Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani addressed a crowd of 3,000 supporters at a campaign rally in Washington Heights on Monday night, encouraging New Yorkers to leave the status quo behind.
The democratic socialist delivered a fiery 20-minute speech that mostly looked past the Nov. 4 general election, suggesting a likely victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa as a foregone conclusion. Mamdani holds a double-digit lead over Cuomo in the polls, with Sliwa in a distant third, even after the current Mayor, Eric Adams, bowed out of the race late last month.
The main crux of his address sought to answer his own question of whether “what we aspire towards is possible.”
“On the evening of Nov. 4, when the world learns that we have won again, they will know our answer to the question, we choose the future, because for all of those who say our time is coming, my friends, I say our time is now,” Mamdani told the cheering crowd at the United Palace theater on 175th Street and Broadway.
Comedian Gianmarco Soresi served as the emcee of the campaign event, which featured speakers including City Council Member Chi Ossé (D-Brooklyn), U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-Brooklyn/Queens), and state Attorney General Letitia James — who also roused the crowd with her first public remarks since getting indicted by President Trump’s Justice Department last week.
Mamdani told the crowd that it was time to move beyond the current political status quo, which he characterized as prioritizing the interests of the wealthy and corporations over those of working New Yorkers.
“For too long, we have been told to be satisified with abstractions and strongly worded letters, to be content with a politics built atop the flimsy foundation of only that which we are against, without ever declaring what we are actually for, to accept leaders who would sell us out to the highest bidder, that is not what this movement is, nor will it ever be,” he said.
His movement, Mamdani explained, was defined by the affordability agenda for which his campaign army of tens of thousands of volunteers is advancing. That platform includes measures such as free buses, a rent freeze for stabilized tenants, and free universal childcare.
“We believe in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, that working people deserve a dignified life,” Mamdani said, beginning a call and response with his supporters, ticking off each of his three marquee proposals.
“These are not just slogans; these are commitments,” he said. “We say this not just to inspire, but to deliver.”
Mamdani says he’s ready to take on Trump
Mamdani also spent a good chunk of his address excoriating President Trump, whom he described as an “authoritarian” presiding over a period of “political darkness.”
He made clear that he will fight Trump tooth and nail to resist the president’s agenda, including Trump’s aggressive campaign to round up undocumented immigrants and push to exact retribution on his political foes.
“The desolation left in his wake has been staggering,” Mamdani said of Trump. “Tens of millions of Americans, including millions right here in New York, will lose their Medicaid, their Medicare, their SNAP benefits because of Trump’s corruption, children will go to sleep hungry, and the sick will die. Anyway you measure it, our lives have gotten worse.”
The Democratic nominee also took the opportunity to tie Trump to Cuomo, charging that they are beholden to the same “billionaires and oligarchs.” Cuomo, who shares several donors with Trump, rejected that criticism in a recent interview on MSNBC, contending that there is “no similarity” between himself and the president, and that they simply know the same donors because they are both New Yorkers.
James, who has recently found herself in Trump’s crosshairs after successfully winning a civil suit against him last year, painted Mamdani as the best candidate to stand up for New York in the face of the president’s policies.
“Let us stand together to defend our rights, to protect every safeguard, every institution, every immigrant, every norm, and every rule of law,” James said. “I see the courage that is embodied in Zohran, and that’s why I am supporting him. He is a leader fighting for a better future for the city.”
