Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist, is poised to take the reins of City Hall with a commanding lead in the polls, despite widespread fears his policies could drag the city back to the gritty decay of the 1980s, as the Daily Mail reports.
A recent JL Partners poll for the Daily Mail, conducted between Oct. 23 and 26 among 500 registered voters, reveals Mamdani holding a 15-point lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with 46% support to Cuomo’s 31%, while Republican Curtis Sliwa trails at 22% ahead of the November 4 election.
Born in Uganda and raised in New York since age seven, Mamdani comes from a privileged background -- think private Manhattan schooling with fees now at $66,000 a year. Yet champions a progressive agenda that promises rent freezes, free buses, universal daycare, city-run grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage.
To fund this ambitious platform, Mamdani plans to hike taxes on the wealthy and corporations, including a 2% bump for those earning over $1 million annually and a corporate tax rate jump from 7.25% to 11.5%.
Among Democrats, he’s a darling -- 54% back him compared to Cuomo’s 26%, and among under-30 voters, he enjoys a staggering 35-point lead over his nearest rival.
Yet, even his supporters harbor doubts; while 52% of Democrats think he’ll make housing more affordable, more of his own base believe he’ll worsen antisemitism in the city than improve it.
The broader public isn’t buying the utopia either -- 47% of New Yorkers predict crime and violence will spike under Mamdani, with only 32% expecting safer streets. A divide starkly felt among over-65 voters, where 50% foresee danger compared to just 26% who don’t.
Subway safety is already a raw nerve, with felony assaults up 55% since 2019, 25 track-pushing incidents in 2024, and tragic cases like the December death of Debrina Kawam, a 57-year-old homeless woman burned alive near Coney Island.
Then there’s the economy -- 43% expect fewer businesses under Mamdani’s watch, with only 23% anticipating growth, painting a picture of shuttered storefronts and a city sliding into economic malaise.
Antisemitism, already at a record high with 9,354 incidents nationwide in 2024 per the Anti-Defamation League, is another flashpoint—45% of New Yorkers think it’ll worsen under Mamdani, against 21% who see improvement. That's a fear that even cuts through his Democratic Party base.
Adding fuel to the fire, Mamdani recently posted a social media photo with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted potential co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though Wahhaj was never charged and denies involvement.
Critics pounced when Mamdani gave an emotional speech outside a mosque about his “aunt” avoiding the subway post-9/11 due to hijab-related fears, later clarifying it was his father’s cousin, Zehra Fuhi, who has since passed away.
Terry Strada, who lost her husband in the 9/11 attacks, told the Daily Mail, “I find what he had to say completely insulting to all of the people that suffered a horrible loss that day.”
Strada’s words sting, and it’s hard to disagree -- equating personal discomfort with the scale of that national tragedy feels like a misstep, especially when 39% of voters already fear Mamdani’s leadership could heighten terrorism risks.
Pollster James Johnson of J.L. Partners summed it up: “Mamdani is on course for a win -- aided and abetted by his chief rivals.” With Cuomo unpopular among Republicans and Sliwa facing a 70% Democratic Party-leaning city, the opposition’s fracture hands Mamdani the keys, despite non-supporters describing a future New York as “disaster,” “chaos,” or worse.
