Mamdani says listening, making city affordable key part of campaign
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani spoke about speaking to voters and learning their priorities in an interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki after his apparent primary winJune 26, 2025
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The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Zohran Mamdani's policies: Where NYC mayoral candidate stands on issues
Mamdani led Cuomo 44% to 36% among first-place votes, with 96% of ballots counted as of around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25. The Democratic nominee will begin the general election as the favorite in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. Considered the more progressive candidate of the two, Mamdani's platform has included stances on rent and housing, cost of living, safety, infrastructure and relations between the city and President Donald Trump. Here is a brief look at Mamdani's stance on major city issues, based on his campaign page and reporting from USA TODAY. Who is Zohran Mamdani? Mamdani is a 33-year-old politician and member of the Democratic Socialists of America party. He was born in Kampala, Uganda but moved to New York City with his family when he was 7 years old, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science, according to his assembly biography. Mamdani is currently the three-term representative for Assembly District 36, located in Queens, in the New York State Assembly. He is the first South Asian man and Ugandan to serve in the assembly and the third Muslim person to do so. He worked as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor prior to serving in the assembly, according to his biography. Interestingly, he also worked a stint in film, writing and as a rap music producer. He is the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian filmmaker. If elected, he would become New York's first Muslim mayor, as well as the city's first Asian and Millennial mayor. Where does Zohran Mamdani stand on issues? Rent and housing In a city with sky-high rent prices, cost of housing was a major tentpole in all mayoral candidates' campaigns. Mamdani's vision includes freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments and building more affordable housing. Besides "immediately" freezing rent for rent-stabilized tenants, Mamdani's platform also outlines a plan for constructing 200,000 new "affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized" units over 10 years and fast-tracking approval for "affordable" developments. It also promises a "revamp" of the mayor's tenant protection efforts to bolster 311 services (non-emergency city services), allow tenants to request and track inspections and enable the city to step in when landlords are not meeting city standards. It would also create a new "Office of Deed Theft Prevention" for homeowners. Public transportation Free and faster buses are a major talking point in Mamdani's campaign. He says he would eliminate fares on all city buses and would improve their speed by building and expanding priority lanes, bus queue jump signals and dedicated loading zones. Health and safety Watch any NYC campaign commercial and you'll hear candidates talking about safety on the streets and subways. Mamdani plans to create the Department of Community Safety, a proposal that includes increased investment in mental health programs and crisis response, expanding "evidence-based gun violence prevention programs" and increasing funding to "hate violence prevention programs" by 800%. Cost of living and labor; city-owned grocery stores Another cost of living strain on New York families, beyond rent, is the price of essentials, like groceries. Mamdani has said he plans to address the cost of food by creating city-owned grocery stores that will pay no rent or property taxes, buy and sell at wholesale prices from centralized warehouses and partner with local vendors to keep prices down. On childcare, Mamdani's campaign says it will offer free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years. He will also seek to implement the distribution of baby baskets to parents of newborns, which would include items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, books and local resource guides. Mamdani has also said he will aim to raise NYC's minimum wage to $30 by 2030 and regulate delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats to strengthen licensure requirements and expand resources to assist app workers. Education Mamdani's plans surrounding K-12 education, as outlined in his campaign, include ensuring equal distribution of money and resources to city schools, creating car-free "School Streets," expanding the Bronx pilot Every Child and Family Is Known program to address homelessness in the school system and, on a collegiate level, investing in the CUNY system. He also champions the Green Schools for a Healthier New York City initiative that seeks to renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, make asphalt schoolyards into green spaces and build hubs in 50 schools for community emergency situations. Taxation, bills and fees Running on a platform of pushing back against the proverbial "big guys," Mamdani has proposed a 2% tax on residents earning above $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5%. Mamdani has also promised to "fight corporate exploration" by banning "hidden fees" and non-compete clauses, "fighting" misleading