New York, the largest city in the United States, begins this Saturday, October 25, to elect its new mayor. And the name that will go to the polls on November 4 could well be that of Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old local elected from the left of the Democratic Party.
Early voting by mail begins this weekend for all New Yorkers registered to vote who choose this route instead of going to the polls on Election Day.
Since his surprise victory in the June Democratic primary, Zohran Mamdani, representative of the blue-collar Queens district in the New York State Assembly, has been a heavy favorite.
Naturalized American in 2018, this son of intellectuals from the Indian diaspora, Muslim and self-proclaimed socialist, is a fierce opponent of Donald Trump, whose economic and immigration policies he criticizes in particular.
In this megacity of 8.5 million inhabitants, one of the most expensive in the world, he based his campaign on the promise of a more “affordable” city, with more housing with regulated rents, free buses and daycare.
In front of him: former state governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, a Democratic establishment figure who is running as an independent after losing the primary to his young opponent. And Curtis Sliwa, a 71-year-old Republican.
According to three surveys carried out in October, Zohran Mamdani is attributed between 46 and 52% of voting intentions, that is, between 11 and 13 points more than Andrew Cuomo. Curtis Sliwa is far behind (between 15 and 19% of the votes).
Andrew Cuomo supported by outgoing mayor
On Thursday, the former governor received the support of the outgoing mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, who had resigned from running at the end of September in the face of very discouraging polls, after a term marred by accusations of corruption.
Once adversaries, the two men now focus their attacks on the man they accuse of being “anti-business”, “a charlatan who sells dreams” to the poorest and who has become “the king of fools.”
Zohran Mamdani is also portrayed as an “extremist”, in reference to his past statements about “racist” police, or that he represents a threat to the city’s large Jewish community due to his pro-Palestinian activism and his very harsh stances on Israel’s policies.
Will this be enough for Bill Clinton’s former Housing Minister to catch up? “It is possible, but extremely unlikely, that Cuomo will catch up to Mamdani,” says Lincoln Mitchell, a political science professor at Columbia University.
“He’s out of step with much of New York. His scaremongering, his tendency to exaggerate the crime problem, and his tough-guy personality are from another era, and many voters no longer believe in him,” he thinks.
Donald Trump prepares for the election of a “communist”
Faced with this figure of the establishment of recent decades, the young elected from Queens, with his “millennial” references and his great ease in social networks, also managed to recover a part of the youth who had abandoned politics.
On Friday he received strong support from Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, a centrist in the party.
The withdrawal of Republican Curtis Sliwa, whom many are calling for, could open the anti-Mamdani front. But the candidate in the red beret, which he wears almost constantly, doesn’t want to hear about it.
In these circumstances, Donald Trump himself seems to have decided on a victory for Zohran Mamdani, already promising to put obstacles in his way.
“I look at the polls and it seems that we are going to have a communist as mayor of New York (…) But here is the good news: it will have to go through the White House. Everything goes through the White House,” he said on Tuesday.
Statements that also raise fears of a toughening of the federal authorities towards the city, after a spectacular intervention by the immigration police this week in Manhattan.
Source: BFM TV
