A Mayor for a New Age

"There is no equivalent in American history to Zohran Kwame Mamdani becoming, at age 34, the next mayor of New York City. An avowed socialist has never led a city so large, nor has a Muslim - nor, in almost any instance, has someone so young and so unlikely to win as the state assemblyman from Queens. Parallels can be invoked, but none quite fit."

"Now Mamdani, once a quasi-anonymous backbencher in Albany, is on the cusp of becoming a global icon. The international media, as much as the national press, is obsessed with him, and the final days of his campaign were spent under a crush of attention rarely, if ever, witnessed in the local political realm. For Mamdani, there was an unprecedented outpouring of support - the 13,000 who jammed a stadium in Forest Hills to hear him speak,"

Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the New York City mayoralty at age 34, marking rare firsts as an avowed socialist and a Muslim leading a major metropolis. His rise resembled elements of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders but differed in experience and outcome. National and international media attention crushed the final days of his campaign. Grassroots enthusiasm surged, including 13,000 attendees at a Forest Hills rally and thousands canvassing neighborhoods. Andrew Cuomo and outside PACs spent millions attacking him, plastering his image with the term "jihad," invoking 9/11, and portraying him as a radical outsider who could not understand New York values.

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