NEW YORK (Reuters) -The New York City Election board on Tuesday confirmed a stunning victory by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary, clearing the way for the political upstart to be the party’s nominee for the November mayoral election.
The ranked-choice voting results released on Tuesday showed Mamdani, who started his campaign as little-known New York state assembly member, clinched 56% of votes in the third round of the voting, where over 50% of votes are required for a winner.
As the Democratic nominee, Mamdani will face current mayor Eric Adams in the general election. Adams, who won as a Democrat in his first mayoral race in 2021, is running as an independent candidate after his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent decision by the Department of Justice to drop the case.
In a new video on X, Mamdani compared his victory in the primary to the election campaign Adams had in 2021.
“We have always thought our victory would come after multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting. When we got more votes in the first round than Eric Adams got in the seven rounds in the last election, it was astonishing,” he said.
An unexpected victory of 33-year-old Mamdani, a Uganda-born Muslim, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, over veteran politician Andrew Cuomo, a moderate, caused unease among Democrats, worried that his political views may make them a convenient target for Republican attacks.
The day after Mamdani’s victory, President Donald Trump called him a “100% Communist Lunatic” while the Republican party’s congressional campaign arm promised to tie him to every vulnerable Democrat in next year’s midterm elections.
In the new video, Mamdani said that his objective was “to win people back to the Democratic party” and noted that he prevailed in some of New York City neighborhoods that voted for Trump in the presidential election last year.
After the election board confirmed Mamdani’s victory, Trump, asked how he would deal with Mamdani if he wins the election and tries to block arrests of immigrants, said:
“Well then, we’ll have to arrest him. Look, we don’t need a communist in this country. But if we have one I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
Mamdani earlier said that the immigrant raids were “terrorizing people” and agents who carry them out have no interest in following the law.
Cuomo, who received 44% of votes in the final tally, called Mamdani to concede the race after early results of the primary were announced last Tuesday. The former governor could enter the race as an independent candidate, but he has not said publicly whether he will.
Along with Adams, Mamdani will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, a radio host best known as the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol, and attorney Jim Walden, who is running as an independent.
The ranked-choice voting system that New York City adopted in 2021 allowed voters to rank up to five candidates in the order of preference. Ballots are tabulated in what may best be described as a series of instant runoffs, where the candidates who trail are gradually eliminated and their votes are re-distributed among frontrunners until one of them reaches 50%.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Trevor Hunnicutt, Joseph Ax; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