advertising and predatory contracts, limiting tax dollars given to companies under NDA agreements and funding challenges to ConEd's price increases. He plans to do so via enforcement of consumer protection laws, pushing legislation in Albany and working with the City Council, according to his campaign's policy memo. Responding to Donald Trump Another topline talking point among all of the mayoral candidates was handling relations with President Donald Trump and, in many cases, laying out plans to resist or respond to his policies. Among Mamdani's plans to "resist" Trump are strengthening sanctuary city protections by ending cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and barring them from city facilities, increasing legal support for migrants, preventing personal data from being given to ICE, protecting abortion rights and increasing the budgets of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the NYC Commission on Human Rights.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump border czar issues chilling warning to democratic socialist in line to be NYC's next mayor
President Donald Trump 's border czar issued a stark warning to Zohran Mamdani the day after the Democrat 's stunning victory in New York City mayoral primary. Tom Homan appeared on Fox Business to address Mamdani's pledge to stop cooperating with ICE in the so-called sanctuary city. 'Good luck with that,' Homan said bluntly when asked about Mamdani's plan to block ICE access. 'Federal law trumps him... every day, every hour of every minute.' Homan then promised to 'double down' on ICE raids in the Big Apple. 'We're going to be in New York City,' he continued. 'Matter of fact, because it's a sanctuary city and President Trump made it clear a week and a half ago, we're going to double down and triple down on sanctuary cities.' Homan's remarks comes only weeks after Trump unveiled what he described as the 'largest mass deportation operation of illegal aliens in history.' He has vowed to flood other major Democrat-led cities including Chicago, and New York with ICE agents as part of a sweeping new immigration crackdown. 'Game on. We're coming,' Homan added. 'He wants to block ICE? We'll see how that works out for him.' Mamdani, 33, a state assemblyman from Queens and son of Ugandan-Indian immigrants, shocked the political establishment on Tuesday night by defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary's first round. The win positions him as the likely next mayor of New York in a city that leans heavily Democratic. His platform is unapologetically left-wing: rent freezes, free child care, no-cost public transit, and an end to city cooperation with ICE. On his campaign website, he accuses Trump of 'tearing at the fabric of New York City.' He outlines plans to 'Trump-proof' the city by ejecting ICE from Rikers Island, cutting all municipal collaboration with federal immigration authorities, and shielding undocumented New Yorkers from data-sharing with outside jurisdictions. 'Trump will stop at nothing to attack immigrant New Yorkers,' Mamdani writes. 'He will do everything in his power to rip our communities apart.' That rhetoric has put him on a collision course with Homan and the Trump administration, which is seeking to carry out daily immigration arrests at three times the current pace - a demand made by senior White House advisor Stephen Miller last month. President Trump himself weighed in Wednesday morning on Mamdani's victory, posting on Truth Social: 'It's finally happened. The Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor.' 'We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,' Trump added, mocking Mamdani's voice and appearance. 'He's got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him... Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!' Homan made it clear that cities like New York would become ground zero in President Donald Trump's renewed deportation efforts Trump's remarks echoed those of Republican leaders nationwide, who have seized on Mamdani's win as a gift in an otherwise fractured Democratic year. Vice President J.D. Vance congratulated him sarcastically as the 'new leader of the Democratic Party,' while the GOP's House campaign arm called him an 'antisemitic socialist radical.' On Fox Business, Homan made it clear that cities like New York would become ground zero in Trump's renewed deportation effort. 'If we can't arrest them in the jails, we're going to find them in the neighborhoods, we're going to find them in the worksites,' he said. Homan criticized Democratic-run cities for refusing to hold undocumented individuals for ICE agents, calling sanctuary policies 'a threat to public safety' and accusing them of releasing 'national security threats back to the street.' He praised states like Florida, where sheriffs 'work for us,' but said the resistance in cities like New York only encourages federal agents to focus their energy there. 'We know we've got a problem there,' Homan said, warning that enforcement efforts would become more aggressive. The Democratic response to Mamdani's rise has been sharply divided. Progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have embraced him. But some establishment Democrats had rallied behind Cuomo, citing concerns about Mamdani's far-left platform and past criticism of Israel. Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a carefully worded congratulations on X. 