Challenge to Trump, Nehru mention: Highlights from Mamdani's victory speech
What's the story
Democrat Zohran Mamdani has made history as the first Muslim South Asian immigrant mayor of New York City. He defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Born in Uganda, Mamdani is the son of Indian-origin parents, filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani. In his victory speech, Mamdani quoted India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's iconic "Tryst with Destiny" speech from 1947.
Victory speech
Mamdani thanks family, quotes Nehru
Mamdani quoted Nehru's words, "A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance." He added, "Tonight, we have stepped from the old into the new." Mamdani made affordability a central theme of his campaign, and he underlined in his speech that his plans include freezing rent, making city buses free, and providing universal childcare.
Empowerment
Mamdani addresses working-class people of New York
Mamdani also addressed the working-class people of New York in his speech. He said, "For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands." He added that despite this, they dared to reach for something greater over the past year.
Background
'Your struggle is ours too'
He promised that now that he is elected mayor, New York "will be the light," and he would lead with compassion in a time of division. "Here we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom...or anyone else with their back against the wall." "Your struggle is ours too," Mamdani added.
Promises
Promised to stand steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers
He also promised to stand "steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers" and not "waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism." Furthermore, Muslim New Yorkers will also "know that they belong not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power," he said. "This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another," Mamdani said.
Trump
Mamdani had four words for the president
In a direct address to Trump, Mamdani had four words for the president: "Turn the volume up." He vowed to "usher in a generation of change," rejecting the president's politics. He said that by embracing that change, "we respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism." "If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the....conditions that allowed him to accumulate power," Mamdani said. "This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one."