Sadiq Khan toasts election of anti-Israel Mamdani as New York mayor
The 34-year-old defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the first of South Asian heritage
New York has followed London in choosing hope over fear in electing Democrat Zohran Mamdani as the city’s new mayor, according to his London counterpart Sir Sadiq Khan.
Mr Mamdani, 34, defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the first of South Asian heritage.
Sir Sadiq congratulated Mr Mamdani, who will become New York’s youngest mayor in more than a century when he takes office on January 1, on what he called an “historic campaign”.
He wrote on X: “New Yorkers faced a clear choice – between hope and fear – and just like we’ve seen in London – hope won.”
US President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Mr Cuomo, a former Democrat running as an independent, and threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mr Mamdani triumphed.
In his victory speech, Mr Mamdani said: “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
The city’s Board of Elections said the vote had seen the largest turnout in more than 50 years, with more than two million people casting ballots.
A 2023 video where he is seen saying that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”
Mamdani is well-known for his anti-Israel views. In a video of an event in September 2023, a month before the 7 October mass-terror attacks by Hamas, Mamdani attempted to describe what he saw as the importance of making “struggles” – such as the issue of Israel, “hyper-local”.
He added: “For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them hyper-local. We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF. We’re in a country where those connections abound, especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to Capitalist interest over here.”
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