In New York, Zohran Mamdani’s Base of Renters and Workers is Nearing the Gates of Power

Old power lines are shifting rapidly as biggest American city’s political landscape is poised for an unexpected turn with Zohran Mamdani’s potential victory.

Sadiq S Bhat

NEW YORK CITY — By late afternoon on Monday, Queens borough is already humming with quiet confidence. Early polls across the city are still open, but the numbers flashing on phones and radios point in one direction.

Siena’s latest survey puts Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani at 48 percent citywide. Independent Andrew Cuomo trails at 36, while Republican Curtis Sliwa and a cluster of smaller candidates scrape the rest.

It is an unusual picture for New York. The city, long comfortable with transactional politics and familiar names, now faces a race that feels closer to reckoning than routine.

Conversations at food carts and train platforms have turned sharp. Across Queens, people talk about rent, hospitals, and childcare before they mention candidates.

At a halal cart off Vernon Boulevard, the vendor wipes his hands, glances, and shakes his head. “Cuomo eats from our effort,” he tells TRT World. “Zohran rides the 7 train. He sees what’s wrong.”

That sense runs through the borough. In Flushing neighbourhood, women at the market sit quietly. “He listens,” Jasmine Torres says. 

In Corona area, subway riders share early numbers between stops. None of it feels orchestrated. It is a slow tide.

‘If billionaires and politicians are scared…’

Mamdani’s rise has been steady, built on the kind of street politics that once defined the city: knocking doors, riding trains, walking blocks that officials usually visit with cameras. 

His campaign has turned housing and transit into personal language. Slogans like “Housing Right, Not Rent Trick” show up on stickers, lampposts, and jackets.

Cuomo’s counter has been “experience and funds”. Running as an independent after Eric Adams dropped out, he has spent the last week hammering Mamdani as a “dangerous experiment,” warning of higher taxes and weaker policing.

The message has been reinforced by national figures who rarely weigh in on city contests.

On Sunday night, US President Donald Trump told New Yorkers that they should back Cuomo to “ditch the socialist.” Hours later, the world’s richest man Elon Musk threw his support behind Cuomo, arguing that Sliwa’s conservative bid could split the anti-Mamdani vote.

On Monday, Trump further escalated matters by threatening to withhold federal funds from New York should Mamdani win, urging supporters to abandon Sliwa for Cuomo.

Both statements triggered predictable outrage, but also airtime. Cuomo’s team amplified them as proof of bipartisan concern about “radical city hall.”

Mamdani’s side used them differently. 

“If billionaires and politicians are scared,” a volunteer said outside Queensbridge Houses, “maybe we are doing something right.”

By Monday afternoon, Queensbridge and Long Island City were busy with that same energy. 

A campaign van idled by Court Square, volunteers in hoodies and trainers jumping out with clipboards. “Marist (national public opinion survey) has him up fourteen in the outer areas,” one said, holding out a flyer. “People want help, not slogans.”

The city’s early voting numbers back that mood. More than 735,000 ballots were cast before election day, breaking the previous record.

Turnout among younger and working-class voters has been notably high, especially in Queens, the Bronx, and parts of Brooklyn. Polling places in Jackson Heights and Astoria reported long lines from early morning.

At Gantry Plaza, under the big red Pepsi sign, three plumbers took a break near the river wall, cups steaming in the wind. “Rents are killing families. My daughter shares a room with her kid.”

That conversation sums up much of this race. 

Cuomo’s focus on policing and public order plays to familiar fears, but rent, transport, and childcare have overtaken crime as daily pressure points.

Mamdani’s proposals: free childcare for night-shift workers, expansion of pre-K, and public housing repairs, sound modest, yet in this city they feel radical.

‘He listens’

By early evening, NY1’s feed shows partial returns. 

“Mamdani 51 with 32 percent reporting. Cuomo calls the early count premature.” 

At a taqueria on 50th, the cook looks up from the grill. “He takes the bus,” he says of Mamdani.

Cuomo’s campaign insists it is not over. 

In Brooklyn, he has been touring senior centres, churches, and small business forums, pitching what he calls “safety, affordability, and opportunity.” 

His voice, hoarse by now, still carries a hint of power. “We’ve seen what happens when ideology runs the city,” he told a crowd at Tilden Senior Center earlier in the day. “We need safety and jobs.”

Sliwa, meanwhile, moves through Staten Island and midtown, red beret on, promising to “protect New Yorkers from socialist chaos.” His rallies draw modest but loud groups.

In contrast, Mamdani closed his campaign with symbolism. 

On Monday morning, he led volunteers across the Brooklyn Bridge in what his team called a unity walk: no stage, no final speeches, just hundreds of people moving together in the rain. “We are the city we want,” he said briefly before the crowd dispersed. 

The footage went viral on social media.

By 6:30 pm, the air in Queens feels heavy, the light low. It is a cold day in NYC. At a diner near Dutch Kills, the TV hums above the clatter of plates. “Forty-eight in,” the anchor says. “Mamdani holding at 52.” The room breaks into quiet smiles.

Fatima Cherkaoui, who runs the place, pours coffee without looking up. “He listens. Brooklyn almost done,” she murmurs.

Outside, the street lights flicker on. Traffic thickens. Somewhere above the skyline, a helicopter circles Manhattan, probably Cuomo’s press team filming one last shot before the night ends. On the ground, the city feels different: slower, more certain.

For now, New York City holds its breath. From Washington DC’s planned corridors to the Big Apple’s unpredictable streets, the contrast could not be sharper.

If Mamdani wins, it would show power can start from below, in small rooms, with conversations over food and rent.

A day before the verdict, the noise from the river, the chatter on the trains, the tired hands holding leaflets in November chill all carry the same tone.

It is the sound of America’s most important deciding what it wants to be.

C. TRT World