On November 4th, 2025, New York City voted in a new mayor. This comes as during this election cycle, current Mayor Eric Adams has been shamed and rejected by New Yorkers (for many reasons, including his federal indictments from fall of 2024), and dropped out of the mayoral race. With Adams leaving office, this allowed for 3 new candidates to run during the general election: the Republican Curtis Sliwa, the former Governor Andrew Cuomo (who had resigned due to sexual harassment allegations), and the democratic socialist and current Assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani. This election had a lot in the air, with all the different candidates running on very different platforms, being very different people, the 8.4 Million New Yorkers had to choose between what issues were more pressing for them and who they believed would be the best person to run the city that never sleeps. And that person that they chose Tuesday night was Zohran Mamdani. Results concluded less than an hour after polls closed showed that Mamdani won the hearts of New Yorkers and gained the trust of voters. Just a little over a year ago, Mamdani had less than a 1% acceptance rate of voters when initially entering the race. They thought he was too young, too inexperienced and too progressive. People didn’t have hope in the policies he wanted to push for, and didn’t have hope that he had what it took to make New York City a better place for all. One year later, he put in the tireless work to win over those voters and become the next Mayor-elect of New York City.Â
So, what is Mamdani’s platform? The 34 year old Democrat who represents Astoria in the New York Assembly ran on the housing crisis – that New York City is too expensive to survive in and to make living affordable, survivable and easier. Secondly, he ran on affordability, pushing heavily for city-owned affordable grocery stores and free public transportation fares. Most of his policies incorparte funding and making life in New York more affordable, yet fair. He believes in taxing the Top 1% and pushing for initiatives like freezing rent, raising minimum wage to $30, and increasing small business support by 500% (and was endorsed by the United Bodegas of America). Running on a democratic socialist platform, the odds were against him. Although New York City is traditionally a democratic city, socialists rarely win elections in the United States, Mamdani being the first socialist mayor of New York City. Despite the odds, plus the low initial acceptance rate, Mamdani beat them and proved hard and tireless work, going and speaking with New Yorkers and the communities within it, and putting New York first can bring hope and bring results.
However, because these candidates were so different, opinions have been very mixed. Even on the college campus of St. John’s University (located in Queens) opinions have been split. In a recent survey, I got the opportunity to ask students who they voted for, why and what they think about the results. For clarity, this survey was conducted on a small number of students, only representing a small fraction of the overall opinion.Â
Within the students who took the survey, 72% of students voted for Mamdani, with the remainder voting for Sliwa. This strays from popular patterns as the general results from New York were that Mamdani led with 50.4% of the vote, and Cuomo followed with 41.6% of the vote. So to see none of the respondents vote for Cuomo may indicate that the approval of Cuomo within the younger generation of voters may have been slim to none. This comes to no surprise to me as Mamdani dominated the online presence of his campaign and was highly favored by younger votes. Secondly, as Curtis Sliwa once said, “If you’re under 30, Andrew Cuomo is flirty” as his sexual harassment allegations were towards younger women, which probably correlated to the lack of support from younger voters as many may feel that he is a “creep”. The issues that were important to students were crime, immigration, housing, poverty, affordability, transportation, NYPD, safety and combating the Trump administration. While the list is long, the voters seemed to agree that although they are unsure Mamdani can carry out his promises to the fullest or in general to where it’ll actually help New Yorkers, they felt that he is more willing to actually listen to New Yorkers and their concerns and be held accountable more easily than other candidates if he is not doing a good job. Although the Sliwa voters are upset about the results, they admit that they are not shocked and are curious to see how his term as mayor plays out. Post-election, the students seem to be hopeful and excited for what the future holds, many stating they see a more affordable and accessible city for the less wealthy and working class, are hopeful New York will remain a sanctuary city for immigrants and better resources and prices for the middle and lower tax brackets for necessities like transportation, childcare, food and more. Although there is still uncertainty on whether Mamdani’s policies will be fulfilled or effective, ultimately, St. John’s students are curious and hopeful for a city led by Mamdani.Â
In January, we can look forward to his inauguration to officially be sworn in as Mayor of New York City. Until then, the Mayor-elect has a lot of planning to do with his team to make the transition as smooth as possible and put in place the necessary prerequisites to his policies to get the ball running on Day 1. Although politics can be a touchy, dreadful and boring topic for college students, it is important to stay educated, stay informed and be involved. Politics will always affect every aspect of your life, and we get the privilege to have a say in who we put in charge to make these decisions that affect our day-to-day lives. Whether students are happy or disappointed in this year’s election, it is a sign of hope for our generation – that we can and will vote, we will inform ourselves and others about what is at stake during each election, and to advocate and take action on what we think is important for us and our communities. To make change happen, you have to get involved. This can mean volunteering for candidates, donating or simply just voting. With this election, I hope it encourages students that their vote does matter and to continue to show up to the polls, win or lose.