In a stunning upset, New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism over his criticism of Israel, defeated Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.
Cuomo, the former New York governor — who had earned endorsements from the likes of powerful Democrats like Bill Clinton and made fighting antisemitism a core part of his campaign — conceded to Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist, around 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo, 67, said to supporters gathered at a watch party. “Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”
Throughout the long campaign season, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment, was considered the clear frontrunner in the race.
As the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza continued and antisemitism rose in New York City and elsewhere, both Israel and anti-Jewish hate emerged as central issues in the race. Cuomo called antisemitism “the most serious and most important issue” in the mayoral campaign and “in many ways, the toughest issue facing the city of New York and the country.”
Mamdani, by contrast, is an outspoken critic of Israel who has long supported the movement to boycott it. He condemned Israel after the attacks of Oct. 7; defended speaking with popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitism; and has defended the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which many Jews see as a call to violence against Israelis.
(In an interview with the Bulwark last week, he explained, “as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning… The question of the permissibility of language is something that I haven’t ventured into.”)
In the city’s ranked-choice system, a winner is declared when they have received 50% of the votes. By the end of Tuesday, the Associated Press tallied Mamdani’s vote tally at 43.5%, and Cuomo’s at 36.4%. Counting will likely continue until next week.
Though Tuesday night was a big win for Mamdani, exactly who he will face in the general election remains uncertain. Current Mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election on two new ballot lines, “EndAntiSemitism” and “Safe&Affordable.” Cuomo had expressed interest in running on an independent ballot if he did not win the primary, but he did not confirm on Tuesday night that he would run in November.
Mamdani ran on a campaign promising rent freezes and free buses, and he proposes the creation of a Department of Community Safety that would increase anti-hate programming, including for antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is not simply something that we should talk about — it’s something that we have to tackle,” he said in an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday evening. “We have to make clear there’s no room for it in this city, in this country.”
Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, who is Jewish, received just over 11% of Tuesday’s tallied votes, enough for third place behind Cuomo. In the final weeks of the campaign, he and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other.
If Mamdani wins the general election in November, he would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor.
“We are not going to let anyone divide Muslim New Yorkers and Jewish New Yorkers,” Lander said at a watch party on Tuesday night.
Further down the ballot, in the comptroller race, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who is Jewish, defeated Councilman Justin Brannan.
In a closely-watched City Council race in Park Slope, Brooklyn, incumbent Shahana Hanif — who faced harsh criticsm among some Jews in her district, who claimed she did too little, too late to condemn antisemitism — defeated Jewish candidate Maya Kornberg.
In Manhattan, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner is “trailing badly” in a five-person race for a City Council seat representing parts of the East Village and the Lower East Side.
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