zohran's dad gave him the name 'Kwame' after Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first Prime Minister and then President. It is not just a name, but a whole political vibe.
Zohran helped stop evictions and secured major debt relief for NYC taxi drivers.
Zohran started out fighting evictions, then set his sights on NYC's broken taxi medallion system, where drivers had to shell out huge amounts just to drive a cab. When the bubble burst, they were drowning in debt. Zohran helped get $450 million of it wiped clean.
He was the first South Asian elected to NY Assembly.
In 2020, he made history as the first South Asian guy ever elected to the New York State Assembly, and he's been repping Astoria (aka District 36) since January 2021.
He moonlighted as rapper Mr. Cardamom.
His campaign vibes are straight out of Bollywood with iconic Deewar and SRK moments. And yes, he's speaking in Hindi.
Zohran's plan? Free buses, rent freezes, and going after rich universities.
Small donors powered him to $8 million before he stopped fundraising.
He also took a chilly plunge into the freezing Coney Island waters to protest rent hikes. Yes, there's a video. Yes, it has 800k+ views.
AOC's all in on team Zohran.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is backing Zohran, calling out his skill at bringing working-class communities together.
Love him or not—or maybe you're just here for that viral icy plunge video—Zohran Mamdani is switching up NYC mayor race vibes.
The big moment lands on June 24, when voters hit the polls for the Democratic primary that could change everything, meaning things are about to get interesting.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Mortgage Lenders Are Ignoring Trump's Rollback on Home Appraisal Reviews
(Bloomberg) -- At one midsized US mortgage lender, almost a quarter of customers who dispute property appraisals find that the value of their home had been miscalculated. We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind Chicago Curbs Hiring, Travel to Tackle $1 Billion Budget Hole NYC Mayor Adams Gives Bally's Bronx Casino Plan a Second Chance Boston's Dumpsters Overflow as Trash-Strike Summer Drags On Shop Top Mortgage Rates Personalized rates in minutes Your Path to Homeownership A quicker path to financial freedom It's an industrywide issue that has historically penalized minority groups, and now President Donald Trump has offered lenders the chance to ignore his predecessor's attempts to make it easier for homeowners to question the valuations assigned by property appraisers. Trump has scrapped some of the guidelines, part of his team's vow to stamp out what it sees as initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion. Many financial professionals agree that home appraisals can be unreliable, and that Black homeowners and other minorities are often put at a significant disadvantage. This can be especially damaging given that home ownership is the top wealth-creation tool in the US — and an appraisal is a key determinant of how much, if anything, someone can borrow. With their decision to end some of the requirements related to home valuations, however, Trump and his cabinet members may have little impact on lenders' practices. That's because there's fresh evidence that the changes the Biden administration put in place are supported by the industry. Some of the country's biggest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp, said they would make no policy changes as a result of the rollback. New American Funding, which also isn't planning to change its approach, was the only financial institution of more than 10 contacted by Bloomberg to disclose information about disputed home valuations. The Tustin, California-based mortgage lender, which provided roughly $14 billion of mortgage loans last year, said an average 2.5% of its customers request new valuations each month. Of those contested, roughly 22% are found to need an adjustment. New American didn't share a breakdown of borrowers' requests by race. 'The changes have made it much easier for the borrower,' said Michelle Rogers, New American's chief valuation officer. 'It's more transparent and the borrower knows they can initiate it.' The appraisal directives were put in place following a deep dive by the Biden administration into prejudices in the business. One of Trump's housing regulators, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, said rolling them back was part of an attempt by the president to put an end to the 'obsession' with DEI. The administration also has vowed to make deep cuts to the federal apparatus that enforced fair housing and fair lending laws, from slashing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff to gutting the Justice Department's Civil Rights division. A HUD official who spoke on background said the department's recent reforms simply reverted its stance to the way things were before Biden-era regulators imposed their standards. Lenders aren't being barred from letting borrowers dispute their appraisals, said the official who declined to be identified. The White House hasn't responded to a request for comment. Black homeowners have long reported having their homes valued more highly after taking down all evidence of their race. Research from the Brookings Institution and the federally controlled housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has shown that home appraisals can be affected by racial bias, which in turn affects the value of homes in entire neighborhoods. Brookings found, for example, that homes in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black