4 things to know about Zohran Mamdani, presumptive Democratic nominee for NYC mayor

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Zohran Mamdani is poised to become the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, after leading in the city’s ranked-choice primary on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old state assemblymember and democratic socialist was virtually unknown when he jumped into the crowded primary field last fall. But he had recently skyrocketed in the polls, fueled by in-person interactions, viral videos and policy proposals that appear to have resonated especially among younger and first-time primary voters.

“I think everyone is stunned and shocked by the unexpected nature of his victory,” says Patrick Egan, a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. “And I think one of the other notable things about that victory is that he won with a really progressive, liberal left-wing platform of the kind that we probably haven’t ever seen in New York.”

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With 93% of precincts reporting, Mamdani garnered 44% of ballots — the most of the 11 candidates and far more than the 36% of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the one-time frontrunner. Cuomo conceded to Mamdani on Tuesday night, but has left the door open to run as an independent in November’s general election.

The primary isn’t officially over: The losing candidates’ ballots must be redistributed to voters’ second-choice candidates until one of them breaks the 50% threshold, a process that is set to begin on July 1.

But Mamdani’s commanding lead sent a clear message — and was enough for him to declare victory just after midnight.

“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for Gov. Cuomo or felt too disillusioned by a long, broken political system to vote at all,” Mamdani told supporters at his Long Island City watch party. “I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you, that is safe for you.”

If Mamdani does win the primary, he will face off against a slew of candidates in November — including Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who ran unopposed in his party’s primary, and embattled Mayor Eric Adams, who bypassed the Democratic primary by announcing he’d seek reelection as an independent.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans eight to one in New York City, according to Gothamist.

But Mamdani’s rise was far from guaranteed: With the help of tens of thousands of unpaid volunteers, the Ugandan-born progressive mobilized young and first-time voters to pull off a stunning upset against the Democratic Party establishment in America’s most populous city, with implications for the rest of the country.

Seth Masket, a politics professor at the University of Denver, says many Democrats — in New York City and beyond — are feeling disillusioned with the party, in the wake of its 2024 election losses and after seeing the response to President Trump.

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“I think you can tie this into a little more of a vibe that’s going on across the country where a lot of Democratic voters seem to be souring on the party’s leadership, the party’s establishment, and are looking for unusual different voices to lead them going forward and certainly a younger set of leaders,” he says. “And Mamdani certainly fills that role.”

Here’s what else to know about him.

He would be a history-making mayor

If elected, Mamdani would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor. He would also be its youngest in more than a century.

Mamdani, who turns 34 in October, would share the honor with John Purroy Mitchel — nicknamed the “Boy Mayor” — who took office at age 34 in 1914.

Mamdani was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, who is best known for films including Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding.

The family moved to New York City when Mamdani was seven years old, and he became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

Mamdani would also be New York City’s first mayor to meet his wife on a dating app, as he revealed on The Bulwark. He married Syrian animator and illustrator Rama Duwaji in a civil ceremony at the City Clerk’s office in early 2025.

He was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020

After graduating from Bowdoin College with a degree in Africana Studies, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor in Queens — a job he says inspired him to run for office.

“After having spent every day negotiating with banks that valued profits over people, he came face-to-face with the reality that this housing crisis – one which predated this pandemic – was not natural to our lives, but instead a choice,” reads Mamdani’s official biography.

Mamdani won a seat in New York’s State Assembly in 2020 after narrowly beating a four-term incumbent in the primary, becoming the first South Asian man to serve in that body. He has represented the 36th district — which includes the Queens neighborhood of Astoria — ever since, winning reelection unopposed in 2022 and 2024.

Mamdani’s legislative — and campaign — priorities include affordable housing, free public buses and lowering the cost of living by raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.

He introduced more than 20 such bills during his four-plus years in Albany, though the New York Times notes that only three “relatively minor items” actually became law. One of his signature achievements was a yearlong pilot program for free bus routes — one in each of the city’s five boroughs — that was not renewed.

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NYU’s Egan says Mamdani will enter the general election as a “favorite, but certainly not a sure thing.” Even if he does win, he will face questions about his agenda.

