The potential for a new era in American political life now
rests on Zohran Mamdani, who is much more than The
youngest mayor in the history of New York City.
The Ugandan-American, born to Indian parents in Kampala
34 years ago, brings a special brand of populist political
thinking, social media savvy, and genuine sophistication.
His campaign commitment is to make the city more affordable
for millions of city residents in an era when billionaires
dominate the government to help themselves first and last.
His official swearing took place just after midnight on
January 1 in the once glamorous but now unused subway
station at City Hall. Mamdani used two Qurans held by his
wife, the artist Rama Duwaji. Their parents looked on. His
mother is filmmaker Mira Nair, and his father is a professor
Mahmood Mamdani is a prominent figure in postcolonial
studies at Columbia University. A small group of family,
allies, and reporters watched. The public inauguration
happens in daylight outside City Hall.
Historically, 1904 was the political reverse of today.
Republican President Teddy Roosevelt battled industrialists
and those who were mostly unregulated by the government
where referred to as robber barons; today, oligarchs and
Technocrats control the presidency and want to deregulate
America is becoming an authoritarian nation.
Mamdani says transformation need not be a memory
confined only to our past,... it will be the purpose of the
administration, fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from
the building above.”
The mayor is a democratic socialist whose campaign
focused on affordability, with a platform of creating universal
child care, making public buses fast and free, and freezing
the rent for nearly two million rent-stabilized apartments
where the city, by law, controls rent levels. It quite obviously
inspired voters, while alienating landlords and the
aristocracy.
A first-term mayor in New York has a lot in common with a
new production opening in a Broadway theater. Backers,
confidants, and supporters expect a big hit. However, the
audience and critics often disagree. Mamdani's person-to-
person campaign style made him a winner for New York
voters, with a style and content never before attempted in
New York City. Big-time political experts view it as a suitable
style only for an upstate rural town.
Now at 34, he is among the youngest big city mayors
elected in America. This is not a surprise because old-style
Politicians have failed to deliver what many Americans
under 35-years old want. However, old-style Republican
and Democratic Party politicians are unlikely to roll over just
because Zohran is popular. Mamdani as a Democratic
socialist may be an interesting example to voters heading
into next year's midterms. For most of the 20th century, the
word was a political epithet for what America did
not need. Post election polling indicated many traditional
middle-class parents were under pressure from their adult
children to vote for Mamdani.
A labor leader born in the Gujarat state of India, where
Mamdani’s family roots exist, said about his winning,
" As someone who grew up poor, was raised by parents who
died poor, that for the first time in my lifetime I am going to
See a mayor that loved poor people, who loves the poor
and despises their poverty.”
She decried the corruption of the outgoing mayor and
“the blatant racism” of President Trump. In her opinion, “I
think with Zohran, what you see is what feels like this
endless capacity of compassion and a real honesty.”
Can Democrats and Republicans among the 51 members
of the New York City Council accommodate a mayor with
new ideas? The last non-politician mayor was Mike
Bloomberg. He discovered running New York City was like
coaching a sports team where every player thinks he is
smarter than the coach or the owner.
The New Yorker in the White House, is usually combative
with anyone who disagrees with him. But President Trump
appears to know a real star when he sees one. Meeting
Mamdani in the Oval Office, Trump was all smiles and
compliments. Mamdani mentioned building housing and
most likely hinted at his election success in the outer
reaches of New York City, where there are a lot of Trump
voters. Trump, busy dealing with wars, real and imagined,
skipped his usual behavior, knowing they'll have things to
fight about later.
To his credit, Mamdani avoided the appearance of a post-election victory lap.
This denied his opposition an easy attack
opportunities. Dealing with immigration and deportation.
Efforts in New York City will not surprise Mamdani. He is
familiar with ICE tactics from his own work helping
immigrants as a state assemblyman representing Queens
in the state capitol. What New York calls a borough (with a
population of 2.3 million residents) is one of the most
diverse counties in the nation, bigger than 15 US States.
This began when an older man I knew from a
mosque in the neighborhood called me, and he said that
there were some, as he described it, of West African
brothers who were asylum seekers, and had nowhere to go,
he asked me to come and see them.”
Mamdani's dad has lived in America since 1993 but travels
frequently to Uganda. He was summoned to the
Immigration office is causing Mamdani to wait outside on the
phone with a lawyer ready to file, pro se (for oneself) if
needed. Immigrants, regardless of status, are now
equipped with advice and assistance, to represent
themselves in court. It was just a question about his dad's
travels. A network of legal clinics is fighting back against
ICE in New York and around the country.
Mamdani’s surprise win marks a generational and
Ideological shift in America, larger than just one city or
state. If Democrats do well or fail in the 2026 November
midterm national elections, the praise or blame will find him.
By Kenneth Tiven