NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made it through the hard part. But the real struggle starts now.
Aside from providing and improving services in the largest, most complex city in America, the 34-year-old democratic socialist will be faced with the steep challenges of reassuring a population that remains divided after a deeply divisive election and a president hellbent on undermining him.
In the after hours of his victory, Mamdani sought to calm nerves by announcing an experienced transition team, pledging to reach out to those who’d opposed him and to govern for all New Yorkers.
He also framed what he just accomplished — building an army of message-disciplined volunteers and effectively marshaling them to vanquish former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — as a template of how he intends to keep his administration focused on the formidable tasks ahead. Chief among them is easing the burden felt by many in the city’s working and middle classes.
POLITICO spoke with Mamdani the day after his big win. Here’s what he had to share:
You got a majority, but also nearly 50% of people wanted someone else to be mayor. That shows a very divided city. What do you make of that, and what are you going to do about it?
I am proud to be the next mayor, having received more than a million votes in an election which saw turnout the likes of which we hadn’t seen since 1969. And I think oftentimes we are assessing the results of an election without asking the question of how many or how few New Yorkers are participating in it.
And I’m glad that this was an election that saw a far greater number of New Yorkers seeing themselves in our democracy and in the policies and the proposals that have been put forward over the last year. And I’m proud of that support, and I also will look to be the mayor of every New Yorker, whether they voted for another candidate, or, frankly, whether they didn’t vote at all. Because I know that my responsibility will be to all 8.5 million people that call the city home, and I’m looking forward to fulfilling it.
Opposition to your candidacy and now mayoralty seems to be particularly acute with Jewish New Yorkers and groups. I know you repeatedly assured people that you will be a mayor for them and everyone else in New York, but I’m curious if you feel like more amends are needed on your end to repair this relationship?
I have appreciated the meetings that I’ve had with Jewish leaders, with rabbis, with elected officials, and the opportunity to build those relationships, and it’s also something that I intend to continue to do. And I know that there are many New Yorkers for whom they have a healthy dose of skepticism, whether about our campaign or about politics at large, and I also don’t begrudge them that, because they’ve been subjected to around $40 million in attack ads.
My job is to introduce myself as I am, as opposed to the caricature that they have been given, and I’m ready to bring our city together and to ensure that we’re not only taking the temperature down, but we’re also delivering on the material needs for each and every New Yorker and that we do so now, having secured a mandate from New Yorkers.
Swing-state Republicans are already using you to paint Democrats in contested areas as too far left for moderate voters. Your affordability agenda resonates well outside of New York — I think even with a lot of Republicans as far as these economic issues. But I don’t think that’s what they’re going to be talking about. They’re going to be bringing up your support for decriminalizing sex work, your comments about the past, comments about defunding the NYPD. What are you going to do, if anything, to assist national Democrats who are going to be dealing with this line of attack?
You know, when Sen. Bernie Sanders came to New York City, he asked the crowd at Brooklyn College the question of what Donald Trump’s billionaire donors and his Republican Party were so afraid of. And he said it was because of their fear of the power of example — of us actually delivering on our agenda — and the stark contrast that would paint with Republicans and especially President Trump’s diagnosis of the crisis in working class Americans lives, the cost of living crisis, and yet their inability to do anything about it.
Instead, in fact, exacerbating that crisis by cutting SNAP benefits after having run a campaign on making it easy, making groceries cheaper. And that is the power of that example of what we will achieve through my City Hall. It is what is going to be shared across these five boroughs as what it can look like when you actually fight for working people.
You know, last year, there were many an obituary being written about the Democratic party’s ability to attract young people, to attract specifically young men, to attract Asian voters — and we completely changed the electorate of this city, bringing in many of those exact kinds of voters into the political process, registering tens of thousands of them to vote for the very first time. And that is a challenge that we face no matter what city it is that we call home. And it’s time to talk about protecting our democracy, not just as an ideal or a value, but also in its ability to deliver the material needs for working people.
So what you’re saying is predicated on, I think, New Yorkers and other people seeing results. You made a lot of promises last night. You seem to want to be held accountable for them. What time frame can New Yorkers realistically expect to start seeing results? These other Democrats around the country, when will they be able to point to results in New York from your administration?
I am going to work towards delivering those results from the very first day in my administration. There will be different timelines for different issues, but all of them are ones that we have to deliver throughout the time that I am the mayor of the city.
Governor Hochul has said, for example, that child care is the issue of 2026, and I know that the rent guidelines board makes the determination on the increase or lack thereof on rents on an annual basis. These are examples of places where we will start in spelling out a timeline to actually deliver on the needs of working class New Yorkers.
Lightning round. Should Chuck Schumer face a challenge in 2028?
Spokesperson: I’m sorry, Joe, we gotta go.
One lightning round!
I’m focused on this transition my brother, but thank you.
