{"id":27811,"date":"2025-11-04T03:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T03:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/27811\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T03:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T03:45:10","slug":"making-history-mamdani-to-voters-on-election-eve-as-trump-backs-cuomo-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/27811\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Making history\u2019: Mamdani to voters on election eve as Trump backs Cuomo | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City \u2013 For Zohran Mamdani, it starts and ends in Astoria, the Queens neighbourhood he has represented as a state assemblyman for five years, and where he made his first public address following a shock victory in the June Democratic primary for mayor.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the 34-year-old made his final appearance before Tuesday\u2019s election day, standing at a playground at dusk, with children laughing in the background.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

His message to his army of volunteers<\/a>, which the campaign has said is made up of more than 100,000: \u201cLeave everything out there on the field\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the hands that have brought us to this point of making history in this city\u201d, he said, \u201cmaking history to show that when you focus and fight for working people, you can, in fact, remake the politics of the place that you call home\u201d.<\/p>\n

While US President Donald Trump may have gained from deep disquiet over an affordability crisis in the country to win the 2024 presidential vote, Mamdani has argued that it is he and his mayoral campaign that can actually address those challenges in the biggest city of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"NEWTasnuva Khan in Astoria, Queens [Michael MSantiago\/AFP]<\/p>\n

Indeed, Trump loomed large on Monday as Mamdani stood before a cadre of cheering canvassers, some clad in the campaign\u2019s ubiquitous yellow beanies, and an equally large horde of local, national and international media.<\/p>\n

Just hours earlier, the US president had explicitly endorsed<\/a> former Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying New Yorkers must choose the \u201cbad democrat\u201d over the \u201ccommunist\u201d, a false label he has repeatedly applied to democratic socialist Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Soon after, billionaire Elon Musk also threw his support behind Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic Party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

The most recent polls showed Mamdani maintaining a commanding, if shrinking, lead over Cuomo. The late endorsements for the former governor, who has explicitly called<\/a> on conservatives to jump ship from Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa<\/a> and support him instead, could also further destabilise an already volatile race.<\/p>\n

Still, Mamdani\u2019s supporters on Monday said they hoped their candidate\u2019s speech will be a coda on a campaign that has been widely considered as a rebuke<\/a> to the entrenched, donor-dominated Democratic establishment that Cuomo is seen to represent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel amazing right now,\u201d said Tasnuva Khan, who was among the canvassers on Monday, adding that the race had revealed both the power of Muslim voters<\/a> and the city\u2019s fast-growing Bangladeshi community.<\/p>\n

Mamdani would be the first Muslim, first person of South Asian descent, and the first person born in Africa to lead the city, if he wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m trying to stay balanced. What wins elections are votes. As long as we kind of stay focused and reach out to our community members, keep canvassing, knocking on doors, then I think we can definitely deliver,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\"AttendeesAttendees hold signs that read, \u2018Vote for Zohran\u2019, in Astoria, Queens [Reuters]<\/p>\n

But Shabnam Salehezadehi, a dentist from Long Island City, Queens, and a Mamdani supporter, said she feared the mayoral candidate\u2019s real challenges would begin after the election.<\/p>\n

Winning is just the bare minimum, she noted, but for Mamdani to enact many of his sweeping pledges<\/a> \u2013 free buses, universal childcare, rent freezes for a large portion of city apartments, paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy \u2013 he must win buy-in from a coalition of both state and city lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really anxious \u2013 not so much whether he\u2019ll win or not,\u201d said Salehezadehi, who added she was first drawn to Mamdani for his staunch support of Palestinian rights, a break from the traditional Democratic mainstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really hope we have the mandate to show that Zohran Mamdani is the candidate the city vehemently voted for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Election day looms<\/p>\n

Cuomo also spent the final day of the race cutting across the city, visiting the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

In the Fordham neighbourhood of the Bronx, a community representative of some of the minority-dominated working-class areas Cuomo carried in the primary, the former governor stood on a park bench overlooking nearby street vendors.<\/p>\n

He decried the \u201csocialist city\u201d New York would become if Mamdani were to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocialism did not work in Venezuela. Socialism did not work in Cuba. Socialism will not work in New York City,\u201d he said, in what has become a mantra in the final days of the race.<\/p>\n

At a subsequent stop in Washington Heights, Manhattan, he replied to a question about the nod from Trump, which comes as Cuomo has already faced scrutiny for sharing many of the same billionaire donors as the Republican president.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe called me a bad Democrat. First of all, I happen to be a good Democrat and a proud Democrat, and I\u2019m going to stay a proud Democrat. Mamdani is not a communist,\u201d Cuomo said. \u201cHe\u2019s a socialist. But we don\u2019t need a socialist mayor either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is seen at a campaign stop in the Washington Heights neighbourhood in Manhattan, New York City [AFP]<\/p>\n

But for Gwendolyn Paige, a 69-year-old special educator from the Bronx, the \u201csocialist label\u201d is not what\u2019s deterring her from voting for Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Instead, she pointed to the Cuomo legacy. Cuomo\u2019s father, Mario Cuomo, had also served as governor of the state. The younger Cuomo left his post in 2021 amid sexual misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuomo is the only person who will stand up to the Trump administration,\u201d Paige told Al Jazeera from the Fordham neighbourhood, even as she dismissed Trump\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, tomorrow, Trump will say something else,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t put much stock in it\u201d.<\/p>\n

At least 735,000 voters have already cast their ballots in early voting, just a portion of the 4.7 million registered voters in the city.<\/p>\n

Polls will be open from 6am to 9pm on Tuesday (11:00 GMT, Tuesday to 02:00 GMT, Wednesday), with a winner expected to emerge in the hours after. The victor will take office in January.<\/p>\n

With just hours until election day, some votes are still up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Lisa Gonzalez, a retired Army veteran, pointed to dire times for low-income residents of the US, including restrictions on food assistance benefits (SNAP) included in a bill passed by Trump and Republicans earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Trump has further threatened to cut federal funding for New York City and deploy the National Guard if Mamdani is elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still deciding. The stakes feel really high,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just gonna be very careful tomorrow when I vote\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City \u2013 For Zohran Mamdani, it starts and ends in Astoria, the Queens neighbourhood he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,416,9,24,55,54,12,56,87,901,2272],"class_list":{"0":"post-27811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}