'I might look like your brother-in-law from Damascus': Mamdani's ad delights Arab New Yorkers

With humour, warmth, and a few lines of Arabic, Zohran Mamdani has set himself apart in the final stretch of New York City’s mayoral race.

The Democratic frontrunner released a campaign video on Saturday addressed directly to Arab New Yorkers, greeting them in a Levantine accent and weaving between jokes and policy pledges.

In the short clip, filmed in a local grocery store, Mamdani smiles as he says: "My name is Zohran Mamdani, and I’m running to be the next mayor of New York City. I know what you’re thinking - I might look like your brother-in-law from Damascus, but my Arabic needs a little work."

The video then follows him through a typical New York scene of chatting with shopkeepers, petting a bodega cat, and eating a knafeh from Nablus. But alongside the levity, Mamdani lays out a clear agenda focused on affordability and fairness.

He promises to freeze rents for more than two million residents, make public transport free, offer universal childcare, and help small businesses, particularly those run by immigrants, weather the city's high costs.

The ad ends with a simple message in Arabic: "I'm from you, and for you."

Mamdani's Arabic video has drawn praise for the attempt to include New York's estimated 180,000 Arab residents in the political conversation.

Concentrated mainly in Brooklyn and along Steinway Street in Queens, Arab communities in the city have often been courted symbolically but rarely addressed in their own language.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani)

From Uganda to City Hall

Born in Kampala, Uganda, to filmmaker Mira Nair and scholar Mahmood Mamdani, Zohran Mamdani moved to New York at age seven.

He attended the Bronx High School of Science and later earned a degree in African studies from Bowdoin College, where he helped found a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Before entering politics, he worked in housing advocacy, assisting low-income families in Queens at risk of eviction.

At 34, Mamdani is part of the city’s growing progressive bloc within the Democratic Party. He currently serves in the New York State Assembly, where he has championed tenants’ rights, public transport reform, and climate justice initiatives.

His wife, Syrian artist Rama Duwaji, often features at campaign events, and the couple’s diverse background has become part of their public appeal.

Multilingual outreach 

As New Yorkers prepare to vote on Tuesday, polls show Mamdani maintaining a comfortable lead over his rivals - former governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

A recent Fox News poll put Mamdani at 47 percent, with Cuomo trailing by more than ten points.

His growing popularity has invited fierce criticism from conservatives, including President Donald Trump, who dismissed him as a "communist" and threatened to cut federal funding if he wins.

Mamdani brushed off the attacks in an interview with the BBC, saying his campaign is about "making New York fairer and ensuring no child goes to bed hungry".

That message has resonated in a city where a quarter of residents live below the poverty line and nearly half a million children experience food insecurity.

Mamdani’s campaign has stood out for its multilingual outreach - releasing materials in Yiddish, Urdu, and Spanish, alongside English and now Arabic. Each version carries a mix of humour and earnestness that has helped make him one of the most relatable figures in city politics.

His Urdu campaign video featured Bollywood-inspired scenes and messages about the cost of living, while his Spanish outreach focused on rent control and workers' rights.