Zohran Mamdani, who advocated for universal child care, was elected mayor of New York

Your trusted source for contextualizing results on Election Day and beyond. Subscribe to our daily newsletter.

Democratic Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani twice defeated Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as governor amid sexual harassment allegations, in the New York mayoral race.

Mamdani defeated Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s general election.

Mamdani, 34, a self-described democratic socialist, has gone from a little-known state assemblyman from Queens to becoming New York’s next mayor over the past year.

His victory caps an extraordinary mayoral campaign marked by the withdrawal of incumbent Mayor Eric Adams from the race, and New York voters twice rejecting Cuomo’s bid to return to the top four four years after he resigned as governor amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Mamdani ran a progressive, populist campaign aimed at making New York more affordable and addressing voters’ concerns about the cost of living. He proposed offering free universal child care, opening city-run grocery stores, providing free bus service and freezing rents for rent stabilization.

Mamdani’s focus on spending, his upbeat campaign message and his digital savvy rallied Democratic voters. Mamdani built a massive volunteer base and electoral coalition, largely led by young voters who rallied deeply concerned about Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary.

Mamdani also won over high-profile progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, support. While Mamdani has been more skeptical of some prominent New York politicians, he and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have teamed up to expand access to child care, one of the biggest drivers of the rising cost of living and a top priority for both.

Mamdani will be New York’s youngest mayor in more than a century and the city’s first Muslim mayor and first South Asian mayor. Mamdani’s identities became a focal point in the final days of the race, when Mamdani said his rivals had made Islamophobic comments.

The New York City mayor’s race was also a high-profile rejection of a powerful man accused of sexual misconduct.

A year ago, President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election after being found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming writer and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump’s re-election was seen as a political and cultural backlash against the #MeToo movement.

But voters in New York rejected Cuomo, a New Yorker and Queens native, who left office after a 165-page report overseen by the New York attorney general’s office found he sexually harassed 11 women, including some state employees.

Those findings were echoed by similar studies by the Department of Justice and the New York State Assembly. At the time, Cuomo apologized and denied the most serious allegations against him. In the years since and during the mayoral campaign, Cuomo and his allies have questioned the credibility of his accusers and made him the target of politically motivated investigations.

While Cuomo’s past scandals weren’t the biggest issue in the race, Mamdani highlighted them when his opponent criticized Mamdani’s relative lack of governing experience.

“What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity, and what you don’t have in integrity, you can never make up for in experience,” Mamdani Cuomo said during an Oct. 16 speech. debate.

News that represents you will be in your inbox every day of the week. Subscribe to our free daily newsletter.