Zohran Mamdani, an American Democratic politician serving as the mayor of New York City, identifies as a democratic socialist. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter. Mamdani has been described as a progressive by The New York Times and as a left-wing populist by The Guardian.
Influenced by his parents and early exposure to political discussion, he has credited Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign with shaping his democratic socialist outlook, and has cited 20th-century American "sewer socialists" as well as mayors such as Fiorello La Guardia, Michelle Wu, and Brandon Scott as models for governance.
His platform opposes wealth inequality, racism, and discrimination, while supporting LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedom, immigrant protections, and single-payer healthcare. It also advocates community-based public safety, universal childcare, fare-free public transit, large-scale social housing, stronger labor protections, higher taxes on corporations and high-income earners, and climate policies that link decarbonization with social equity.
Influences Mamdani has credited his parents for both fostering his interest in politics and world affairs and shaping his outlook on them. He has noted that, when he was growing up, his household frequently discussed these subjects. He has credited Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign for inspiring him to become a democratic socialist. Mamdani is also influenced by 20th-century American "sewer socialists" such as Milwaukee mayor Daniel Hoan and Congressman Victor L. Berger, as well as the populist New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. In a December 2020 tweet, Mamdani asked "So what kind of mayor does NYC need right now?" and cited Arya Rajendran, Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram and Communist Party of India (Marxist) member, as a positive model for a future mayor of New York.
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani stated that his leadership would emulate Boston mayor Michelle Wu and Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott. He frequently pointed to Wu, whom he has called the most effective current Democratic politician in the U.S., as a role model for both her performance as mayor and prior work as a city councilor.Multiple sources: Mamdani has specifically cited Wu's fare free-public bus transit pilot programs as inspiring his similar plans for New York City. Wu is a progressive but, unlike Mamdani, does not identify as a socialist.
On November 21, 2025, during a meeting with U.S. president Donald Trump, Mamdani said that Trump voters in New York City played a role in how he ran his campaign and that he met with people who voted for Trump, despite Mamdani's frequent criticism of the President.
Social issues Mamdani supported Proposal 1, a 2024 amendment to the Constitution of New York that made it unconstitutional to engage in discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression), pregnancy and pregnancy-related outcomes, or reproductive healthcare and autonomy. Mamdani's mayoral campaign platform included opposition to wealth inequality and racism. He supports the New York Health Act, which would establish single-payer healthcare in New York State.
Childcare and education Mamdani supports a universal pre-kindergarten childcare system. He has proposed giving all new New York City families "baby baskets" containing products such as diapers and nursing supplies. Mamdani introduced a bill to eliminate New York University's and Columbia University's state property tax exemption and direct those funds to the City University of New York system, which has historically struggled with funding.
In a June 2025 interview with Der Blatt, a newspaper associated with the Hasidic movement of Judaism, Mamdani expressed a desire to defend Hasidic yeshivas (institutions for Torah study) from accusations of failing to meet state educational standards. He said "I will listen to your leaders" on education and "I will work to protect you from anyone who wants to disturb your way of life".
Civil rights Mamdani supported Proposal 1, a 2024 amendment to the Constitution of New York that made it unconstitutional to engage in discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression), pregnancy and pregnancy-related outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.
Crime and policing Mamdani has argued that increasing policing and incarceration does little to prevent harm and that "dignified work, economic stability, and well-resourced neighborhoods" can more effectively keep the public safe. He has advocated a more community-based approach to reducing crime, focusing on homeless outreach and anti-violence programs. He contends that there is too much reliance on police to fix societal problems, saying, "Police have a critical role to play, but right now we are relying on them to deal with the failures of the social safety net of reliance that is preventing them from doing their actual jobs." He has proposed a Department of Community Safety to expand mental health outreach. This proposed civilian-led department would deploy mental health teams to respond to 911 calls and expand street-level programs intended to stop the cycle of violence, as well as focusing on programs "that are proven to create long-term stability and promote recovery."
In a June 2020 tweet, Mamdani voiced support for defunding the NYPD. During the 2025 mayoral race, he said he would work with the police rather than defund them, emphasizing their importance in dealing with violent crime and the role of social workers and mental health professionals in addressing underlying causes and prevention. In October 2025, Mamdani apologized for describing the NYPD as racist. He chose to retain Mayor Eric Adams's police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who opposes bail reform and has collaborated with ICE, and whose "quality of life" teams are viewed by some as "stop-and-frisk 2.0". In September 2025, Mamdani condemned the assassination of Charlie Kirk, saying that political violence has no place in the United States.