are valued between 21% and 23% lower than comparable homes in white neighborhoods, with appraisal bias as one of several contributing factors. Economists at Freddie Mac reported in 2021 that greater percentages of homes in majority Black and Latino census tracts were undervalued compared with those in white census tracts, leading them to conclude that there was a 'valuation gap' between homes in different neighborhoods. The appraisal problem for minority borrowers also is a problem for lenders, since having low appraisals can prevent a homeowner from qualifying for a mortgage refinancing or a new home loan. That means the lender loses out on valuable business. Banks also suffer when appraisers make mistakes in the opposite direction, valuing properties too highly, because it means the bank can't safely rely on the value of a property as collateral for a loan. The reforms that the mortgage industry recently adopted to try to make the appraisal process fairer originated with a Biden administration task force called PAVE (for Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity), which was formed in 2021. The group consisted of public officials from 13 different agencies, and its goal was to produce a report with recommended changes to a suite of different mortgage industry standards. PAVE recommended more training for home appraisers and higher standards for appraisers seeking to qualify for professional licenses. Those changes were handled by the Appraisal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves as the regulator for home appraisers. A spokeswoman for the foundation declined to comment on the Trump administration's recent changes, but said that new education and licensing standards put in place last year are still in effect. PAVE also called for an industrywide requirement for mortgage lenders to let borrowers request 'a reconsideration of value' (ROV) if they disagreed with an appraiser's determination. Last year, regulators began requiring mortgage lenders to decide how they would standardize their procedures and to explain them clearly to their customers. In a rare win for the government, the policy received support from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Federal housing regulation includes a web of rules issued by different agencies, including HUD and also Fannie and Freddie. The new home-appraisal guidance went into effect for all of the housing agencies. But so far, the Trump administration has only rolled back the policy for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which help low- to moderate-income families attain home ownership. On July 17, Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, proposed a bill that would make mortgage lenders' ROV policies required by law. It also would expand public access to data on mortgage appraisals by forcing a federal housing regulator to more regularly share details. While fair-housing advocates support the proposal, the bill also has backing from a more unlikely source: the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. The group represents more than 500,000 mortgage brokers across the US. Its president, Jim Nabors, called the proposed bill 'critical' for ensuring fairness for homebuyers and added: "Our entire board of directors and membership applaud Senator Warnock." How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts What's Really Behind Those Rosy GDP Numbers? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Mortgage Lenders Are Ignoring Trump's Rollback on Home Appraisal Reviews
(Bloomberg) -- At one midsized US mortgage lender, almost a quarter of customers who dispute property appraisals find that the value of their home had been miscalculated. We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind Chicago Curbs Hiring, Travel to Tackle $1 Billion Budget Hole NYC Mayor Adams Gives Bally's Bronx Casino Plan a Second Chance Boston's Dumpsters Overflow as Trash-Strike Summer Drags On It's an industrywide issue that has historically penalized minority groups, and now President Donald Trump has offered lenders the chance to ignore his predecessor's attempts to make it easier for homeowners to question the valuations assigned by property appraisers. Trump has scrapped some of the guidelines, part of his team's vow to stamp out what it sees as initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion. Many financial professionals agree that home appraisals can be unreliable, and that Black homeowners and other minorities are often put at a significant disadvantage. This can be especially damaging given that home ownership is the top wealth-creation tool in the US — and an appraisal is a key determinant of how much, if anything, someone can borrow. With their decision to end some of the requirements related to home valuations, however, Trump and his cabinet members may have little impact on lenders' practices. That's because there's fresh evidence that the changes the Biden administration put in place are supported by the industry. Some of the country's biggest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp, said they would make no policy changes as a result of the rollback. New American Funding, which also isn't planning to change its approach, was the only financial institution of more than 10 contacted by Bloomberg to disclose information about disputed home valuations. The Tustin, California-based mortgage lender, which provided roughly $14 billion of mortgage loans last year, said an average 2.5% of its customers request new valuations each month. Of those contested, roughly 22% are found to need an adjustment. New American didn't share a breakdown of borrowers' requests by race. 