Zohran Mamdani vows to ‘hit the ground running’ after New York election win

Zohran Mamdani says he will begin preparing to implement his affordability agenda, while also seeking to persuade sceptical New Yorkers that “no matter what your politics, we’re all facing the same issues”.

“We owe it to this city to be ready on January 1 to start delivering,” Mr Mamdani said in his first television interview since claiming victory in New York City’s mayoral election.

“We have 57 days and those are 57 days to start to do the work of preparing for January 1 to hit the ground running.”

“I’m looking forward to delivering a city where New Yorkers can expect more from their leaders,” he added.

With his win over former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the 34-year-old democratic socialist will soon become the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian heritage, the first born in Africa and the youngest mayor in more than a century.

He now faces the tall task of following through on his ambitious promises while navigating the bureaucratic challenges of City Hall and a hostile Trump administration.

“I’m confident in delivering these same policies that we ran on for the last year,” he said.

Mr Mamdani also said he had not heard from Mr Cuomo or the city’s outgoing mayor, Eric Adams. He did speak with Mr Sliwa.

A spokesperson for Mr Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said he would “let their respective speeches be the measuring stick for grace and leave it at that”.

In his victory speech to supporters, Mr Mamdani had wished Mr Cuomo the best in his private life, before adding: “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.”

Asked about the comments on Wednesday, Mr Mamdani said he was “quite disappointed in the nature of the bigotry and the racism we saw in the final weeks.”

He noted the millions of dollars in attack ads that were spent against him, some of which played into Islamophobic tropes.

More than two million New Yorkers cast ballots in the contest, the largest turnout in a mayoral race in more than 50 years, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

With roughly 90% of the votes counted, Mr Mamdani held an approximately nine percentage point lead over Mr Cuomo.

Mr Mamdani, who was criticised throughout the campaign for his thin resume, will now have to begin staffing his incoming administration and planning how to accomplish the ambitious but polarising agenda that drove him to victory.

“The directive here has to be one of ensuring that it is excellence that characterises the people I surround myself with, both in the appointments in the team and in the general expectation that is being set for my City Hall,” Mr Mamdani said.

Among the campaign’s promises are free child care, free city bus service, city-run grocery stores and a new Department of Community Safety that would send mental health care workers to handle certain emergency calls rather than police officers.

It is unclear how Mr Mamdani will pay for such initiatives, given Democratic governor Kathy Hochul’s steadfast opposition to his calls to raise taxes on wealthy people.