| Zohran Mamdani | |
| State Assembly: | New York |
| District: | 36th |
| Term Start: | January 1, 2021 |
| Predecessor: | Aravella Simotas |
| Birth Date: | 18 October 1991 |
| Birth Place: | Kampala, Uganda |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Education: | Bowdoin College (BA) |
| Website: | |
| Signature: | Zohran Mamdani Signature.png |
Zohran Kwame Mamdani (born October 18, 1991) [1] is a Ugandan-born American Democratic Socialist politician. He is the assembly member for the 36th district of the New York State Assembly, in Queens. Mamdani was elected after defeating incumbent Democrat Aravella Simotas in the 2020 primary.[2]
Mamdani is the son of award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Marxist academic Mahmood Mamdani, a longtime Columbia University professor, the director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), and Chancellor of Kampala International University.[3] Born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, Mamdani moved to New York City when he was seven.[4] He is a Muslim.[5] Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014.[6]
Mamdani worked as a cricketer and prevention counselor before running for office.[6]
After leading student organizing campaigns, Mamdani became formally involved in politics when he volunteered for the unsuccessful campaign of New York City Council primary candidate Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian Lutheran Democratic Socialist minister running in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2017, then he was the campaign manager for Ross Barkan's race for New York State Senate in 2018, and a field organizer for Democratic Socialist Tiffany Cabán's campaign for Queens District Attorney in 2019, before running for Assembly himself.[7]
On January 29, 2021, Mamdani hosted a video for the progressive left wing Gravel Institute discussing the housing crisis in the United States.[8]
In 2019, Mamdani announced his campaign for New York State Assembly in the 36th district, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City in Queens.[9] During the campaign, Mamdani was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America[10] and ran on statewide rent control, fare-free transit, and single-payer healthcare in New York.[11] Mamdani's narrow victory over four-term incumbent Aravella Simotas took almost a month to call.[2]
Mamdani started to consider himself a democratic socialist following the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.[12]
In 2023, Mamdani co-introduced a bill that would enact a weight-based vehicle-registration fee to dissuade people from owning heavier vehicles.[13] In December 2022, Mamdani introduced a series of bills for the 2023 session called "Fix the MTA". Mamdani proposed free bus travel over the next four years across Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and then Manhattan and Staten Island.[14] The Formula Three Act would fill the $2.5 billion dollar shortfall of the MTA with another plank freezing fares at $2.75. Another plank would have set aside further money for more frequency such as, six minute headways for trains and for the hundred most used bus-routes, then using any additional money towards increasing service by 20%.[15] His advocacy helped spearhead the fare-free MTA bus pilot program.[16] [17] However, in April 2024, the MTA budget didn't set aside further money for a continuation of the pilot program which Zohran decried it and accused the MTA of never supporting the pilot program saying "the MTA was opposed to this program. And they were opposed to this program because they were saying that now is not the time to create any kind of confusion around fare collection”. The new budget did set aside money to improve frequency and reliability[18] [19]
In the same year, Mamdani introduced a bill to eliminate New York University's and Columbia University's tax exempt status and direct those funds towards underfunded public universities.[20]
Early in 2023, Mamdani introduced a bill called the "Not on our dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act" which aimed to prohibit registered charities from donating to organizations that support Israeli settlers.[21] In November of 2023, Zohran joined Cynthia Nixon in a five day hunger strike outside of Washington DC in support of an immediate ceasefire and opposition to Biden's involvement in support of Israel's offensive in Gaza.[22] [23] [24] He continued local activism in 2024, holding an iftar for a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan.[25]
Zohran Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of Congestion pricing alongside Michael Gianaris[26] and was quick to condemn governor Kathy Hochul for pausing her plan for congestion pricing.[27]