{"id":21052,"date":"2025-06-28T05:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T05:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21052\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T05:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T05:58:08","slug":"many-south-asians-and-muslims-in-nyc-and-beyond-electrified-by-mamdanis-mayoral-primary-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21052\/","title":{"rendered":"Many South Asians and Muslims in NYC and beyond electrified by Mamdani’s mayoral primary triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"

The success of Zohran Mamdani<\/a> in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor is euphoric for Hari Kondabolu, a stand-up comedian who’s been friends with the candidate for 15 years.<\/p>\n

Mamdani stunned the political establishment<\/a> when he declared victory in the primary on Tuesday, a ranked choice<\/a> election in which his strongest competition, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat.<\/p>\n

When he launched his campaign, the unabashed democratic socialist ranked near the bottom of the pack. Now, the 33-year-old state assemblyman has a chance<\/a> to be New York City’s first Asian American and Muslim mayor. Mamdani’s family came to the United States when he was 7, and he became a citizen in 2018. He was born to Indian parents in Kampala, Uganda.<\/p>\n

For Kondabolu, this moment is not just exciting, but emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so many of us have had those experiences in New York of being brown and in a city that has always been really diverse and feels like ours. But after 9\/11, like you start to question it like, is this our city too,\u201d Kondabolu said. \u201cAnd 25 years later … it\u2019s surreal, like this is the same city but it\u2019s not because we\u2019ve elected this person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani’s campaign has piqued the interest of many Indian, Pakistani and other South Asian Americans, as well as Muslims \u2014 even those who may not agree with Mamdani on every issue. Despite that opposition, some still see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and xenophobia erupted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Many of New York City’s over 300,000 South Asian residents have been inspired by Mamdani\u2019s extraordinary trajectory.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was texting her friends to vote for him. I\u2019ve never seen my mother do that before,\u201d Kondabolu said. \u201cSo the idea that it\u2019s gotten our whole family activated in this way \u2014 this is, like, personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snigdha Sur, founder and CEO of The Juggernaut, an online publication reporting on South Asians, has been fascinated by the response from some people in India and the diaspora.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many global South Asians … they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, this guy is my mayor and I don\u2019t live in New York City,\u2019\u201d Sur said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, some are also concerned or angered by Mamdani’s past remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he publicly called a \u201cwar criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Michigan, Thasin Sardar has been following Mamdani\u2019s ascent online. When he first heard him, he struck him as \u201cgenuine\u201d and he felt \u201can instant connection,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Muslim American, this victory puts my trust back in the people,\u201d said Sardar, who was born and raised in India. \u201cI am happy that there are people who value the candidate and his policies more than his personal religious beliefs and didn\u2019t vote him down because of the color of his skin, or the fact that he was an immigrant with an uncommon name.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York voter Zainab Shabbir said family members in California, and beyond, have also excitedly taken note.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family in California, they were very much like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s so nice to see a South Asian Muslim candidate be a mayor of a major city,\u2019\u201d she said. A brother told her Mamdani\u2019s rise is a great example for his kids, she said.<\/p>\n

But the 34-year-old \u2014 who donated, voted and canvassed for Mamdani \u2014 said it was his vision for New York City that was the draw for her. She and her husband briefly chatted with Mamdani at a fundraiser and she found him to be \u201cvery friendly and genuine.\u201d <\/p>\n

She suspects that for some who aren\u2019t very politically active, Mamdani\u2019s political ascent could make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Muslim communities like my parents\u2019 generation who are focused a lot more on the politics back home and less on the politics here in America,\u201d said Shabbir. \u201cSeeing people like Zohran Mamdani be in office, it\u2019ll really change that perspective in a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters and pundits agree that Mamdani’s campaign has demonstrated social media savvy and authenticity. He visited multiple mosques. In videos, he speaks in Hindi or gives a touch of Bollywood. Other South Asian American politicians such as Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna praised that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that he didn\u2019t run away from his heritage. I mean, he did video clips with Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi movies,\u201d Khanna said, referencing the Indian actor. \u201cHe shows that one can embrace their roots and their heritage and yet succeed in American politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his triumph also reflects \u201cthe urgency of the economic message, the challenge that people are facing in terms of rent, in terms of the cost of living, and how speaking to that is so powerful,\u201d the progressive California Democrat added.<\/p>\n

Tanzeela Rahman, a daughter of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, said she grew up \u201cvery low income\u201d in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt seen by him in a way politicians have not seen me ever,\u201d the 29-year-old financial systems analyst said. \u201cI think very few people in government understand \u2026 how hard it is to survive in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found Mamdani to be \u201cunabashedly Muslim\u201d and also \u201ca voice, who, literally, to me sounds like a New Yorker who\u2019s stepping in and saying, hey, let\u2019s reclaim our power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While Mamdani has been speaking to the working class, he had a somewhat privileged upbringing. His mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

He lived in Queens but attended The Bronx High School of Science. Even as a teen, he cared about social justice, Kondabolu, the comedian, recalled.<\/p>\n

His campaign messaging on issues such as affordable housing and free bus rides might not resonate with South Asian households in New York City who have income levels above the median. But, the irony is that his campaign and \u201cgreat kind of soundbites\u201d earned support from that demographic, too, according to Sur.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, I think, a surprise that he did so well among the wealthiest, including his own community,\u201d Sur said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s outspoken support for Palestinian causes and criticism of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza resonated with pro-Palestinian residents, including Muslims, but caused tension in the mayor\u2019s race. Some of his positions and remarks on the charged issue have drawn recriminations<\/a> from opponents and some Jewish groups, though he\u2019s also been endorsed by some Jewish politicians and activists. <\/p>\n

Mamdani’s success immediately elicited strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric from some high-profile conservatives on social media, including conservative media personality Charlie Kirk who posted that \u201clegal immigration can ruin your country.\u201d In response, Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, tweeted \u201cFor years they sold people the lie of \u2018we have no problem if you come the right way!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His supporters aren’t concerned that racism and Islamophobia will distract from Mamdani’s campaign. Those feelings clearly weren’t \u201cenough for him to lose\u201d the primary, Kondabolu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a new generation that wants their voice heard and that generation came out in full force, not just by voting, but by, like, getting all these other people to be emotionally invested in this candidate,\u201d Kondabolu said. \u201cThat\u2019s extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The success of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor is euphoric for Hari Kondabolu,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[19502,97,5229,347,19501,90,57,556,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,2068,19500,365,15125,61,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-21052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-19502","9":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-asian-americans","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-islam","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","24":"tag-racism","25":"tag-religion","26":"tag-september-11-attacks","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114759461070317513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}