NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani, who just won New York City’s mayoral election, said Wednesday he will immediately begin preparing to implement his affordability agenda while trying to convince skeptical New Yorkers that “we all face the same problems no matter what policies you pursue.”
“We owe it to this city to be ready to start delivering on January 1,” Mamdani said in his first television interview since his victory on Tuesday night. “We have 57 days, and that’s 57 days to start preparing for January 1 so we can hit the ground running.”
“I look forward to creating a city where New Yorkers can expect more from their leaders,” he added.
With his victory over former Gov. 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 descent, the first-born of African descent and the youngest mayor in more than a century.
He now faces the daunting task of keeping his ambitious promises while navigating the bureaucratic challenges of City Hall and a hostile Trump administration.
“I am confident that we can implement the same policies that we followed last year,” he said.
Mamdani also said he had not heard from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo or the city’s outgoing mayor Eric Adams. He spoke with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
A spokesman for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said he would “make their respective speeches the standard for clemency and leave it at that.”
In his victory speech to his supporters, Mamdani wished Cuomo well in his personal life, then added: “Tonight will be the last time I speak his name as we embrace policies that fail the many and answer only the few.”
Asked about the comments on Wednesday, Mamdani said he was “quite disappointed by the kind of bigotry and racism that we have seen in recent weeks.” He referred to the multi-million dollar attack ads that were issued against him, some of which played on Islamophobic motives.
According to the city’s Board of Elections, more than two million New Yorkers cast their ballots, the largest turnout for a mayoral race in more than 50 years. With about 90% of the votes counted, Mamdani had a lead of about 9 percentage points over Cuomo.
Mamdani, who has been criticized throughout the campaign for his needy resume, must now begin staffing his fresh government and planning how to implement the ambitious but polarizing agenda that carried him to victory.
“The policy here must be to ensure that excellence characterizes the people I surround myself with, both in the appointments to the team and in the general expectations placed on my town hall,” Mamdani said.
The campaign’s promises include free child care, free city bus transportation, city grocery stores and a fresh community safety department that would deploy mental health workers to respond to certain emergency calls instead of police officers. It is unclear how Mamdani will pay for such initiatives, as Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has steadfastly rejected his calls to raise taxes on wealthy people.
On Wednesday, he characterized his support from Hochul and other state leaders as “advocacy for an affordability agenda.”
His decisions surrounding the leadership of the New York Police Department are also being closely watched. Mamdani was a fierce critic of the department in 2020, calling for the removal of “this rogue agency” and calling it “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety.” He has since apologized for those comments and said he would ask the current NYPD commissioner to remain in office.
Mamdani has already come under scrutiny from national Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who eagerly portrayed him as a threat and the face of a more radical Democratic Party out of step with mainstream America. Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding to the city — and even take it away — if Mamdani wins.
“…AND SO IT BEGINS!” President Trump posted on his website Truth Social on Tuesday evening.
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Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.