'He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, & opportunity,' Schumer wrote. Behind the scenes, many Democrats remain nervous that Mamdani could become a liability in swing districts ahead of the 2026 midterms. But others say his candidacy is exactly what the party needs to energize disaffected youth and working-class voters. Mamdani has leaned into the fight, calling himself 'Trump's worst nightmare' and promising in his victory speech to turn New York into a model for progressive governance. 'These elections aren't about left, right, or center,' he told supporters on Tuesday night. 'They're about whether you're a change to the status quo.' If elected, Mamdani would become New York City's first Muslim and Indian-American mayor. But before he gets there, the race heads into a ranked-choice general election, where he will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, independent Jim Walden, and possibly Cuomo, who has not ruled out continuing his campaign.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump brands Zohran Mamdani a ‘100% communist lunatic' backed by ‘dummies' who has a ‘grating' voice
Donald Trump blasted New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday, labelling the 33-year-old who beat former governor Andrew Cuomo in a historic win for the Democratic primary, 'a 100% Communist Lunatic' who 'looks TERRIBLE' in a series of mocking Truth Social posts. 'Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,' Trump wrote of the state assemblyman, who represents parts of the president's birthplace of Queens. 'He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he's not very smart, he's got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!' The president, in a second post during his spare moments at the ongoing NATO summit, sarcastically suggested the struggling national Democratic party could get back in 'play' by nominating fellow left-leaning leaders like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett, before declaring the country is 'really SCREWED.' The message, part of a torrent of online abuse following Mamdani's win, contains multiple inaccuracies. Firstly, Mamdani is not a communist but rather a democratic socialist. Ocasio-Cortez is the only person mentioned in the posts that has formally endorsed Mamdani, though fellow 'Squad' member Ilhan Omar, as well as Senator Schumer, have both congratulated the state lawmaker on his victory, widely seen as a shock upset of Democratic stalwart and former governor Cuomo. Schumer, the most prominent Jewish lawmaker on Capitol Hill, is not of Palestinian heritage. During Mamdani's campaign — which energized progressive young voters with its savvy online presence and calls for free buses and a rent freeze on rent stabilized apartments — the candidate regularly criticized Trump, claiming his agenda of mass immigration raids were a sign of 'authoritarianism.' He also slammed the usually Republican-backing megadonors who rallied around Cuomo as 'the same billionaires that put Donald Trump in DC,' and made a video ad highlighting the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident who is thought to be the first person arrested as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestine student activists. Trump wasn't the only one criticizing Mamdani. During a Wednesday interview on Fox and Friends, current New York City mayor Eric Adams, who plans to run as an independent during the general election in November, called Mamdani a 'snake oil salesman ' who would say 'anything to get elected.' In April, a federal judge dismissed a corruption case against Adams at the request of Trump administration prosecutors, after Adam signaled he would assist the administration on immigration operations. Later that month, Adams initiated a plan to let federal immigration officials operate in New York City's Riker's Island prison, though courts have so far blocked the effort. Critics have alleged the corruption case ended as part of a quid pro quo with Adams, and some federal prosecutors in New York resigned rather than authorizing dropping the bribery case. Adams and the DOJ have denied any wrongdoing. In a preview of his own campaign, which formally kicks off with a rally on Thursday, Adams hammered Mamdani's relative inexperience and alluded to concerns over his stances on Israel during his Fox interview. 'What NYC deserves is a mayor who's proud to run on his record—not one who ran from his record, or one who has no record,' Adams wrote on X. 'We deserve a mayor who will keep driving down crime, support our police, fight antisemitism, and stand up for working-class New Yorkers.' Mamdani has criticized the Israeli war in Gaza as a 'genocide,' but has denied being antisemitic, and has said he will protect Jewish New Yorkers along with other minority groups and seeks to increase funding to stop hate crimes. The outcome of the mayoral race is seen as a referendum on the overall direction of the Democratic party. Mamdani already beat the centrist Cuomo, who was seen as a favorite by much of the Democratic establishment and got the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, with a campaign that ran well to the left of the national party featuring proposals like government-run low-cost grocery stores and universal childcare. Cuomo, who conceded the Democratic primary race, said Wednesday he's considering an independent run himself. resigned in 2021 facing a series of sexual harassment allegations by women, including former staffers, . During the primary campaign, Cuomo dismissed the allegations as 'all political.'