“If Mamdani ends up being mayor of New York, can he translate these big, bold and arguably pretty expensive policies into practice lothat will improve the lives of everyday New Yorkers?” Egan says. “That, of course, is his promise. And if it’s the case that he’s able to succeed, then the Democrats have notched a win in their attempts to be the good governing party that they hope to be.”

But he also cautions against drawing too much from Mamdani’s primary performance.

“I think it would be a mistake for either observers or party leaders to say, ‘Oh, this has to be the recipe that’s going to fit all elections, all constituencies,'” Egan says. “Because it looks like there are a lot of different ways that Democrats can be successful, as both politicians and as when once they’re governing in office.”

He was endorsed by high-profile progressives

In the final weeks of the primary race, Mamdani scored endorsements from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — whose congressional district includes parts of Queens — and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who congratulated him and “his thousands of grassroots supporters” in a tweet on Tuesday night.

“You took on the political, economic and media Establishment- and you beat them,” Sanders wrote. “Now it’s on to victory in the general election.”

Mamdani’s roster of political endorsements also includes figures like Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, New York Attorney General Letitia James, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.

In addition to the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani was endorsed by organizations including the New York Working Families Party, the national youth climate group Sunrise Movement, and multiple local unions.

A number of celebrities also expressed public support for Mamdani, from actor and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, musician Lorde, and Saturday Night Live cast members Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman.

Notably, Mamdani was cross-endorsed by some of his fellow Democratic mayoral hopefuls, former Assemblymember Eric Blake and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, with whom he formed a public alliance in the hopes of keeping Cuomo off voters’ ballots.

Masket of the University of Denver says the dynamics of ranked-choice voting — and that alliance — seem to have worked in Mamdani’s favor.

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“It did seem to allow for the organization and cooperation between different candidates who were not Cuomo,” he says.

Lander was in third place in the race as of Tuesday night, poised to deliver a sizable share of votes to Mamdani.

His views on Israel have been divisive

Mamdani — who co-founded his college’s first Students for Justice in Palestine chapter — has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, an issue that has deeply divided the Democratic Party.

While mourning the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives, Mamdani condemned Israel’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza and the occupation in a statement the day after the attack on Israel, which he later called a “horrific war crime.” But critics, including some Jewish groups, have pointed to Mamdani’s track record on Israel even before Oct. 7.

It includes his long-standing support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (he’s declined to say whether he would advocate for the policy as mayor), and a 2023 bill he drafted that would prohibit New York nonprofits from supporting Israeli settler activity. The legislation was widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers — who called it “a ploy to demonize Jewish charities” — and did not pass.

Mamdani further stirred controversy the week before the primary when, in an interview with The Bulwark, he refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” — which many Jewish people interpret as a call for violence against them and Israel, even as some pro-Palestinian protesters say it is a peaceful call to resist Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

When asked whether the slogan made him uncomfortable, Mamdani said it captured “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”

After his comment was condemned by the U.S. Holocaust Museum and other Jewish leaders, Mamdani told reporters that “it pains me to be called an antisemite.”

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“I’ve said at every opportunity that there is no room for antisemitism in this city, in this country. I’ve said that because that is something I personally believe,” he said.

Mamdani broke down in tears as he described the vitriol he has faced over his own faith on the campaign trail.

“I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,” he said. “I get threats on my life, on the people that I love.”

Hamas fighters escorted Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, two of the three Israeli hostages released on Saturday, before handing them over to a Red Cross team in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.

Hamas released three more Israeli hostages on Saturday as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in a highly theatrical handover in which the men were made to give speeches effectively at gunpoint.

The hostage release is the fifth in a tense series of exchanges that are part of a 42-day cease-fire deal that went into effect last month pausing the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Hamas agreed to incrementally release 33 of the nearly 100 remaining hostages in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal.

Here’s a closer look at the Israelis released on Saturday:

Ohad Ben Ami

Image A painting of Raz Ben Ami and her husband Ohad Ben Ami. Credit… Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

Mr. Ben Ami, who was 54 when he was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, was the kibbutz’s accountant and is an avid cyclist. His wife, Raz Ben Ami, was also taken hostage but was released in the first cease-fire deal in November 2023. Mr. Ben Ami is a dual Israeli and German citizen.

