New Yorkers have shaken the United States’s political establishment and delivered 34-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani a thumping victory in the city’s contentious mayoral election.<\/p>\n
For weeks, polls predicted Mr Mamdani was on course for an historic triumph and as counting continued on Tuesday night, local time, his lead became unassailable.<\/p>\n
He will become the first Muslim mayor of New York, and joins a small handful of people born overseas to get the keys to Gracie Mansion since the city threw off its colonial shackles almost two centuries ago.<\/p>\n
Mr Mamdani ran for the Democrats \u2014 one of two major political parties in the US \u2014 but his policy platform was considered so radical many in the organisation’s old guard declined to endorse him.<\/p>\n
His signature promises are designed to combat the eye-watering cost of living in America’s largest metropolis and include freezing some rents, providing free child care, no-cost buses and opening city-owned grocery stores.<\/p>\n
To pay for all that, and more, Mr Mamdani has pledged to hike taxes on New York City’s ultra-rich citizens, as well as companies \u2014 reforms critics point out are no sure thing, given they will require support from sceptical politicians elsewhere in the state.<\/p>\n
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Zohran Mamdani’s supporters celebrate in Brooklyn on Tuesday night. (Reuters: Shannon Stapleton)<\/p>\n
While counting will continue into Tuesday night (Wednesday afternoon AEDT), Mr Mamdani was polling about 50 per cent of the vote, with three-quarters of the ballots counted.<\/p>\n
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo stood as an independent after failing to be pre-selected for the Democrats and was second with about 40 per cent, while Curtis Sliwa, from the Republican Party, was a distant third.<\/p>\n
Mr Mamdani’s blueprint for change has put him on a political collision course with President Donald Trump \u2014 a New Yorker himself \u2014 who has threatened to cut federal funding for the city if it elected a “communist”.<\/p>\n
On top of a hostile White House, Mr Mamdani takes over as mayor at a time many of his new constituents are under considerable economic strain.<\/p>\n
America’s growing wealth divide is particularly pronounced in New York City, which is home to the world’s highest concentration of millionaires and billionaires as well as rising levels of homelessness not seen since the Great Depression.<\/p>\n
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New Yorkers headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new mayor. (ABC News: Cameron Schwarz)<\/p>\n
Mr Mamdani, a self-described “democratic socialist”, will be the city’s most left-wing mayor in more than three decades.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump, a Republican, was so concerned about the prospect of his home town lurching to the left, he urged people to vote for Mr Cuomo over his own party’s candidate, Mr Sliwa.<\/p>\n
“President Trump doesn’t support me,” Mr Cuomo said, trying to distance himself from the president, who is unpopular in the city. “He opposes Zohran Mamdani.”<\/p>\n
Mr Mamdani will take over from scandal-prone incumbent Eric Adams \u2014 another Democrat who had chosen to run as an independent until he dropped out of the race in September.<\/p>\n
He begins a four-year term on January 1.<\/p>\n
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Kristina Teschner hopes the result in New York City is a turning point for US politics. (ABC News: Phoebe Hosier)<\/p>\n
Kristina Teschner, a resident of the city’s vibrant Brooklyn borough, is among the tens of thousands of volunteers powering Mr Mamdani’s campaign.<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old performer and political organiser relies on government food and healthcare programs to survive.<\/p>\n
Ms Teschner was evicted from her apartment earlier this year, and was \u2014 for a brief period \u2014 homeless. A subsequent breast cancer diagnosis compounded her already precarious situation.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t look at my bank account today, but I think maybe there’s a hundred dollars in there,” she told the ABC.<\/p>\n
Ms Teschner said her struggles were reflected in Mr Mamdani’s promises.<\/p>\n
“There are so many people like me on the verge of having to leave the city,” she said. “I can’t bear it. The heartbeat of New York, working-class people, is being pushed out.”<\/p>\n
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Zohran Mamdani makes a point to supporters on Monday evening. (ABC News: Cameron Schwarz)<\/p>\n
Socialist’s big promises in spotlight<\/p>\n
Mr Mamdani moved to New York City from Uganda with his family at age seven, and later became a US citizen. After a brief career as a rapper, he was elected to the state’s assembly \u2014 or parliament \u2014 in 2021.<\/p>\n
The millennial raised eyebrows when he defeated the high-profile Mr Cuomo in June’s Democratic Party mayoral primaries, in what had been widely billed as a David-versus-Goliath contest.<\/p>\n
Mr Cuomo, 67, more neatly fits the traditional US political pedigree and was well known to voters, having served three terms as the state’s governor.<\/p>\n
He resigned from that role in 2021, though, amid allegations of sexual harassment and corruption, which he denies.<\/p>\n
Mr Cuomo, who also runs a consultancy business, is estimated to be in New York’s top 0.5 per cent of earners. His campaign received significant financial backing from billionaires, cashed-up political organisations and pro-Israel groups.<\/p>\n
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Zohran Mamdani gets support from a cab driver on the campaign trail. (Reuters: Mike Segar)<\/p>\n