A triumphant Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani doubled-down on claiming a mandate to deliver his socialist agenda – as he revealed a rent freeze and universal childcare will be his first-year priorities.
Fresh from an historic Election Day victory, Mamdani wasted no time in a spate of interviews Wednesday ditching any campaign trail coyness over pursuing his progressive priorities, including taxing the rich.
“I’m also looking to be clear about the mandate that we won over the course of this election, and it is a mandate to deliver on the agenda that we ran on,” the 34-year-old told the New York Times.
Mamdani earned a bare majority – 50.39% or a little over one million votes – in the three-way mayoral contest against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.
During a Politico interview, Mamdani acknowledged nearly half of voters didn’t end up supporting him and promised to be the mayor of “every New Yorker, whether they voted for another candidate, or, frankly, whether they didn’t vote at all.”
He appeared to argue the massive 2 million-voter turnout bolstered his claim of a mandate.
“I am proud to be the next mayor, having received more than a million votes in an election which saw turnout the likes of which we hadn’t seen since 1969,” he said.
“And I’m glad that this was an election that saw a far greater number of New Yorkers seeing themselves in our democracy and in the policies and the proposals that have been put forward over the last year.”
Mamdani singled out childcare and freezing the rent on regulated apartments as two promises he aimed to tackle in his first year.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has signaled she wants to work with Mamdani on achieving his $6 billion universal childcare plan in 2026 – a shared priority that the democratic socialist told Gothamist is in the works.
“We will be building out a timeline to fulfill our commitment for universal childcare and to do so by not only reckoning with the ways in which the (Eric) Adams’ administration has made it harder to afford raising a child in the city, but also by going beyond that to the final point of having every child from six weeks to five years of age receiving that childcare,” he said.
Hochul, however, has steadfastly refused to support Mamdani’s proposed tax increases on wealthy New Yorkers and corporations to fund his $10 billion plans, including universal childcare.
Mamdani during the campaign softened his “tax the rich” stance, arguing he was open to finding other ways to pay for his plans so long they’re funded.
But the New York Times report noted that Mamdani appeared to shed his past placating on taxes, casting taxing millionaires and billionaires hoarding mountains of cash as a matter of fairness.
“My supporters and our movement are hungry for a politics of consistency — a politics that actually focuses on the needs of working people,” he said. “I think that our tax system is an example of the many ways in which working people have been betrayed.”
The incoming mayor’s plan to freeze the rent could be imperiled by Adams, who’s working to stack the Rent Guidelines Board with appointees unlikely to sign off on Mamdani’s desires.
Mamdani’s increasingly bold claims of a mandate after the Democratic Socialists of America “army” quickly took credit for his win over Cuomo — crowing, too, that it was a “clear mandate” for its radical, far-left agenda.
“Our movement is at the heart of Zohran’s campaign,” said Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of DSA’s New York City chapter.
“This overwhelming victory is a clear mandate for a Democratic socialist agenda to make New York City one that people can afford.
“MAGA billionaires spent millions to prop up Andrew Cuomo and try to stop this movement, but we’ve proved once again: They have money, but we have power,” he added.
The newly emboldened mayor-elect’s remarks also doubled down on his fire-breathing victory speech from Tuesday night where he repeatedly insisted his win was a “mandate for change.”
Critics were quick to raise alarm about Mamdani’s shift in tone — with some noting that the strident speech was a “character switch” and a far cry from the appeasing demeanor he tried to exude on the campaign trail.
Leave a Reply