NEW YORK − They filled the dance floor in front of a DJ playing remixes of Bad Bunny’s “Nueva Yol,” classic New York hip hop like 50 Cent’s “Many Men” and Afrobeats.
Here at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater, these were the voters who helped power New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory. Younger. Racially diverse. And enthusiastic for a new generation of leadership in America’s largest city.
Located on the border of the rapidly developing Downtown Brooklyn and the once majority-Black, now heavily gentrified Fort Greene neighborhood, the 2,700-capacity theater is in one of the areas where progressive young professionals drove Mamdani to victory.
On the floor, while Mamdani’s supporters danced, throngs of media both domestic and foreign searched for interviews and New York politicos chatted with one another.
Behind the podium were flags for the city of New York and a large screen for Spectrum News 1, the local New York television station.
Cheers erupted whenever new voting numbers rolled on the screen, as Mamdani remained in the lead throughout the evening.
At one point, a crowd of younger supporters circled around the middle of the floor to chant, “We believe that we have won.”
Supporters gather after Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani won the 2025 New York City Mayoral race, outside the venue of an election night watch party in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2025.
‘A phenomenon across the country’
Brooklyn native Julio Herrera, 27, danced to Kendrick Lamar’s hit diss track “Not Like Us” minutes after the election was called for Mamdani. Herrera, part of the Black Leadership Action Coalition, said his organization endorsed Mamdani in the Democratic primary because of the state assemblyman’s focus on increasing affordability through initiatives like free buses and free childcare.
Herrera felt validated, he said, adding an expletive.
“This isn’t just like a New York situation,” he said. “This is a phenomenon across the country, across the world.”
Social studies teacher Nicholas Francisco Alban, 26, weaved through Zohran Mamdani election night crowd with a New York City flag. As a volunteer field lead, he hadn’t eaten since the afternoon. He grabbed a small bag of popcorn at the bar.
Alban joined the campaign in February, as demonstrated by his blue beanie given to early supporters. The candidate’s message on affordability attracted him. As a Brooklyn native he has had friends move away and others who have to live crowded in apartments because of the rising cost of housing.
“How is that normal?” he said. “We’ve deluded ourselves into thinking it is.”
As screens on stage showed Mamdani with a healthy lead, Alban said he was beyond words. He had to rush to the front of the stage, where he had a spot saved. When new numbers put Mamdani over 50% at 9:36 p.m., the crowd erupted with cheers.
Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani hugs his mother Mira Nair as his wife Rama Duwaji stands next to them, after Mamdani won the 2025 New York City Mayoral race, at an election night rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
‘I can be like him when I grow up’
Manhattan resident Sabah Merchant, 31, stood toward the back of Zohran Mamdani’s election night party. Her brother worked on Mamdani’s campaigns, including when he ran for state Assembly and won, defeating an incumbent in the Democratic primary in 2020.
The importance of Mamdani as the first Muslim and South Asian mayor, and someone who immigrated to the country as a child, wasn’t lost on Merchant, who is a second-generation American.
“It’s amazing seeing someone with that identity bringing an entire city of diverse communities together,” said Merchant, who works in policy at a nonprofit.
Mamdani, she said, “has embraced New York City as his own and actually contributed meaningfully to it. I’m excited to see what doors he can open for others.”
Ali Hasan, an 11-year-old from San Jose, California, looked up at the screens with his mother, as the results streamed in. As someone who is also Muslim, Ali said, Mamdani’s victory “means that I can be like him when I grow up.
‘Unapologetically himself’
In a demonstration of Mamdani’s outspoken commitment to promoting the rights of immigrants and Palestinians, Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was held in immigrant detention by the Trump administration for his pro-Palestinian activism, stood with his wife Dr. Noor Abdalla, in the balcony at Mamdani’s election night party.
In March, federal agents detained Khalil in the lobby of their university-owned apartment building. The Trump administration stripped Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian born in a Syrian refugee camp, of his legal permanent residency for his protest activity. Khalil was released from a Louisiana detention center in late June.
On election night, Khalil rested his arms on the balcony railing, watching results on screen and speeches celebrating Mamdani’s win. Abdalla’s arms rested too, stretching out just over the railing.
The crowd roared with deafening enthusiasm when Mamdani in his victory speech spoke directly to Trump and on behalf of immigrants.
“Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!” Mamdani baited the president.
“New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” he later said. “So, hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
After Mamdani exited the stage with his wife, mother and father, the crowd lingered around as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Motown ballad, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” played.
Teary-eyed, Brooklyn resident Katie Deray, 37, slowly walked up the ramp wearing a blue “Iranians for Zohran” T-shirt, in English and Farsi. She had black bows in her hair with “Z” stickers on them.
As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, she said Mamdani was “so transparent and unapologetically himself,” even as he faced racist and Islamophobic attacks in the campaign. “It’s a beautiful thing,” she said.
A social worker, she came to support Mamdani because of his proposal to create a “Department of Community Safety,” an effort to respond to mental health emergencies with social workers instead of police officers. While she said some were afraid of his age, at 34, she saw it as a benefit to think differently.
Mamdani, she said, wasn’t “encumbered by the mechanisms of the political structure that are inevitable, to a degree,” she said.
Just after 10:30 p.m., Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” played briefly. Results showed Mamdani has garnered more than 1 million votes in the historic turnout election.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zohran Mamdani’s election night victory party showcases new coalition
