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New York mayor race goes to the wire as Democrats face a generational choice
The Observer
|June 22, 2025
A 33-year-old socialist's bid to beat a billionaire-backed ex-governor could upset the Big Apple cart in Tuesday's primary. Ed Helmore reports from New York
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Zohran Mamdani is a 33-year-old TikTok-friendly socialist who believes in rent control and free childcare, and has been accused by Jewish groups of defending the slogan "globalise the intifada".
He could also be the next mayor of New York City. Mamdani is a wild card gaining fast in the polls in an election that lays bare the paralysis of US Democrats in the age of Donald Trump and the intergenerational feud the party faces in the shadow of last year's bitter presidential defeat.
The outcome of Tuesday's primary will decide the party's nomination for the election in November and voters have a crowded field of 11 candidates to choose from. Mamdani's main opposition is former city governor Andrew Cuomo, a Super Pac-funded, union-endorsed scion of a political dynasty with a reputation tarnished by sexual harassment allegations.
Mamdani, on the other hand, is a young migrant whose out-of-state financial contributions are outpacing his competitors by four to one. Endorsed by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Mamdani has clearly touched a national political nerve.
This story is from the June 22, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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