WASHINGTON

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pledged early Wednesday morning to deliver on his central pledge to make America's largest city affordable for its residents, and in so doing serve as a national model for fellow Democrats to defeat President Donald Trump at the ballot box.

Mamdani wished his main challenger, Independent former New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo, well as he returns to private life, but said "let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many, and answers only to the few."

Mamdani, who is set to become New York's first Muslim mayor, spent comparably little time reflecting on his opponent, and instead sought to rally supporters around his progressive agenda as he prepares to move into Gracie Mansion in January as Trump dominates the political climate.

"We will usher in a generation of change, and if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him," Mamdani said, drawing raucous cheers from supporters at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn.

"If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one. So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: 'Turn the volume up,'" he added as the crowd roared.

Mamdani holds over 50% of the vote in the three-way contest with 91% of the votes counted, according to The Associated Press.

Trump has sought for months to intervene in the contest, endorsing Cuomo after futilely appealing to Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa to step aside in the hopes of boosting the former governor's electoral prospects.

Trump had threatened to cut off federal funding for New York City if Mamdani, whom he derides as a "communist," emerged victorious in the contest.

Mamdani, an avowed democratic socialist, ran campaign focused on affordability and social services, promising free buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores, rent-stabilized housing and a plan to raise the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030 from $16.50 currently.

All of this would be paid for, he said, by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5% -- the same as in neighboring New Jersey -- as well as a 2% income tax on those earning over $1 million per year.

He also pledged that he would order the New York Police Department (NYPD) to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he enter the city, citing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him over war crimes in Gaza.

Mamdani told his supporters early Wednesday he will work to build unity among New Yorkers and "refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another."

"We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers, and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism, where the more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power. No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election," he said.