Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Wednesday, Nov. 5, becoming the first Muslim, African and South Asian individual to be elected as mayor. This election had the largest-ever turnout for early voters in a non-presidential election in the city, according to The Guardian.
At 34 years old, Mamdani is New York’s first millennial mayor and the youngest mayor in over a century. Hofstra University students from New York City and beyond expressed their opinions about Mamdani’s platform and highlighted their relationship to voting.
Senior political science and public policy double major Adallis Pantry noticed people in California and London cheering for Mamdani when he won. Although she was not eligible to vote in the mayoral election, she followed Mamdani’s campaign on social media after discovering him on @SubwayTakes. His win was no surprise to her.
“As a [political science] major, I hear a lot of people argue that voting doesn’t matter and we shouldn’t vote,” Pantry said. “It’s important to me. I think Mamdani did a great job in encouraging young people that their voices do matter and mobilizing young voters. That’s why I care.”
Mamdani’s win came with democratic victories across the country, particularly in Virginia with Representative Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey with Representative Mikie Sherrill. Hofstra professor of political science Leslie Feldman said his victory had national implications for the Democratic Party.
“He’s now the leader. It’s not a coincidence that the day after he gets elected mayor of the biggest city in the United States that Nancy Pelosi says she’s retiring,” Feldman said. “That’s it. [Pelosi] is out and [Mamdani] is in.”
Ayden Whyte, a junior sports media major and commuter from Queens, has voted in every election since he turned 18 years old.
“It’s my personal philosophy that people who don’t vote relinquish their right to complain,” Whyte said. “Because when there was a chance for them to make their voices heard, they chose not to.”
Whyte said he plans to continue living in Queens when he graduates and sees value in Mamdani’s affordability plan which includes a rent freeze, free childcare, government subsidized grocery stores and improving the bus system.
“I don’t think there are any barriers because the New York city council agrees with those policies, so they will approve the policies,” Feldman said. “I don’t think he is going to find any resistance.”
A two percent increase in taxes on every person that makes more than $1 million a year is slated to fund Mamdani’s initiatives. Currently, New York City taxes everyone at the same rate. Mamdani also wants to raise the state corporate tax rate to match New Jersey’s. These moves will raise $9 billion a year combined. New York’s budget in the 2025 fiscal year was $112.4 billion.
These tax hikes require state legislature and governor approval, though. New York Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in the election but does not support the tax increase on New York’s wealthiest.
“He’s very policy oriented,” said Jake Mandel, senior psychology major. “That’s something I like. His political slogans are literally policies, like ‘Make the buses fast and free’ or ‘universal childcare,’ he’ll say that at rallies and people will chant it back. It’s not just like ‘Make American Great Again,’ [which is] just a slogan. He says ‘I want to do this.’”
Kim Montesinos, sophomore criminology major and president of Hofstra College Republicans, believes in a different focus when it comes to buses. She lives in Suffolk County now but grew up in Brooklyn and took the city bus to school.
“We would feel unsafe as a group of girls by male perpetrators who would either make comments or they would get close to you,” Montesinos said. “We are seeing [things] like the woman who was set on fire on the F train in Coney Island.”
Debrina Kawam, a 57-year-old woman from New Jersey, was set on fire in 2024 while sleeping on the F train and died as a result. Montesinos acknowledged that events like this are rare, but still she said she desires a focus on crime in New York’s government and would have voted for republican candidate Curtis Sliwa if she was eligible to vote. Sliwa’s plan to “Make NYC Safe” included expanding the New York City Police Department.
“[The solution] is not all this anti-homeless architecture that they’re doing, [nor is it] putting millions of dollars to cleaning up the trains,” Montesinos said. “Raising the fare is not the solution. The solution is to be harder on crime.”
Voters under 30 years old made up about 20% of Mamdani’s votes. Voters for independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa skewed much older. Around 75% of voters under 30 voted for Mamdani and were much more likely than older voters to be voting for the first time in a mayoral election, according to NBC New York.
Frank Chiapperino, a sophomore sports media major who commutes from Queens, said he felt inspired to vote the day of the mayoral election. He started getting into politics over the summer because he wanted to know more about what President Donald Trump was doing since he “knew it wasn’t right.”
“I’m not that caught up on what’s going on with the mayoral election or politics in general, but I want to be prepared for any future election,” Chiapperino said. “I know I’m a big procrastinator. I always say, ‘I’ll do this tomorrow, I’ll do this tomorrow.’ But no, I wanted to do it today.”
