Zohran Mamdani has barely ever had a job, with just 3 years in the workforce — including his ‘rap career' and a gig for his mom

New York Post

17-06-2025

Zohran Mamdani has barely ever held a job, admitted he's a nepo baby and has no experience in local government, The Post has learned.
New York City Mayor candidate Mamdani – who has lived most of his life in subsidized housing – failed in his attempts to be a rapper, musician and managing previous political campaigns.
An analysis of the 33-year-old's work history shows he has been employed for only approximately three years in the time between graduating college in 2014 and being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.
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5 Zohran Mamdani, a Demorati Socialist candidate running for mayor of New York City, has barely worked a day in his life.
AFP via Getty Images
Behind the shiny social media posts of the progressive upstart there is little substance and no proof of success, critics point out.
'What does this guy know?' said political strategist Hank Sheinkopf. 'He's a make believe character who has no idea how the city works, how to run a jail, how to run a subway system and the biggest sanitation department in the country.
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'Who would he even surround himself with? Children like him?'
Uganda-born Mamdani's resume starts in 2014 after he graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in Africana Studies.
He worked as an organizer for advocacy group MoveOn in Seattle four months. They want to create a 'inclusive and progressive future,' according to its mission statement, which adds 'We envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love. '
He then spent two months at TexPIRG, an advocacy group in Texas, according to the New York Times, which cited his old resumes.
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In 2015, he worked as music supervisor on 'Queen of Katwe,' a Hollywood film about a chess prodigy from a shantytown on the outskirts of Kampala, directed by his mother, Mira Nair, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
5 Zohran Mamdani (center) worked with Indian chef Madhu Jaffrey on a rap video about the power of Indian grandmothers.
Zohran Mamdani/ Mr. Cardamom
Mamdani's father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor of anthropology, political science and African Studies at Columbia.
'I actually created a playlist for Mira, who also happens to be my mother — you know, nepotism and hard work goes a long way,' quipped Mamdani in an interview with Kaya FM in South Africa in 2016, shortly before the Disney film was released.
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At the time, Mamdani was 25. He then decided to pursue a career as a rapper in his native Uganda, working under the moniker Mr. Cardamon.
In 2019, he made a rap music video featuring Madhu Jaffrey, an icon of Indian cuisine, starring as a tough grandmother.
5 Mamdani worked on Ross Barkan's campaign in 2018, but it failed.
5 Oscar-nominated film director Mira Nair employed her son Zohran Mamdani as music supervisor on her film, Queen of Katwe, which was released in 2016.
Getty Images
He was also a campaign manager for progressive candidates including Ross Barkan, a journalist-turned-politician, during his unsuccessful campaign for New York State Senate in 2018.
Then he did a short stint as a financial counselor for Chhaya, a nonprofit that works with the South Asian community in Jackson Heights, Queens — where he says he now lives in a rent stabilized apartment — before running for New York State Assembly in 2020.
A spokesman for Mamdani's campaign refused to provide his resume or say how long he had worked for Chhaya and declined comment to The Post Monday.
Highlighting his lack of experience, Liena Zagare, editor of The Bigger Apple newsletter at the Manhattan Institute told The Post: 'Mamdani's running a campaign full of slogans, crowds, and big promises—but he's never managed a budget, run a large agency or had to deliver results in real time.
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5 Most of Zohran Mamdani's work experience has involved helping other candidates and a short stint as a financial counsellor at a South Asian charity in Queens.
Daniel Efram/ZUMA / SplashNews.com
'That kind of inexperience risks turning hope into gridlock, and vision into chaos, and voters should be clear eyed about that.'
As a member of the state assembly, Mamdani has been long on advocacy but done little to craft actual legislation, passing only three bills during his tenure, including one for a free MTA bus pilot project.
In addition, he's been absent for 50 percent of Assembly votes — more than any other member of the Assembly.
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Mamdani, whose family moved to New York City when he was seven years old, attended the Bronx High School of Science and lived in Columbia University housing — 'a plush apartment with no rent,' in his own words — for most of his life.
Although critics say Mamdani is ill-prepared to preside over a city of more than eight million people, his campaign has been effective, especially among young voters.
Among his campaign promises is generating $10 billion in new taxes from the wealthy to pay for free child care and free buses.
'As I run this campaign, I am very clear about that which I know, and also understanding that which I don't know,' Mamdani told the New York Times last week.
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On Monday, the same newspaper's editorial board, which no longer endorses political candidates in state and local elections, weighed in on Mamdani, noting 'he offers the kind of fresh political style for which many people are hungry during the angry era of President Trump.
'Unfortunately, Mr. Mamdani is running on an agenda uniquely unsuited to the city's challenges.'
Political strategist George Arzt, who worked as press secretary in former New York City Mayor Ed Koch's administration between 1978 and 1989, agreed.
'I don't think Zohran is prepared for the mayoralty,' said Arzt. 'He's young and totally lacks credentials for the job. Running a campaign on pure left wing ideology is a losing proposition for running the city.'
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Early voting in the Democratic primary opened on Saturday, with the primary election to be held June 24. Polls show Mamdani only slightly trailing former governor Andrew Cuomo in popularity.
Mamdani has received endorsements from progressive Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D. NY), the Working Families Party and fellow mayoral candidates Brad Lander and Michael Blake.
He is scheduled to appear at a Saturday Live Action Rally in Harlem for Al Sharpton's National Action Network, a civil rights nonprofit. NAN has invited other candidates, including Adrienne Adams, Michael Black, Brad Lander and Andrew Cuomo, but is not likely to endorse anyone for mayor, according to a NAN spokesman.