“The only important thing is for Ohad to come back,” Raz Ben Ami told The New York Times in August, adding: “It’s still hard for me to imagine our life after this.”

Ella Ben Ami, one of the couple’s three daughters, was a vocal advocate for a cease-fire deal. She was critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to speak in Congress in July, saying he should not travel abroad until there was an agreement to free the hostages. A video posted on social media in August, showed Ms. Ben Ami near the border with Gaza calling her father’s name with a microphone in hand and saying she missed him.

In December, on Mr. Ben Ami’s second birthday in captivity, his family marked the day with a bike ride and a ceremony, according to his brother, Kobi, who told Israeli news media that around 200 people joined them as they rode along a bicycle path created to commemorate 11 cyclists killed on Oct. 7 and hostages, including Mr. Ben Ami. He said the family had not received any signs he was alive since he was captured.

Or Levy

Image Michael Levy, the brother of Or Levy, in Ganei Tikva, Israel, in December. Credit… Joyce Zhou/Reuters

Mr. Levy was 33 when he was taken hostage. His wife, Eynav Levy, died on Oct. 7. Their son, who was just two at the time, was with Ms. Levy’s mother while his parents went to the Nova music festival, an event held just a few miles from the Gaza border that was a key target of the assault.

Mr. Levy texted his mother during the attack, including from a shelter that was stormed by the militants. The Israeli military later informed the family that Ms. Levy’s body was found in the shelter and that Mr. Levy was being held in Gaza.

The couple both worked in tech and lived near Tel Aviv. Mr. Levy’s older brother, Michael Levy, spoke about his younger brother’s dire situation at an event in California in March, one of many trips he made around the world to press for a hostage deal. At the time, he said he had not received indications his brother was dead but was not very optimistic about a deal.

Eli Sharabi

Image A T-shirt with the photos of Eli Sharabi and his brother Yossi. Credit… Amir Cohen/Reuters

Mr. Sharabi was also abducted from Be’eri. His wife, Lianne and their two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were killed in the attack. It was unclear whether his Hamas captors had informed him, however, as when he was in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Mr. Sharabi said that he was looking forward to being reunited with them.

His brother Yossi was also taken as a hostage to Gaza, where he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the Israeli military later told his family.

The two brothers and their families were very close, Nira Sharabi, Yossi Sharabi’s wife, said in a video published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Mr. Sharabi, 52, had lived on the kibbutz from the age of 14. It was also where he met his wife when she arrived from England as a volunteer nearly 20 years ago. At the time of the attack. Mr. Sharabi served as treasurer for the kibbutz and sat on its economic committee.

His brother, Sharon, said in December that news of progress on a cease-fire deal had prompted “new hope among the families of hostages that they might see their loved ones again — and at the same time, tension.”

“We lost four people,” he said. “We don’t intend to fill a fifth coffin.”

Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

For your huge amounts of spare reading time, I’m sure.

Yes, exactly. So for me, three books: The first is actually a report from 1945 by Vannevar Bush to Franklin D. Roosevelt called “Science, the Endless Frontier,” which has been turned into a book. You can get it on Amazon, and it’s basically the blueprint for America’s national science and technology policy for the next several decades. And I think it has so much resonance to what we need to do today on semiconductors, on A.I., on clean energy, on biotechnology, on quantum. And it’s really a story about bold public investment and experimentation — unlocking both private sector and academic research that powered American innovation through decades. Vannevar Bush delivered that right at the end of the Second World War to F.D.R., and it makes for a very good read.

The second is a book that I’m just partly through. I’ll read the whole thing, but I skipped to the end because I really wanted to focus on the A.I. part of it: “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to A.I.,” by Yuval Noah Harari. I think everyone should read this book. I don’t agree with every word of it, but it paints a picture of what we are going to be contending with artificial intelligence that, frankly, is a little bit worrisome but is also so deeply thoughtful. One of the points he makes is: For the first time, humans are inventing not a tool but an agent, and this has all kinds of implications.

And then the third book — a totally different kind of book — “The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis,” which George Stephanopoulos wrote. If you want to understand my job and what sitting in the Situation Room is like — dealing with crises, with presidents, with secretaries of state and defense — this book actually walks through the history of the Situation Room as told through a series of episodes over multiple presidents.

