With almost 95% of stripped bulletins, or nearly a million, Zohran Mamdani leads the race in the lead with more than 43% of the votes, against 36% for Andrew Cuomo.
This victory at hand is a feeling in the Democratic camp. Zohran Mamdani, elected local of 33 years, who claims to be “progressive and Muslim”, has caught up to 30 points behind in the polls on the former governor, more centrist, Andrew Cuomo (2011-2021), to finish in mind.
Cuomo dam
Games have not yet been made in this election in the complex voting system, where voters were called upon to classify five candidates in order of preference. As no candidate exceeds 50% of the votes Tuesday evening, the count will continue in a week to count the 2nd, 3rd and following choice until to appoint a winner.
But the advantage of Zohran Mamdani, who embodies the wing the most left of his party, is substantial. Several other candidates, including the 3rd, Brad Lander, called on their voters to classify him high to block Andrew Cuomo.
The elected official of the popular district of Queens has carried out a viral campaign on social networks and aroused the enthusiasm of an army of young volunteers on the ground to amplify his promises against expensive life, including free buses, crèches and the freezing of regulated rents, measures which he intends to finance by taxation on the highest income.
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This native of Uganda with Indian origins was supported by left figures like Bernie Sanders and elected it to the House of Representatives of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani and his thousands of sympathizers for their extraordinary campaign. You have faced the political, economic and media establishment and you beat it. You just have to win the general elections,” said Sanders on X.
“The billionaires and lobbyists have poured millions against you and against our public finance system. And you won, added Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, also on X.
Cost of living
During the campaign, Andrew Cuomo attacked him on his inexperience, the former governor of the New York State presenting himself as the only one capable of standing up to US President Donald Trump and his hostile policies against cities or Democrats.
But one of the strong themes of the campaign in the megalopolis of 8.5 million inhabitants was the cost of living.
“The first issue is that New York is affordable,” summed up on Tuesday, just after slipping his bulletin in a polling station in Brooklyn, Eamon Harkin, a 48 -year -old DJ.
“The city has become very expensive. Many popular and medium classes can no longer afford to live here, and this contributes to a crisis of homeless and mental health. For me, this is the number one problem,” he added while walking, sweating under his tank top, while the heat has reached records in New York on Tuesday.
For Nicholas Zantal, 31-year-old advertising and voter in Brookyln, this primary is “a referendum for the Democratic Party”: “Either we lean for a centrist candidate (Andrew Cuomo), which belongs to a different generation, or for a younger, ambitious and idealistic party,” he explained.
Sheryl Stein, a 50 -year -old who works in marketing, registered democratic to vote Cuomo against the “too extreme” project of Zohran Mamdani. “Seeing someone 33 years old, without experience, directing the largest city in this country (…) is quite frightening,” she explains.
A victory in the primary gives a favorite status to Zohran Mamdani during the election to the town hall of New York in November, the city being a democratic bastion. But Andrew Cuomo could not have said his last word. The former governor (2011-2021), who attempts his return to politics four after his resignation in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal, does not exclude presenting himself as an independent candidate.
The current Democrat mayor, Eric Adams, has given up on the primary. He also intends to appear independent, but suffers from a calamitous image, accused of compromising himself with the Trump administration in exchange for the burial of prosecution for corruption.
