News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Nov. 4, 2025: Caribbean Americans across New York and the wider diaspora are celebrating a milestone in the city’s political history with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor-elect and the youngest mayor and youngest immigrant in modern times.
New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrates during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York on November 4, 2025. New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor November 4, 2025 broadcasters projected, on a day of key local ballots across the country offering the first electoral judgement of Donald Trump’s tumultuous second White House term. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Mamdani, a 34-year-old Queens assemblyman born in Uganda to Indian parents, captured 1,029,196 votes, defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent and secured 849,816 votes, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who received 145,543 votes. The victory marks a generational and ideological shift in America’s largest city – and a defining moment for immigrant and working-class communities.
The race, marked by misinformation and Islamophobia, pitted Mamdani not only against rival Democrats and the party establishment, but also against President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cuomo in a last-minute bid to stop him. But Mamdani’s grassroots campaign – powered by young voters, working-class families, immigrants, and communities of color — proved unstoppable.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, joined by his wife Rama Duwaji and his parents Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, during an election night event at The Brooklyn Paramount Theater in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Mamdani was elected the 111th mayor of New York in a historic victory that will put an avowed democratic socialist in charge of the city that serves as the capital of global finance. Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Caribbean Community Reacts
Across the city, members of the Caribbean Diaspora in New York hailed Mamdani’s victory as a triumph for democracy and inclusion.
“This is an excellent moment for NYC and the entire USA,” said Zamal Sankar, head of Caribbean Americans for Zohran Mamdani. “Winning over 50 percent of the votes cast is stunning – and the Caribbean community played a key role. Leaders like Jumaane Williams and Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn helped mobilize our voters. We can rest assured the Caribbean will have a seat at the table.”
Ray Fafeek, a Muslim Guyanese immigrant business owner, called the win “historic.”
“It’s a victory for truth over the misinformation peddled by Trump, billionaires, and the mainstream media,” he told News Americas. “Zohran Mamdani is a brilliant young man who will lead NYC to success.”
Albert Baldeo, a Queens-based Guyanese immigrant and longtime community activist, posted on social media: “Zohran’s victory proves that love triumphs over hate. The moral arc bends slowly, but it bends toward justice. We have finally won representation in the city that too often denied us. Denied we will be no more. God is great!”
Jamaican immigrant Irwine Clare Sr., OD, of the Caribbean Immigrant Services and Team Jamaica Bickle, praised the outcome as “the best result for New York — especially the immigrant community.”
“The youth turnout was remarkable and bodes well for democracy,” he said. “It’s a giant step forward for the Democratic Party heading into 2026.”
And Greg Smith, a Jamaican American political organizer who worked on Barack Obama’s campaign, called the victory “a reminder that the government should fear the people — not the other way around.”
“What Zohran proves,” Smith said, “is that the possibility of America is alive when we defend the marginalized and remember that what unites us is stronger than what divides us.”
A Message of Unity and Defiance
In a powerful victory speech in Brooklyn, Mayor-elect Mamdani vowed to “change City Hall – and the country.”
“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light,” he declared. “We will build a city that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers, where more than one million Muslims know they belong.”
Addressing President Trump directly, he said: “Trump, I know you’re watching. Four words for you: Turn the volume up. We will end the culture of corruption that allowed billionaires to exploit tax breaks. New York will remain a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight – led by an immigrant.”
Quoting India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Mamdani added: “‘A moment comes, rarely in history, when we step out from the old into the new.’ Tonight, we have stepped from the old into the new.”
The Making Of A Movement
Born in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani moved to New York at age seven. A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and Bowdoin College, he worked as a housing counselor and musician before entering politics.
Elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, he quickly gained a reputation as a bold progressive voice. His platform as mayor-elect includes a rent freeze, free city buses, universal childcare, public grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030.
Mamdani’s win also coincides with another milestone for Muslim representation: in Virginia, Ghazala Hashmi was elected lieutenant governor, becoming the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in U.S. history.
Together, their victories mark a new chapter in American politics — one where immigrants and Muslims see their reflection in the nation’s highest offices amid a surge in xenophobia and anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric nationwide under the current administration.