'The changes have made it much easier for the borrower,' said Michelle Rogers, New American's chief valuation officer. 'It's more transparent and the borrower knows they can initiate it.' The appraisal directives were put in place following a deep dive by the Biden administration into prejudices in the business. One of Trump's housing regulators, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, said rolling them back was part of an attempt by the president to put an end to the 'obsession' with DEI. The administration also has vowed to make deep cuts to the federal apparatus that enforced fair housing and fair lending laws, from slashing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff to gutting the Justice Department's Civil Rights division. A HUD official who spoke on background said the department's recent reforms simply reverted its stance to the way things were before Biden-era regulators imposed their standards. Lenders aren't being barred from letting borrowers dispute their appraisals, said the official who declined to be identified. The White House hasn't responded to a request for comment. Black homeowners have long reported having their homes valued more highly after taking down all evidence of their race. Research from the Brookings Institution and the federally controlled housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has shown that home appraisals can be affected by racial bias, which in turn affects the value of homes in entire neighborhoods. Brookings found, for example, that homes in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black are valued between 21% and 23% lower than comparable homes in white neighborhoods, with appraisal bias as one of several contributing factors. Economists at Freddie Mac reported in 2021 that greater percentages of homes in majority Black and Latino census tracts were undervalued compared with those in white census tracts, leading them to conclude that there was a 'valuation gap' between homes in different neighborhoods. The appraisal problem for minority borrowers also is a problem for lenders, since having low appraisals can prevent a homeowner from qualifying for a mortgage refinancing or a new home loan. That means the lender loses out on valuable business. Banks also suffer when appraisers make mistakes in the opposite direction, valuing properties too highly, because it means the bank can't safely rely on the value of a property as collateral for a loan. The reforms that the mortgage industry recently adopted to try to make the appraisal process fairer originated with a Biden administration task force called PAVE (for Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity), which was formed in 2021. The group consisted of public officials from 13 different agencies, and its goal was to produce a report with recommended changes to a suite of different mortgage industry standards. PAVE recommended more training for home appraisers and higher standards for appraisers seeking to qualify for professional licenses. Those changes were handled by the Appraisal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves as the regulator for home appraisers. A spokeswoman for the foundation declined to comment on the Trump administration's recent changes, but said that new education and licensing standards put in place last year are still in effect. PAVE also called for an industrywide requirement for mortgage lenders to let borrowers request 'a reconsideration of value' (ROV) if they disagreed with an appraiser's determination. Last year, regulators began requiring mortgage lenders to decide how they would standardize their procedures and to explain them clearly to their customers. In a rare win for the government, the policy received support from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Federal housing regulation includes a web of rules issued by different agencies, including HUD and also Fannie and Freddie. The new home-appraisal guidance went into effect for all of the housing agencies. But so far, the Trump administration has only rolled back the policy for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which help low- to moderate-income families attain home ownership. On July 17, Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, proposed a bill that would make mortgage lenders' ROV policies required by law. It also would expand public access to data on mortgage appraisals by forcing a federal housing regulator to more regularly share details. While fair-housing advocates support the proposal, the bill also has backing from a more unlikely source: the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. The group represents more than 500,000 mortgage brokers across the US. Its president, Jim Nabors, called the proposed bill 'critical' for ensuring fairness for homebuyers and added: "Our entire board of directors and membership applaud Senator Warnock." How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts What's Really Behind Those Rosy GDP Numbers? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
Don't be fooled. Mamdani isn't the future of the Democratic Party. These two patriotic women are