And I recommend it simply because it’s hard to know what the heck a national security adviser does. You read that book, you’ll have some sense of the reason why the bags under my eyes are so heavy.

Jake Sullivan, thank you very much.

Thank you.

You can listen to this conversation by following “The Ezra Klein Show” on NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. View a list of book recommendations from our guests here.

U.S. officials say they are closely watching to see whether Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, displays traits of a terrorist group or whether it has changed.

The Biden administration is scrambling to find ways to engage with groups in Syria and around the Middle East as victorious militias begin shaping the nation’s future after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad, the longtime autocrat.

The informal diplomacy during this risky period has to take place through channels outside Syria because the United States closed its embassy in Damascus in 2012 and has no known diplomatic personnel there. The State Department maintains a Syria office in its mission in Turkey, whose government has built close ties to various Syrian militias, including the most powerful one, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Facing a new 11th-hour Middle East crisis before leaving power, the Biden administration hopes to keep the lid on a Pandora’s box of threats that could emerge from a post-Assad Syria. Among them are a resurgence of anti-American terrorists, new dangers for neighboring Israel and a spasm of violence that could drive more refugees from the country.

U.S. officials have been speaking to their counterparts in Turkey in recent days. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken talked with Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey and a former intelligence chief, on Saturday as the militias were moving quickly toward Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Mr. Blinken “emphasized the importance of protecting civilians, including members of minority groups, across Syria,” according to a State Department summary of the call.

It was clear Mr. Blinken intended for Mr. Fidan to convey that message to the militias.

Image Celebrating the fall of the Assad government in Bar Elias, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, on Sunday. Credit… Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

While the United States sees Turkey as a potentially helpful partner, given its close rebel ties, Biden officials are also wary of its intentions toward U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters who have battled the Islamic State in northeastern Syria.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Guler, in part “to avoid any risk to U.S. forces and partners, and the Defeat-ISIS Mission,” according to a summary of the call from the Pentagon.

The conversation followed Turkish attacks on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that the group said killed at least 22 of its members. Turkish officials say those Kurdish fighters are aligned with Kurdish nationalist militants inside their country.

The Biden administration is intensifying talks over Syria with other allies in the region.

The White House said on Monday that Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, would fly to Israel this week to speak to officials there about the related situations in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

The rapid fall of the Assad government surprised both Israel and the United States. Israeli troops crossed into Syria over the weekend and quickly bolstered defenses in the Golan Heights, which Israel had annexed from Syria. Israel also conducted airstrikes on chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, Israeli officials said.

The State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters on Monday that Biden officials “have a number of ways of communicating” with rebel leaders — “sometimes directly with various groups, sometimes with intermediaries, either inside Syria or outside Syria.”

Roger D. Carstens, the U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, is already in Beirut as part of a renewed effort to win the freedom of Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012 and whom President Biden believes to be alive.

Mr. Carstens’s mission is “to find out where Austin Tice is and get him home as soon as possible,” Mr. Miller said.

“We have reason to believe that he is alive,” Mr. Miller said, without providing details.

Image Syrians on Monday at Sednaya, the Assad government’s most notorious prison, where thousands of political prisoners were held. Credit… Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

The United States has been wary of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its 42-year-old leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, ever since President Barack Obama designated its earlier incarnation a terrorist group. U.S. officials say they are closely watching to see whether the organization displays traits of a terrorist group or whether it has changed.

“We will be closely monitoring developments as they unfold and engaging with our partners in the region,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement on Sunday. “We have taken note of statements made by rebel leaders in recent days, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions.” He specifically cited respect for human rights and the protection of civilian noncombatants.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary of Britain, said the same thing on Monday. At least one British cabinet official has suggested his government could lift its terrorist designation on the group under the right circumstances.

The U.S. process for a full lifting of the same designation could take weeks or months, once a decision is made.

A senior U.S. official said on Sunday that it was too early to discuss whether the United States might remove its sanctions on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. But the official suggested, in an echo of Mr. Blinken’s statement, that the group would have to earn such a reprieve with tangible action.

Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York, called any softening of the U.S. position toward Mr. Jolani “a huge risk.”

