Though the race’s ultimate outcome will still be decided by a ranked choice count, Mamdani took a commanding position just hours after the polls closed that put him in a distant first place.
“I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City,” the 33-year-old democratic socialist whose energetic campaign centred on the cost of living jolted the contest told supporters.
“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for governor Cuomo, or felt too disillusioned by a long-broken political system to vote at all.
“I will work to be a mayor you will be proud to call your own.”
Cuomo, who had been the front-runner throughout a race that was his comeback bid from a sexual harassment scandal, conceded the election, telling a crowd he had called Mamdani to congratulate him.
“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo told supporters.
Cuomo trailed Mamdani by a significant margin in the first choice ballots and faced an exceedingly difficult pathway to catching up when ballots are redistributed in New York City’s ranked choice voting process.
Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if elected.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary. He’s running as an independent in the general election.
Cuomo also has the option of running in the general election as an independent. “We are going to take a look and make some decisions,” he said.
Unofficial results from the New York City’s Board of Elections showed that Mamdani was ranked on more ballots than Cuomo.
Mamdani was listed as the second choice by tens of thousands of more voters than Cuomo. And the number of votes that will factor into ranked choice voting is sure to shrink.
More than 200,000 voters only listed a first choice, the Board of Elections results show, meaning that Mamdani’s performance in the first round may ultimately be enough to clear the 50 percent threshold.
The race’s ultimate outcome could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during US President Donald Trump’s second term.
The vote took place about four years after Cuomo, 67, resigned after a barrage of sexual harassment allegations. He entered the race touting deep experience, strong political connections and a juggernaut fundraising apparatus, running a campaign that depicted the city as a dangerous, out-of-control place that needed a steady hand to put it back on track.
The party’s progressive wing, meanwhile, had coalesced behind Mamdani.
A relatively unknown state legislator when the contest began, Mamdani gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city’s high cost of living and secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senator Bernie Sanders.
The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Adams, amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump’s Justice Department.
Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, will be on the ballot in the fall’s general election.
The mayoral primary’s two leading candidates, one a fresh-faced progressive and the other an older moderate, were stand-ins for the larger Democratic Party’s ideological divide.
The rest of the pack has struggled to gain recognition in a race where nearly every candidate has cast themselves as the person best positioned to challenge Trump’s agenda. (AP)
