New Vote Count Confirms Mamdani's Stunning Win

Zohran Mamdani has won New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, a new vote count confirmed Tuesday, cementing his stunning upset of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and sending him to the general election. The AP called the race after the results of the city's ranked choice voting tabulation were released and showed Mamdani trouncing Cuomo by 12 percentage points.

• Mamdani said he was humbled by the support he received in the primary and has started turning his attention to November. "Last Tuesday, Democrats spoke in a clear voice, delivering a mandate for an affordable city, a politics of the future, and a leader unafraid to fight back against rising authoritarianism," he said in a statement.

• Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state Assembly since 2021, was virtually unknown when he launched his candidacy centered on a bold slate of populist ideas. But he built an energetic campaign that ran circles around Cuomo as the older, more moderate Democrat tried to come back from the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation four years ago.
• Mamdani's win had been widely expected since he took a commanding lead and declared victory after the polls closed a week ago, but fell just short of the 50% of the vote needed to avoid another count under the ranked choice voting model. The system allows voters' other preferences to be counted if their top candidate falls out of the running.
• He will now face a general election field that includes incumbent Mayor Eric Adam who is running as an independent, as well as independent candidate Jim Walden and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
• Cuomo conceded defeat on the night of the primary but is contemplating whether to run in the general election on an independent ballot line. After the release of Tuesday's vote count, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said: "We'll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps."