November 6, 2025

Zohran Mamdani: Reaching beyond identity politics

After Kamala Harris' electoral loss, the 34-year-old democratic socialists’ victory has revealed what voters really want from politicians is meaningful action.

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It’s no surprise that Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old winner of the NYC mayoral election, quoted India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his victory speech:

“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 recited.

The first Indian and Muslim to win the post has made no secret of his identity, placing it front and centre during his heavily digital campaign, whether it’s being photographed eating with his hands or an impassioned speech about post-9/11 Islamophobia. Zohran Mamdani identity politics

Mamdani’s focus on identity has not of course escaped the notice of his opponents, with Andrew Cuomo accusing him of everything from ‘playing the race card’ to ‘cheering’ for another 9/11. That a candidate for a city still haunted by the spectre of a horrific terror attack can overcome such Islamophobia to win the election is a huge milestone in post-9/11 reconciliation, which has inspired hope in Muslims and South Asians the world over.

zohran mamdani and supporters — Mamdani’s grassroots campaign mobilised minority communities. (Source: Facebook)

Where South Asian Americans had been previously underutilised as a voter base, here they became some of Mamdani’s most vocal grassroots supporters – according to ABC News, ‘South Asian voter turnout in the 2025 NYC primary election increased by about 40% compared to the 2021 primary.’

The South Asian community has been galvanised politically before, most recently in support of Kamala Harris, but crucially, unlike the former Vice President, Mamdani has succeeded in giving them something besides a vague notion of diversity to stand behind. Zohran Mamdani identity politics

Where Harris employed her position as a ‘black, South Asian woman’ as a meaningless refrain and failed to elucidate any real policies, Mamdani has allowed his identity as an immigrant to guide his principles and rhetoric, primarily through his positioning as someone committed to affordability and challenging the establishment.

It points to the fact that contrary to popular belief, demographics alone are not enough to mobilise the public; voters are tired of being patronised by the cynical assumption they vote purely on identity politics, and crave political figures with substance and policies to back this identity.

zohran mamdani bernie sanders aoc — Endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocacio Cortez. (Source: Facebook)

Where Harris failed to distinguish herself from her predecessor, Mamdani has found success in stripping politics down from ‘something done to us’ to ‘something we do’. As with the right-wing populism of Donald Trump, Mamdani’s democratic socialist rhetoric cuts through the noise; whether talking about Palestine or wealth-inequality, Mamdani eschews circumlocution for nailing his colours to the mast. Zohran Mamdani identity politics

Like his mentor Bernie Sanders, and his ideological opponent Donald Trump, Mamdani’s victory has been described as ‘surprising’ and ‘historic’ – but what it actually evidences is a population who want to see real cost of living relief and are prepared to take a gamble on a disruptive solution.

Love him or hate him, Mamdani’s victory, like Trump’s election last year suggests a greater truth – voters want politicians who won’t just say or be something, but do something.

That, in the words of Nehru, is where the ‘soul of a nation’ is ‘finding utterance’.