It has been over a year since President Joe Biden made one of the hardest decisions in political history and announced that he would not seek re-election. Since that day, and the day that Vice President Harris's lost in November, the Democratic Party has been in a full-blown identity crisis. We started a full-blown autopsy, we started looking for new messages, new leaders, new formats, and new language. We are investing millions to "study" how to connect with male voters. The holy grail is "authenticity," which means speak like a normal human. (That includes curse words, which bodes well for this New Yorker—swearing is our native tongue.) We are listening to anyone who says they have the secret formula. That is why, when Zohran Mamdani energized young voters in NYC, everyone, especially the media, turned their attention to him. He capitalized on anger and frustration with inaction in Washington, connected with voters' concerns about affordability, and used social media masterfully, running rings around his older, squarer opponents. He was hip, and he was "real." But all the hyperventilating is premature. Mamdani won a multi-candidate Democratic primary in a deep blue city, held on a 100-degree day in June. He received less than 600,000 votes in a city of over 8 million. So, let's not let social media tell us that he is the future of the Democratic Party. I'm a NYC Democrat and I don't remember anyone outside of the five boroughs caring what Mayor Bloomberg, DiBlasio, or Adams did on the national level. If you are a Democrat running anywhere outside of the blue bubble cities, and especially if you're trying to flip a seat from red to blue, you cast your gaze across the Hudson and south for the blueprint you need. Hop on Amtrak and disembark in Trenton, New Jersey or Richmond, Virginia, and the answer will be right in front of you. What you will see are two candidates who have national security credentials that would let Democrats win back the patriotic and military voters because they can walk the walk, not just talk it like Republicans have in the past. What you will see are candidates that have proven bipartisan track records in Congress of getting shit done. These two candidates are Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger. They are real and authentic. They are what would be created if liberals and moderates, swing voters and suburban moms, young men and military hawks, and values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal all gave their input to ChatGPT. These are two women Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., could campaign with, and Sen. Joe Manchin, my former boss, could work with. To quote Mr Mamdani, we should learn how to say their names because we have to get it right. So why aren't they being elevated as the future or blueprint for success? Don't tell me it's because they haven't won their general elections yet. That has never stopped us before. I'm old enough to remember Howard Dean and Beto O'Rourke being crowned as saviors of the left before they won anything. I've read "What's the Matter with Kansas?" I'm familiar with the Abundance movement. I'm not knocking any of them. But let's be honest: we've gone looking for answers in far less proven places. Maybe it's gender. Maybe we have a harder time seeing two tough, competent, patriotic women as the leaders who could rebuild our Party's coalition. If you look at their records and accomplishments, they've walked the walk, many of their male colleagues just talk about. They're not fantasy candidates. They're not focus-group fabrications. They're real leaders with real records, with national security credentials, bipartisan chops, and electoral success in places that aren't easy for Democrats. They appeal to swing voters, military families, independents, union members, and suburban moderates—all the people we keep saying we need to win back. And they did it without changing who they are, bending to the winds of polling or message-tested language. They did it by being who they have been since they were first elected in 2018. Abigail is a former CIA undercover agent who prevented terrorist attacks and tracked transnational gangs and was also a Postal Inspection Officer who investigated child predators and narcotics traffickers. In Congress, she passed bipartisan legislation to prevent fentanyl overdoses, allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and put more cops on the streets of local cities. Mikie served 10 years as a Naval helicopter pilot and led missions throughout Europe and the Middle East. She was a Russian policy officer aiding in the implementation of our nuclear treaty obligations and oversaw the relationship between the U.S. Navy and Russian Federation Navy. After that, she joined the U.S. Attorney's Office to help people leaving prison gain employment, housing, and education to restart their lives, and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she prosecuted federal cases to keep illegal guns off our streets. In Congress, she was influential in helping pass the most significant investment in roads, bridges, and transportation in 50 years, as well as the bill that brought manufacturing companies and investments back from China to the U.S. These aren't exactly the career paths of career politicians. These are values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal—people Elizabeth Warren could campaign with, and Joe Manchin could work with. They aren't yelling into the void or stoking culture wars. They aren't on cable news every night and social media all day. They are solving problems that matter to working families, and they've got the records to prove it. And somehow, they've done all that without needing to shout about it to the media. So, instead of searching for new slogans, influencers, or magic polling words, maybe it's time to look up from our phones and social media platforms and see what's right in front of us.
