NEW YORK CITY—Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described socialist, won the Democratic Primary contest for the 2025 New York City mayoral election, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Even in a ranked-choice voting system, Mamdani’s lead in the first round of tallying—43.5 percent to Cuomo’s 36.3 percent—was so large that Cuomo immediately conceded.
Few predicted this would happen. In February, Mamdani, a Democratic socialist lawmaker, was written off as a nonfactor in the race with just 1 percent support, while Cuomo had 33 percent. In recent weeks, Mamdani dramatically closed the polling gap, but it was still expected to be a closer contest, with the race heading to multiple rounds of tallying to determine a victor.
