Indian American filmmaker Mira Nair was in Uganda working on her movie “Mississippi Masala” when she met her second husband, academic Mahmood Mamdani. Their son, Zohran, was later born in 1991 in Uganda.
Zohran Mamdani, who moved with his family to New York City at the age of 7, naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018. Mamdani, now 33, is the first South Asian man to serve in the New York State Assembly, and on Tuesday, defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor (Cuomo, who had resigned as governor after multiple sexual harassment complaints, might still run for mayor as an independent).
Mamdani, characterized as “extremely online,” grew his campaign with avid social media promotion. If he were to win the city’s general election, he would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor and first mayor of South Asian origin. Additionally, in a city where nearly 2 in 5 residents are immigrants, Mamdani’s story would be reflective of that.
However, in the general election, Mamdani may face an uphill battle: Earlier in June, The New York Times editorial board published a skeptical op-ed pointing out Mamdani’s younger leadership experience and framing his progressive agenda as “uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges.” Mamdani’s Muslim identity and critical stances on Israel in the Gaza conflict could also face continued scrutiny in a city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel and amid growing anti-semitism in the U.S.
As journalist Yashica Dutt reported in New Lines Magazine, South Asian New Yorkers are not necessarily unanimously supporting Mamdani, though he is already influencing South Asian electoral politics across the U.S.:
Mamdani has so far worn his South Asianness lightly and seems careful to not pigeonhole himself within a narrow identity. Yet his influence has already marked a shift within South Asian culture, both in New York and, arguably, across the country.
Mamdani’s upset lead Tuesday in New York City’s mayoral primary is also making waves across the U.S. as another sign of discontent with establishment Democrats like Cuomo.
Since New York City implemented ranked-choice voting for mayor, Mamdani and another progressive opponent, Brad Lander, had cross-endorsed each other, encouraging New York voters to rank them as their second choice over Cuomo. They appeared together on Stephen Colbert’s show this week for a joint interview:
This article first appeared in redwhiteandbrown.