Mamdani S Youth Support Goes Beyond New York For Many He S Now A

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 28, 2025, 2:41 AM

mamdani s youth support goes beyond new york for many he s now a

It's been years since Democratic voter Leah Ash felt hopeful about a politician, but that changed recently. "He's been really the only bright spot for me this year," she said. "[He] wants to listen to the people he's seeking to govern." The 26-year-old is referring to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, who has centered his campaign on affordability concerns. For that reason, he easily has Ash's vote — if only she lived in the city he was running in. Instead, she lives more than 1,200 miles away.

"I would like to believe one day there could be a Zohran Mamdani for Gulfport, Miss., but I don't think that's ever going to happen, at least not in my lifetime," Ash said, acknowledging... "But it gives me hope that it can happen in other places across the country." In just a few months, Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist, has gone from a long-shot fringe candidate to a national figure — securing an upset win in the June primary, where... Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman has built his campaign around one central theme: affordability. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has emerged as a prominent figure in national politics, particularly among younger voters who according to recent polls are disillusioned with the current political system. The 34-year-old Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman has built his campaign around one central theme: affordability.

Mamdani’s platform includes proposals to freeze rent for rent-stabilized units, construct 200,000 new affordable apartments, and create city-run grocery stores. He has also pledged to make city buses and childcare free initiatives aimed at easing the financial strain on working- and middle-class residents. While critics have called these policies unrealistic, they have attracted significant attention and support from voters under 35, both inside and outside New York City. In the June primary, Mamdani achieved an upset victory over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Notably, voters aged 18 to 29 recorded the highest turnout of any age group, highlighting the strength of Mamdani’s appeal to younger demographics. Polls now show him as the frontrunner ahead of the upcoming general election.

Researchers say Mamdani’s popularity among young people reflects a growing generational shift in American politics. “When a candidate is able to speak to the concerns of the populace and validate those concerns, that has a big impact especially on young voters,” said Ruby Belle Booth, who studies youth engagement... Booth noted that only 16 percent of Americans under 30 believe democracy is currently working for them, suggesting widespread frustration with traditional political structures. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City primary was “a powerful reminder that when young people are mobilized and energized, they can shape election outcomes,” said CIRCLE researcher Ruby Belle Booth. Photo: Shutterstock His campaign drew a surge of new voters, including young people.

Will the youth vote help shape the 2026 midterms, too? Last night, Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral election. The city’s young voting base is being credited with boosting Mamdani to victory in the primary and general elections. A new analysis by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life highlights young people’s impact on the mayoral race. Over 1 in 4 youth voted in the 2025 New York City mayoral race—a high level of youth participation in a municipal election—and 75% of those young voters supported Mamdani.

The victory by the 34-year-old Mamdani and the hand that voters aged 18-29 had in it raise questions about general trends in that demographic. Does this primary say anything about future major elections and the role that youth will play? Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The opposition leader in the Ugandan Parliament sees the Ugandan-born Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York mayoral race as an inspiring political shift but somehow too distant for many... Live Results: New York City 2025 mayoral election "It's a big encouragement even to us here in Uganda that it's possible," said Joel Ssenyonyi, who represents an area of the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

"But we have a long way to get there." Uganda, where Mamdani was born in 1991, has had the same president for nearly four decades, despite attempts by multiple opposition leaders to defeat him in elections. President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian who is up for reelection in January, has rejected calls to retire, leading to fears of a volatile political transition. His most prominent challenger is a 43-year-old entertainer known as Bobi Wine, who charges he was cheated in the 2021 election. Image: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani waves during a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

It’s been years since Democratic voter Lea Ash felt hopeful about a politician, but that changed recently. “He’s been really the only bright spot for me this year,” she said. “[He] wants to listen to the people he’s seeking to govern.” The 26-year-old is referring to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, who has centered his campaign on affordability concerns. For that reason, he easily has Ash’s vote — if only she lived in the city he was running in. Instead, she lives more than 1,200 miles away.

