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On November 4, 2025, 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani was elected as the first Muslim mayor in New York City. And this is largely due to the influence of Gen Z.
After four long years of subpar mayoral leadership, New Yorkers, especially Gen Z, are ready for a change.
As of November 4, 2025, Zohran Mamdani is the change New York so desperately needed. The significance of the 34-year-old’s mayoral win extends beyond the city, eliciting hope across the nation for more progressive, thoughtful, and cognizant leadership, especially among Gen Z voters.
In 2020, Mamdani became an assemblyman for the 36th district of New York City – representing the neighborhoods of Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and Astoria Heights. In October 2024, he announced his campaign for New York City mayor, with just a 1% rate of support at the start of his campaign.
In just a year Mamdani gained a network of over 104,000 volunteers, 10 million Instagram followers, and won the hearts of 1,036,051 New Yorkers who voted for him – many of whom were Gen Z.
Why was Mamdani a big deal to Gen Z voters?
Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to parents of Indian descent, and moved to New York City (NYC) at age 7.
Mamdani’s background lies in having an unsuccessful but endearing rap career under the name ‘Mr. Cardamom’ – accompanied by music videos that live on the internet forever. Mamdani also famously met his wife, Rama Duwaji, on Hinge in 2021.
Although this isn’t directly related to his politics, given Gen Z makes up over 50% of Hinge users, it is just one of the many things about Mamdani that makes him relatable to Gen Z voters.
Beyond this, it’s important to really understand the issues Gen Z faces in New York City, Mamdani’s plans to tackle them, and how this resulted in a largely Gen Z led campaign that scored a landmark victory.
New York City is one of the most diverse and multicultural cities in the world – with over 200 languages spoken across the five boroughs. With its stunning skyscrapers, vibrant cuisine, and energetic atmosphere, some 8.4 million people call NYC their home.
However, NYC is also one of the most expensive and unaffordable cities in the world. Gen Z adults in NYC, so 18-28 year-olds, are among a substantial group of people struggling to afford rent.
In 2025, the median asking rent in NYC is $3,599 per month, which is more than double the national average. Rent has also gone up more than 20% of pre-COVID rents while 13.1 million Gen Zers, some of which live in NYC, have hefty student loan debts to pay off.
One in four NYC residents cannot afford essentials including housing, food, and healthcare. The city has a lot to offer in terms of creative careers that are enticing to young Gen Z professionals and students, but at the cost of barely being able to afford to live comfortably.
It’s not surprising, then, that Gen Z voters would prioritize a candidate that has put affordability at the forefront of their policies.
In October 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor, telling The Guardian, ‘What I will bring to this race is an explicit and relentless focus to the number one issue of importance to New York City voters. They can’t afford their rent. They can’t afford their childcare. They can’t afford transit. They can’t afford their groceries.’
However, when Mamdani announced his candidacy, he remained relatively unknown with a small following.
According to the New York Times, November 15, 2024 marked the first turning point in Mamdani’s record-breaking campaign. In response to Trump winning a second presidential term, Mamdani filmed a video asking New Yorkers why they voted for him – and what specific issues prompted their decisions – so he could change conditions for the people of the city.
Mamdani’s aptitude for social media, posting on TikTok and Instagram reels, ensured he had great visibility from young people throughout this period. For context, 84% of Gen Z social media users are on Instagram and 82% are on TikTok.
His predecessor, Eric Adams was sworn into office on December 31, 2021. While the moderate democrat made some strides in crime reduction and affordable housing, he had only a 20% approval rate in 2025.
On September 25, 2024, Adams was federally indicted on five counts, accused of conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals. However, the Department of Justice, or DOJ, under Trump forced federal prosecutors to drop the charges, claiming that the indictment would interfere with Adams’ ability to enforce Trump’s harsh immigration policies.
In February 2025, in an act of self-preservation, Adams agreed to ‘collaborate’ with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, and by April 2, charges against Mayor Adams were officially dismissed. In the midst of this chaos, New Yorkers became increasingly distrusting of his leadership.
When it came to younger voters, his decision to forgo making the safety and wellbeing of immigrants a priority didn’t do well for his ratings. The stories surrounding ICE in NYC were, and continue to be, inflammatory too.
Mamdani, on the other hand, has made a commitment to protect immigrants in NYC from ICE raids and Trump’s changeable approach to drastic reform.
‘New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant,’ Mamdani said on election night.
And while NYC is only 2% of the US population, the importance of this election spans beyond the five boroughs. NYC is known to be the third most diverse city in the world and is also described as the most influential American metropolis.
To put it frankly, who NYC elects as mayor impacts the rest of the nation. And in the span of a year, Mamdani rose from a relatively unknown assemblyman to the mayor of the largest city in the country.
