Caribbean Americans Celebrate Election Of Immigrant Zohran Mamdani As NYC’s First Muslim Mayor

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Nov. 4, 2025: Caribbean Americans across New York City are celebrating a milestone in the city’s political history with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor-elect, its youngest immigrant mayor in modern times and its first immigrant since the 1970s.

New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrates during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York on November 4, 2025. New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor November 4, 2025 broadcasters projected, on a day of key local ballots across the country offering the first electoral judgement of Donald Trump’s tumultuous second White House term. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Mamdani, a 34-year-old Queens assemblyman born in Uganda to Indian parents, captured 1,029,196 votes, defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent and secured 849,816 votes as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa, who received 145,543 votes. The victory marks a generational and ideological shift in America’s largest city – and a defining moment for immigrant and working-class communities in the diverse city.

The race, marked by misinformation and Islamophobia, pitted Mamdani, who won the Democratic Primary, not only against the Republican contender, but rival Democrats including incumbent Eric Adams, Cuomo, the party establishment and even President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cuomo in a last-minute bid to stop the Queens Assemblyman. But Mamdani’s grassroots campaign – powered by young voters, working-class families, immigrants, and communities of color — proved unstoppable.

Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, joined by his wife Rama Duwaji and his parents Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, during an election night event at The Brooklyn Paramount Theater in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Mamdani was elected the 111th mayor of New York in a historic victory that will put an avowed democratic socialist in charge of the city that serves as the capital of global finance. Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Caribbean Community Reacts

Across the city, members of the Caribbean Diaspora in New York hailed Mamdani’s victory as a triumph for democracy and inclusion.

“This is an excellent moment for NYC and the entire USA,” Zamal Sankar, head of Caribbean Americans for Zohran Mamdani, told News Americas. “Winning over 50 percent of the votes cast is stunning – and the Caribbean community played a key role. Leaders like Jumaane Williams and Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn helped mobilize our voters. We can rest assured the Caribbean will have a seat at the table.”

Ray Rafeek, a Muslim Guyanese immigrant business owner, called the win “historic.”

“It’s a victory for truth over the misinformation peddled by Trump, billionaires, and the mainstream media,” he told News Americas. “Zohran Mamdani is a brilliant young man who will lead NYC to success.”

Albert Baldeo, a Queens-based Guyanese immigrant and longtime community activist, posted on social media: “Zohran’s victory proves that love triumphs over hate. The moral arc bends slowly, but it bends toward justice. We have finally won representation in the city that too often denied us. Denied we will be no more. God is great!”

Jamaican immigrant Irwine Clare Sr., OD, of the Caribbean Immigrant Services and Team Jamaica Bickle, praised the outcome as “the best result for New York – especially the immigrant community.”

“The youth turnout was remarkable and bodes well for democracy,” he said. “It’s a giant step forward for the Democratic Party heading into 2026.”

Greg Smith, a Jamaican American political organizer who worked on Barack Obama’s campaign, called the victory “a reminder that the government should fear the people — not the other way around.”

“What Zohran proves,” Smith said, “is that the possibility of America is alive when we defend the marginalized and remember that what unites us is stronger than what divides us.”

It is estimated that around 20% of NYC’s total population has Caribbean roots. The largest groups are from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, with a large and significant population of Jamaicans as well.

A Message of Unity and Defiance

In a powerful victory speech in Brooklyn, Mayor-elect Mamdani vowed to “change City Hall – and the country.”

“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light,” he declared. “We will build a city that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers, where more than one million Muslims know they belong.”

“We will end the culture of corruption that allowed billionaires to exploit tax breaks. New York will remain a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight – led by an immigrant,” he added.

Addressing the President, a frequent critic, directly, he said: “So Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”

Quoting India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Mamdani added: “‘A moment comes, rarely in history, when we step out from the old into the new.’ Tonight, we have stepped from the old into the new.”

The Making Of A Movement

Born in Kampala, Uganda, to academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani moved to New York at age seven. A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and Bowdoin College, he worked as a housing counselor and musician before entering politics.

Elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, he quickly gained a reputation as a bold progressive voice. His platform as mayor-elect includes a rent freeze, free city buses, universal childcare, public grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030.

Mamdani’s win also coincides with another milestone for Muslim representation: in Virginia, Indian immigrant Ghazala Hashmi was elected lieutenant governor, becoming the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in U.S. history.

Together, their victories mark a new chapter in American politics — one where immigrants and Muslims see their reflection in the nation’s highest offices amid a surge in xenophobia and anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric nationwide under the current administration.

Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City’s 111th mayor on Jan. 1, 2026.

Their win came on a night when Democrats swept the mid-terms focusing on economic issues, in what many analysts say is a referendum on Donald Trump and his policies and actions over the past 10 months. They also made history in both Virginia and California. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger will become Virginia’s first female governor while voters in California approved a ballot measure — Prop 50 — that will allow state leaders to redraw congressional district lines in a partisan fashion, which could lead to a guarantee for Democrats to gain five House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The ballot measure was put to voters after Texas Republican leaders redrew congressional district lines on a partisan basis this year, seeking to guarantee House Republicans five additional seats after next year’s midterms.

Meanwhile,  Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the New Jersey governor’s office by running campaigns focused largely on the economy, public safety and health care. Democrats also swept a trio of state Supreme Court contests in swing-state Pennsylvania and ballots measures from Colorado to Maine.