Long-shot socialist Mamdani in touching distance of becoming NY mayor

An unknown local lawmaker just a few months ago, leftist Zohran Mamdani has burst onto New York's political scene and is closing in on becoming the first Muslim mayor of America's most populous city.

Since his surprise victory in the Democratic Party primary in June, New Yorkers have become used to seeing his bearded, smiling face on television -- and on badges proudly worn by his young supporters.

The 34-year-old election frontrunner was born in Uganda to a family of Indian origin and has lived in the United States since he was seven, becoming a naturalized US citizen in 2018.

He is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding," "Salaam Bombay!") and Mahmood Mamdani, a professor and respected Africa expert -- leading some of his detractors to call him a "nepo baby."

He followed a path trodden by other youngsters from elite liberal families, attending the elite Bronx High School of Science followed by Bowdoin College in Maine, a university seen as a bastion of progressive thought.

Under the alias "Young Cardamom," he ventured into the world of rap in 2015, influenced by hip-hop outfit "Das Racist" made up of two members of Indian origin who played with references and tropes from the subcontinent.

Mamdani's attempt to break into the competitive world of professional music did not last, with the performer-turned-politician calling himself a second-rate artist.

He was bitten by the politics bug when he learned that rapper Heems (Himanshu Suri) was supporting a candidate for city council -- and joined that campaign as an activist.

Mamdani went on to become a foreclosure prevention counselor, helping financially struggling homeowners avoid losing their homes.

He was elected in 2018 as a lawmaker from Queens, a melting pot of predominantly poor and migrant communities, representing the area in the New York State Assembly.

'Disaffected voters' 

The self-proclaimed socialist, who has been re-elected three times, forged an image that has become his trademark -- a progressive Muslim just as comfortable at a Pride march as he is at an Eid banquet.

He has put the goal of making the city affordable for everyone who are not wealthy, the majority of its approximately 8.5 million residents, at the heart of his campaign.

He has promised more rent control, free day care and buses, and city-run neighborhood grocery stores.

Mamdani is also a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause, although his positions on Israel -- which he has called an "apartheid regime" while branding the war in Gaza a "genocide" -- have drawn the ire of some in the Jewish community.

In recent months he has made a point of vocally denouncing antisemitism.

Mamdani has attracted scorn from President Donald Trump, who calls him a "little communist" but -- like the president -- he is something of an establishment "outsider," according to Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University.

"He has managed to galvanize support from disaffected voters and others in New York City who are dissatisfied with the status quo and with an establishment that they perceive to be overlooking their needs and policy preferences," he said.

Mamdani, a keen soccer and cricket fan, recently married US illustrator Rama Duwaji, and put his experience of activism to work in a strategically coordinated canvassing and leafleting campaign that he has paired with a massive and often humorous use of social media.

"He really is a kind of an hybrid of a great 1970s campaign and a great 2025 campaign," said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University professor.