“Jolani has done an amazing job at rehabbing his image; he’s presenting himself as a modern-day revolutionary cut from the same cloth as Che Guevara, and this is resonating in many parts of the Middle East and further abroad,” Mr. Clarke said. “However, under his rule, northwestern Syria has still been a harsh place where critics are silenced, tortured, jailed and disappeared.”

Image An abandoned border checkpoint in Masnaa, Syria. Credit… Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

He noted that the United States still maintains a bounty of up to $10 million on Mr. Jolani’s head.

“Assad is a brutal dictator, but that doesn’t make Jolani more palatable,” Mr. Clarke added. “Neither of these individuals should be running Syria, but U.S. policy needs to deal with realities on the ground and not ideal scenarios.”

The U.S. government broke off diplomatic relations with Mr. Assad and his government in 2012, as the uprising that began the previous year spiraled into a devastating civil war.

Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador then, pushed the Obama administration to designate the Al Nusra Front, the precursor to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist group because its fighters set off two suicide car bombs in Damascus in December 2011. The explosions, outside the offices of a security agency, killed at least 44 people, most of them civilians, according to the Syrian government.

Mr. Ford said in an interview on Monday that he would now advise the Biden administration to consider taking Hayat Tahrir al-Sham off the terrorist list because it appears to have adopted more moderate ideas and tactics.

Mr. Ford said the group had broken from the Islamic State and Al Qaeda years ago and had fought both organizations. He also said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham tolerated Christian practices and had allowed Christians to rebuild churches in the Idlib region, the part of Syria that the group has controlled and governed in the late stages of the civil war.

Mr. Ford added that the Biden administration should ensure it has channels to the main players, and that it should encourage its partners, notably Kurdish militias and political groups in the northeast, to engage in any emerging political process.

Image Celebrating in Umayyad Square in Damascus on Monday. Credit… Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

The Pentagon has kept 900 U.S. troops in northeast Syria, where they work with Kurdish fighters in operations against the Islamic State. But the Kurds are trying to fend off attacks by armed groups backed by Turkey.

“Instead of trying to manage a political process or support,” Mr. Ford said, “it’s much better to engage at a bit of a distance and be encouraging.”

Senior Pentagon officials have said U.S. troops will remain in Syria — at least for now — to continue their efforts to prevent the Islamic State from returning.

Daniel Shapiro, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said at a security conference in Manama, Bahrain, that the Pentagon would push for the Islamic State’s “enduring defeat, to ensure the secure detention of ISIS fighters and the repatriation of displaced persons.”

American warplanes carried out airstrikes on Islamic State sites in central Syria on Sunday, hitting more than 75 targets, U.S. officials said.

“There should be no doubt — we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East. “All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way.”

Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Islamic State militants in Syria have occasionally attacked American troops at a handful of bases in the region.

But as the Biden administration focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a potential future conflict with China, the counter-ISIS mission in Syria became something of a back-burner issue.

During his first administration, President-elect Donald J. Trump sought to withdraw American forces from Syria but was talked out of it by senior Pentagon officials, including Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

Vice President Kamala Harris has cast herself as a candidate of the future, but she has been yanked back by the problems of the present as the Middle East lurches toward a wider war, a longshoremen’s strike threatens to undermine the country’s economy and Americans across the Southeast struggle to recover from a deadly hurricane.

The confluence of domestic and global traumas combined to knock Ms. Harris off a message that has been carefully calibrated since she took over for President Biden to showcase her as the avatar of “a new way forward,” as her slogan puts it.

The rare moment of turbulence for Ms. Harris interrupts what has been mostly smooth sailing in her two months as the Democratic presidential nominee. It also captures a conundrum of the vice presidency, a prestigious if mostly ceremonial posting. So far, Ms. Harris has been able to take advantage of the trappings of the position — Air Force Two was parked behind her for one rally in Michigan — without being trapped by it.

Ms. Harris, long a risk-averse politician, has tried to both claim Mr. Biden’s accomplishments as her own while defining herself as the future and the 81-year-old president as the past. She barely mentions the president’s name in her campaign speeches and makes a middle-class pitch that aims to correct for the inflation and high prices voters blame on Mr. Biden’s economic stewardship. This week’s events thrust Ms. Harris’s balancing act — of being both the No. 2 to Mr. Biden and atop the ticket in her own right — back into the spotlight.