'That's my mayor!': A euphoric night in NYC after Zohran Mamdani win for mayor

When Zohran Mamdani's win was projected within minutes of the polls closing, the streets of New York erupted in screams.

The city had just elected a mayor who had run a historic campaign and won against all odds.

"That's my mayor!" yelled a woman in Midtown, as theatregoers were leaving Broadway productions to check the news on their phones.

As the news came in, shopkeepers and taxi drivers tuned in to Mamdani's passionate victory speech, recognising the historic moment.

Thousands of people, many of them Mamdani volunteers and canvassers, attended watch parties throughout the city. Since launching his campaign, he has recruited around 100,000 volunteers.

In Washington Heights, the Democratic Socialists of America hosted an event at Hudson, an outdoor bar on the river. Big screens showed Mamdani's speech, followed by music and dancing.

For many, it was a celebration not just of election results, but of what they mean for the future of politics.

"I feel like Zohran Mamdani is the first candidate where I see myself," Ben Ferlow, a Mamdani campaign organiser, told The New Arab.

"I feel like a lot of Democrats do a lot of incrementalism. Zohran is the first for me where I see somebody who is willing to go at specific institutional problems and find real-life solutions," he said.

For those from underrepresented backgrounds, Mamdani's win is an encouraging sign that it's possible to break through while staying true to one's culture.

"This has set a new standard for what a leader looks like, what a leader sounds like, and what someone is willing to accept," Julien Segura, a recent candidate for New York state assembly, told TNA. "For me, as a half Middle Eastern person, it's seeing someone hated by his main opponent, and being able to be themselves authentically, and not shying away from their culture." 

"While the rhetoric of the race was a step backwards," Segura said about Mamdani's opponents' xenophobic attacks, "the victory is a step forward."

As the festivities wound down, revellers, some of whom said they hadn't had a whole night's sleep since they started volunteering for Mamdani, who focused his campaign on the most fundamental issue facing New Yorkers—affordability—were already looking at what his win means for future races.

"This is a very big political moment for the whole country," Isaac Pablo Duarte, who has been volunteering for Mamdani since December, told TNA. "It means Democrats can focus on what they should have been focusing on in the first place."