Environment Mamdani views climate action as essential to achieving social justice in New York City. In 2021, he organized volunteers and lobbied Governor Kathy Hochul to prevent the expansion of a gas-fired peaker power plant in Astoria, citing environmental concerns for low-income non-white communities. Mamdani has also backed statewide measures such as the All-Electric Buildings Act, which prohibits installing fossil-fuel equipment (e.g., gas stoves) in new buildings, and supported introducing congestion pricing in Manhattan to reduce traffic-related emissions. Mamdani was an advocate of the "Build Public Renewables Act", which has been described as a state-level Green New Deal.
As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani proposed a comprehensive decarbonization and resilience agenda. His "Green Schools for a Healthier New York City" blueprint would retrofit 500 public school buildings with rooftop solar arrays and upgraded HVAC systems; build 500 green schoolyards; transform heat-absorbing asphalt into green space serving students and community residents; convert 50 schools into year-round resilience hubs to offer shelter and resources during extreme heat, storms, or flooding; and extend tax incentives such as J-51 benefits to support building owners' compliance with Local Law 97.
Health care Mamdani supports the New York Health Act, which would establish single-payer healthcare in New York State. He portrayed a firefighter in a 2021 advertisement for the Campaign for New York Health.
He criticized President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying Republicans were attempting one of the "biggest heists in U.S. history".
Immigration Mamdani supports enforcement of New York's sanctuary laws, which bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from entering schools, hospitals, and city property without a judicial warrant, and has advocated for stronger sanctuary laws. Mamdani has decried the actions of ICE under the Trump administration as being fascist. He has also proposed creating a commission to ensure compliance by city agencies and contractors. He has pledged that if he is elected mayor, the city will provide legal representation for all immigrants in detention proceedings.
On March 12, 2025, Mamdani confronted former ICE acting director Tom Homan in Albany about ICE's recent arrest of student activist Mahmoud Khalil; Mamdani yelled, "Do you believe in the First Amendment?" Mamdani supports abolishing ICE, stating that the agency is "terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, and no matter the facts of the case".
LGBTQ+ rights Mamdani staunchly supports LGBTQ+ rights. He aims to establish NYC as an LGBTQ+ sanctuary city and establish the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to "expand and centralize the services, programs, and support that LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers need across housing, employment, and more." Mamdani says LGBTQ+ people who became homeless due to their identity would benefit from his cost-of-living policies.
Mamdani appeared at a February 2025 rally in Union Square to protest an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that threatened to "withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming treatments to trans youth". As part of his platform, he supports expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide. He proposed an immediate investment of $65million in public providers to ensure funding for medical treatments that lose Medicaid coverage and promised to ensure hospital accountability.
On March 13, 2026, he created the New York City Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs and appointed Taylor Brown as its first director.
Transportation Mamdani supports permanently eliminating New York City bus fares. He advocated for a fare-free pilot program on MTA buses, which was launched on the Q4, B60, Bx18, M116 and S46/96 routes in September 2023. The program saw a 30% increase in ridership on weekdays, predominantly from people earning less than $28,000 a year. Across the five routes made free, assaults on bus operators dropped by 38.9%. The fare-free program ended in August 2024 after state lawmakers did not reauthorize it. In response, Mamdani said, "the MTA was opposed to this program... because they were saying that now is not the time to create any kind of confusion around fare collection." He estimates that it would cost New York City $650million per year to eliminate bus fares.
In December 2022, Mamdani introduced a series of bills for the 2023 session called "Fix the MTA". He proposed free bus travel over the next four years across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and then Manhattan and Staten Island. The Formula Three Act would fill the $2.5billion 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 the 100 most-used bus routes, then using any additional funds to increase service by 20%.
In 2023, Mamdani co-introduced a bill to enact a weight-based vehicle-registration fee to dissuade people from owning heavier vehicles in an effort to make streets safer. Mamdani supports congestion pricing in New York City and drafted a bill with New York state senator Michael Gianaris titled "Get Congestion Pricing Right" to increase bus service frequency and increase the number of fare-free buses.
Economic policy
Housing