Young, socialist, Muslim NY mayoral candidate is the start of a revolution

Zohran Mamdani just pulled off the political upset of the year in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary. It was a David and Goliath moment, powered by young, working-class New Yorkers fed up with the cost of living and political neglect. Mamdani’s rise signals a shift in urban politics – one that’s echoing far beyond New York.

In backing Mamdani, 33, a Muslim democratic socialist, voters chose representation that’s both lived and loud. New Yorkers chose someone to defeat former governor Andrew Cuomo, a political heir with a history of sexual harassment allegations. They chose someone who would help them afford to live in the city they love. Someone who TikToks speaking Hindi, clipping Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, and has Emily Ratajkowski wearing a “Hot Girls for Zohran” T-shirt. Someone who uses the term “genocide” when discussing the Middle East. Mamdani is upending politics, and it isn’t a surprise to me.

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani triumphed in the recent Democratic primary, defeating his older and more experienced opponent, Andrew Cuomo.Credit: Bloomberg

I’ll admit my bias. I’m a 28-year-old Indian Australian corporate lawyer with a lot of HECS debt and no real assets. I get called “Greg” once a fortnight because my name appears “Garg, Tushaar” in Outlook. So when Mamdani corrected Cuomo for butchering his name again, spelling it out, letter by letter, he had me dead to rights. “The name is Mamdani”, he told New York and Cuomo.

Unlike the Australian dream, the American dream isn’t built on owning the home you live in. But even renting is becoming untenable in many major cities. New Yorkers now spend more than 50 per cent of their income on housing. For every 100 low-income households in New York, there are just 36 affordable rentals.

In an early debate, the Democratic mayoral candidates were asked what they each pay in rent. Adrienne Adams owned her home. Cuomo? $US7800 ($11,846) per month. Mamdani? $US2,300 per month. Unable to own the homes they live in or spend close to $US2000 a week on rent, many young voters identified with Mamdani. This support only grew as New York’s Robin Hood unveiled plans to tax the rich and build for the poor. Mamdani plans to place an additional 2 per cent tax on those earning over $US1 million and increase corporate tax rates. He will also freeze rent for more than 2 million tenants and fast-track 200,000 new affordable homes.

In Sydney, the picture is just as bleak. Over the weekend of March 15-16, Anglicare found that of 13,334 private rentals advertised across Greater Sydney, only 21 were affordable for a single person on minimum wage.

If you’re a young professional hoping to live anywhere near Sydney city, you’ll need to pile a generous premium on top of the asking price, just to be in the running for a rental. At my age, the hip-pocket nerve is the most sensitive, and it’s starting to pinch.

Mamdani spoke to voters who are tired of seeing their faith politicised. Unsurprisingly, he resonated with New York’s large Muslim population. More significantly, he began gaining support from across the aisle, including parts of New York’s Jewish community, the largest outside of Israel. This kind of cross-cultural support is rare in today’s political climate, where campaigns thrive on division and xenophobic rhetoric.

Politicians haven’t just lost young voters on the cost of living, they’ve missed the mark on diversity and inclusion. We rarely see ourselves on the podium, and it speaks volumes about the system we’ve inherited. Young voters want representation that is both substantive and symbolic.

Australia’s recent federal election revealed a growing disconnect between political representation and Australia’s multicultural reality, with Muslim communities in western Sydney the first to voice their discontent at the ballot box. And yet, Labor sidelined its only Muslim cabinet member at the time – one who hailed from Western Sydney – Ed Husic, soon after forming government.

Labor sidelined its only Muslim cabinet member at the time, Ed Husic, soon after forming government.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

It reflects a deeper issue in Australian politics, where the country’s second-largest party fails to even grasp gender equity. The Liberal party clings to the idea that quotas “subvert democracy”, a claim Angus Taylor made with a straight face last week. Meanwhile, Labor tackled the issue and implemented quotas back in 1994. At the 2025 election, only 31 per cent of Coalition candidates were women, compared with 54 per cent for Labor. The numbers speak to everyone, except the Liberal Party.

In the previous parliament, about 6 per cent of MPs were of South-East Asian or South Asian descent, despite nearly one in five Australians having Asian heritage. The numbers really do speak to everyone. It won’t surprise me when Mamdani-like figures disrupt Australian politics.

I don’t agree with Mamdani on everything. His socialism can be economically shaky, and his foreign policy rhetoric might alienate more than it persuades. He’s a hard sell in a city where Wall Street still calls the shots. Corporate donors are already scrambling to find a centrist to run against him in the general election.

But Mamdani’s win isn’t just a protest vote, it’s a mandate for fairness and inclusion. New Yorkers chose someone who lives their reality.

Change isn’t coming. It’s here. And Australia should take note.

The name is Mamdani. Say it right, because this is what the future sounds like.

Tushaar Garg is a Sydney corporate lawyer and former political staffer for the Labor Party.

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