• ‘No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election,’ says first NYC Muslim Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

• ‘I refuse to apologize for being a Muslim,’ Mamdani says, vowing to confront anti-Muslim sentiment in politics

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 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, now set to become New York's first Muslim mayor after a clear victory, spent comparably little time reflecting on his main 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.

🗣️ 'So Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up'

In his victory speech, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani vows to make America’s largest city affordable again — and serve as a national model for Democrats to defeat… pic.twitter.com/YgSmYwDMI5

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) November 5, 2025

"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 has threatened more than once to cut off federal funding for New York City if Mamdani, whom he has falsely branded a communist, emerged victorious in the contest.

Mamdani, an avowed democratic socialist, ran a 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 from the current $16.50 an hour to $30 by 2030.

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 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.

‘No space for Islamophobia in New York’

Mamdani told his supporters early Wednesday that 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 antisemitism, 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.

Especially in the closing days of the race, Cuomo had openly trafficked in anti-Muslim smears.

In one of the most powerful moments of his victory speech, Mamdani also declared: “I am young and I am a Muslim. I refuse to apologize for being a Muslim.” He went on to emphasize that “New York will remain a city of immigrants. A city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.”

“Here, we believe in standing up for those we love. Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall — your struggle is ours too,” he continued.

“Thank you to the new generation of New York. We’ll fight for you because we are you,” Mamdani said, adding that “New York breathes in this moment; we have held our breath for so long.”

Quoting former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he reflected, “A moment comes rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

New York will be the light “in this moment of political darkness,” he added. “We will work tirelessly to make light shine again. Safety and justice will go hand in hand.”

 ‘I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to’

Mamdani’s victory comes after a series of speeches and statements in which he confronted anti-Muslim sentiment in US politics head-on.

Speaking on Oct. 24, outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, he recalled the islamophobia in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, saying: “Growing up in the shadow of 9/11, I have known what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion in this city.”

He recalled how “my name could immediately become (mispronounced) ‘Mohammed,’ and how I could return to my city only to be asked if I had any plan of attacking it.”

Mamdani also questioned the persistence of discrimination, saying: “The bigger question is whether we are willing to say goodbye to anti-Muslim sentiment that has grown so endemic in our city that when we hear it, we know not whether the words were spoken by a Republican or a Democrat — we know only that it was spoken in the language and politics of the city.”

A day later, on Oct. 25, Mamdani released a video statement addressing rising Islamophobia in New York’s mayoral race.

“One can incite violence against our mosques and know that condemnation will never come. Elected officials in this city can sell t-shirts calling for my deportation without fear of any accountability,” he said.

Mamdani continued: “I will not change who I am. I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to.”

“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker. And yet, for too long, we have been told to ask for less than that, and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive. No more.”