Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani was announced as the next Mayor of New York on November 5. This comes after almost a year of a very memorable campaign and many debates. He took the victory over Republican candidate Curtis Silwa and Independent Andrew Cuomo. 

Mamdani’s campaign started on October 23, 2024, when he started his campaign off with a video talking about former Mayor Eric Adams’ indictment on his five federal charges, which were eventually dropped by the Trump Administration. In the video, he announces his campaign’s three main focuses: fast and free buses, free child care, and freezing the rent for rent stabilized tenets. 

The next video, released on November 3, 2024, showed Mamdani running the annual NYC Marathon, boasting a t-shirt that read “Eric Adams Raised My Rent” on the front, and then on the back reading “Zohran Will Freeze It!” The video, posted to TikTok, gained an impressive 5,000 likes but would not compare to what was to come in the future.

 Twelve days later, on November 12, 2024, Mamdani released a video of him going around the streets and interviewing New Yorkers about the presidential elections. The video blew up and got a staggering 16.4 thousand likes on Instagram. This format would become a proven success for Mamdani, as he would do more and more street interviews throughout his year-long campaign. 

In the video, he reveals that many New Yorkers did not vote because they did not believe in the system anymore. Between then and December 12, 2024, the cycle of interviewing New Yorkers would continue. A big part in his campaign was his announcement to build five city-owned grocery stores across each borough. Flash forward almost a year later, on October 16: the first general election debate for New York was held between the three candidates, Silwa, Cuomo, and Mamdani. “I thought the best part of [Mamdani’s] campaign was his direct approach to New Yorkers and how clear his goals were,” says an anonymous Skyline student. “I think he pushed New Yorkers to vote for him because of how he presented himself as just another New Yorker who’s been affected by problems and wants to fix them.” Mamdani was officially announced as New York’s Mayor on November 5, winning with 50.4 percent of the votes, but will not officially take office until January 1, 2026. “[Mamdani] seems like a very honest politician, which is very rare, and I think New Yorkers value that,” says Skyline Sophomore Jacob Adair. “I think he can fulfill his promises, because that’s what he built his campaign on, and nothing in his past says he’ll go back.”