“I would like to believe one day there could be a Zohran Mamdani for Gulfport, Miss., but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen, at least not in my lifetime,” Ash said, acknowledging... “But it gives me hope that it can happen in other places across the country.” Zohran Kwame Mamdani[c] (born October 18, 1991) is an American politician who is the mayor-elect of New York City. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, he is set to become New York's first Muslim and Asian American mayor. Mamdani has served as a member of the New York State Assembly for the 36th district since 2021, representing the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair.

After spending three years in Cape Town, South Africa, when Mamdani was five to seven years old, his family moved to the United States, settling in New York City. Mamdani graduated from the Bronx High School of Science before receiving a bachelor's degree with a major in Africana studies from Bowdoin College in 2014. After working as a housing counselor and musician, Mamdani entered local New York City politics as a campaign manager for Khader El-Yateem and Ross Barkan. He was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, defeating five-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in the Democratic primary. Representing Astoria and Long Island City, he was reelected without opposition in 2022 and 2024. In October 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election.

He campaigned on an affordability-focused platform supporting fare-free city buses, universal public child care, city-owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, additional affordable housing units, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. He also expressed support for LGBTQ rights, comprehensive public safety reform, and tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually. He won the Democratic primary in June 2025, defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo in an upset, and was elected mayor in the November general election. Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, the only child of postcolonialist academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair.[12][13] He was given his middle name, Kwame, by his father... What follows is an excerpt from Christopher Caldwell’s essay, “Mayor Mamdani’s New York,” from the 25th anniversary Fall 2025–Winter 2026 issue of the Claremont Review of Books. “Ana minkum wa ileikum,” shouted 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, newly elected mayor of New York, to the heaving crowd in Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater just before midnight on Election Night.

I’m one of you! What did he mean by that? Mamdani, after all, can come off as almost comically foreign. Look at the way he waves as he walks to the podium. He doesn’t swing his arm like a regular American. He doesn’t even wiggle his hand, as the late queen did.

He frantically flaps his fingertips against his thumbs, the way kindergarteners do when they are pretending to listen to an imaginary friend. There’s something a bit “off” about Mamdani, like those German spies in old movies who, despite their perfect English, give themselves away by not knowing who won the last World Series. Or like Barack Obama, who proclaimed his affection for the Chicago White Sox and then proved unable to name a single player who’d ever taken the field for them. (Mamdani fends off baseball questions, such as whether he’s a Yankees or a Mets fan, by professing himself a fan of English soccer.) There is a difference between running for president and running for mayor. In a city that is 36% foreign-born, being foreign is a plus.

And like Obama growing up in Hawaii, knowing no black people but struggling, as the age demanded, toward a black identity, Mamdani has actively crafted an outsider image. Born in Uganda, the son of the Columbia professor of postcolonial studies Mahmood Mamdani and the Indian film director Mira Nair (she directed the Disney film Queen of Katwe), Mamdani arrived in the United... Before entering politics, he had a brief career as a rap artist under the name “Young Cardamom.” But radical politics was always his overriding interest. Mamdani is the product of Bronx Science, an elite public high school where admission requires competitive exams, and Bowdoin, which was among the wokest handful of colleges in the country during his time there. He found his mentors in the street-savvy Democratic Socialists of America (where he was close to Bernie Sanders and New York State Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and the city’s Muslim Democratic Club (which pursues its...

He rallied a base of immigrants, Muslims, women, and gays. And armed with a gift for invective, he has ridden out against Donald Trump and his policy of tight borders and swift deportations. “Hear me, President Trump, when I say this,” Mamdani shouted toward the end of his victory speech. “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.” President Trump, perhaps realizing such a confrontation could do him more harm than good, deferred the prospect for a...

Mamdani S Youth Support Goes Beyond New York For Many He S Now A

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