New York City. A place home to many current Villanova students and a place many will move to following their undergraduate years as Wildcats. It also, for the past few months, served as the epicenter of one of the most closely watched elections of the year with the New York City Mayoral race. On Election Day, the race was called for the Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
His campaign, one that started out lagging in the Democratic primaries and polling merely in the single digits, pulled a complete 180 over the past year. Through grassroots support throughout the city and on social media, what looked impossible ended in an electoral victory. A victory coming with a strong mandate, becoming the first candidate to receive more than a million votes in a New York City mayoral election since 1969 and a major win for the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.
Villanova’s representation of the Democratic Party, Villanova Democrats, wished the Mayor-elect well for his first term and praised his campaign as a sign of better days to come for the party.
“It is my hope that Mamdani’s election inspires a new tide of younger voices rising up with bold, fresh ideas to run for office,” Villanova Democrats’ President Joey Scerbo said. “Backlash against the washed-up establishment will hopefully result in a stronger and more promising Democratic Party as we head into 2026 and beyond.”
A progressive Democrat, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-the first to win a mayoral race in New York City since David Dinkins’ election in 1989-a child of Indian immigrants and the first Muslim and Indian-Ugandan mayor in the city’s history. And a candidate who went from afterthought to genuine primary upset to sweeping winner, one that notably lacked the backing of some in the Democratic establishment, both nationally and statewide.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who herself faces what is sure to be a fierce fight for reelection next November, held out from endorsing 34-year-old Mamdani until Sept. 14.
Meanwhile from Congressional leadership, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) resisted endorsing the 34-year old until Oct. 24, the Friday before early voting in the five boroughs started. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, per a Politico report, rejected the idea of endorsing Mamdani and said after Election Day last week that he had voted and looked forward to working with the next mayor of New York City.
While Mamdani came into the general election a favorite, the Democratic primaries were a different story. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who had been in the political wilderness since resigning from the governor’s office in 2021, joined a crowded field of Democrats. This came in an attempt to primary embattled current Democratic mayor and then-candidate for reelection, Eric Adams. Adams would eventually depart the Democratic primaries for an independent campaign, then eventually drop out of the race altogether.
Mamdani, running on a Democratic socialist platform, focused his campaign around affordability and cost of living, including rent freezes, instituting universal childcare and raising taxes on New York’s wealthy. Heading into Primary Day in June, Cuomo held a double-digit lead over Mamdani in the polls but nevertheless, Mamdani defeated Cuomo in the ranked choice primary to become the Democratic nominee by more than 120,000 votes. While Cuomo initially seemed to bow out of the race following the loss, he instead entered the race in an independent bid.
Mamdani’s primary win sent shockwaves through both the political establishment and the country, but with those shockwaves came another wave of ire from those in the Republican Party and widespread islamophobia, with Cuomo, Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans attacking the then-nominee with racist and xenophobic content, including attacks against Mamdani in the context of the Sept. 11 attacks.
President Trump himself also attacked Mamdani in the lead up to Election Day, calling the Democratic socialist a “Communist,” baselessly claiming Mamdani might be in the United States illegally and threatened to arrest Mamdani in the event he won and refused to comply with Trump’s mass deportation policy. Trump also endorsed Cuomo the day ahead of the election, per The New York Times as Cuomo’s campaign pushed for moderates and Republican voters, with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa polling a distant third to either Mamdani or Cuomo.
Despite Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo, he was defeated by Mamdani again, albeit with Mamdani earning 50.4% of the votes, Cuomo collecting 41.6% of the votes and Sliwa receiving 7.1% of the votes, per a final Times article on the election. Sliwa called the Mayor-elect to congratulate and concede the race, while Cuomo, per the New York Daily News, did not call Mamdani but did congratulate him in his concession speech.
“People react well to authenticity, energy, and youth; Mamdani has all three,” Scerbo said. “Cuomo, on principle, should never hold public office ever again after resigning the governorship in disgrace, so Mamdani’s triumph over him represents a great moral victory. The fact that Cuomo felt entitled to this position and could not accept his defeat in the primary shows us all that he was not the right man for the job, regardless of his other disqualifying actions.”
Mamdani’s victory speech was in step with much of the campaign, celebrating the progressive and socialist movement while rejecting the centrist ideals that have defined a big piece of the Democratic Party since Bill Clinton’s election on that platform in the 1990s. Mamdani also called out Trump, telling him to “turn the volume up” as he continued his speech.
The win was one of several for the Democrats last Tuesday, but one that was the focus of Republicans’ responses in the days that followed. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Mamdani’s record would be tied to every Democrat running for reelection in the 2026 midterms
Mamdani will take office on New Years’ Day of 2026, with a mayoral term that will surely continue to draw the eyes of millions, those living in the city and beyond.
