{"id":333958,"date":"2026-08-31T16:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/333958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:58:13","slug":"hundreds-show-up-to-judge-zohran-mamdani-look-alike-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/333958\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds show up to judge Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Hundreds of people gathered near New York City\u2019s popular Washington Square Park Sunday to judge a Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u00a0look-alike contest.<\/p>\n

The winner, Amadeo Fusca, was the crowd favorite, wearing a jersey for the\u00a0NBA champion New York Knicks<\/a>\u00a0underneath a suit. Fusca also had a haircut and facial hair similar to Mamdani, taking home a $100 prize.<\/p>\n

\"AmadeoAmadeo Fusca, center, winner of the Mayor Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest, takes selfies with the crowd, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. Photo: Heather Khalifa\/AP<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January,\u00a0has amassed a large following<\/a>\u00a0on social media and among younger residents. The event was sponsored by the social media app, Sonder.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s agenda as mayor is centered on refocusing the power of government toward\u00a0helping the city\u2019s struggling working class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AmadeoAmadeo Fusca, winner of the Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest, reacts with the crowd, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. Photo: Heather Khalifa\/AP<\/p>\n

Nine participants, many with facial hair similar to Mamdani\u2019s, came dressed in myriad Mamdani style, including the brown suit Mamdani wore while campaigning in 2025, red and black patterned ties, dress shoes, dark blue and black suits, and silver rings. One of the participants showed up shirtless but wearing an apron \u2014 a reference to a rap music video Mamdani made in 2019.<\/p>\n

The men were asked one question in the competition \u2014 name their favorite pizza \u2014 and the winner was decided by who got the most applause.<\/p>\n

\"ParticipantsParticipants pose for photos during a Zohran Mamdani look-alike contest, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. Photo: Heather Khalifa\/AP<\/p>\n

Attendees initially gathered in the park, but police told them they had to leave because they hadn\u2019t obtained a permit. So they moved just outside the park for the competition.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first time Mamdani look-alikes gathered. A similar contest was held in Brooklyn in 2025 when Mamdani was campaigning for mayor.<\/p>\n

\"NewThe real Zohran Mamdani speaks during the annual New York State Financial Control Board meeting, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in New York. Photo: Yuki Iwamura\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Hundreds of people gathered near New York City\u2019s popular Washington Square Park Sunday to judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23587,9,24,55,54,1104,5325,56,82],"class_list":["post-333958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-contests","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-no-paywall","tag-ny","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333958","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=333958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}