On a bright autumn afternoon, the air crisp with possibility, Major Mark Park in Queens was filled with hundreds of Zohran Mamdani supporters — men wearing kufi caps and labor union T-shirts, groups chanting in Bengali while unfurling political banners, women pushing baby carriages.
Samuel Levitan, 23, and Ujji Bathla, 21, who have been volunteering for Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign for nearly a year, were huddled in semicircles of young adults, dispensing address lists, pamphlets and door-knocking instructions. They wore bright orange ski caps emblazoned with “Zohran for New York City.” Mr. Bathla’s denim jacket was festooned with political buttons that laid out the candidate’s ideas: “Freeze the rent”; “Fast & free buses”; and “Child care for all.”
But it was not Mr. Mamdani’s economic policies that initially drew them to his campaign. It was his involvement in the protest movement advocating for Palestinian rights. After two years of demonstrating against the war in Gaza, they had an opportunity to put their activism into a project with the promise of tangible and more immediate success.
“It’s not just protesting into the ether,” said Mr. Levitan, who is studying for a master’s degree in public health at Columbia University. The campaign “is almost like a funnel for all this dispersed energy and passion and drive to be an advocate for something, into a movement that had a clearly defined goal.”
Mr. Mamdani, 34, has drawn national and even international attention for galvanizing a come-from-nowhere political movement with his savvy use of social media and his unwavering message of affordability.
But for many New Yorkers involved in the antiwar movement, Mr. Mamdani’s longstanding activism on behalf of Palestinian rights was the draw — a remarkable development in the most Jewish city outside the Middle East. New York now is home to almost as many Muslims as Jews, according to estimates, and as the election has demonstrated, the city’s politics are changing dramatically.
“There’s a large swath of New Yorkers, particularly those that were showing up at these protests, who in 2025 were looking for something to latch on to, some sort of organized effort,” said Adam Carlson, a Democratic pollster. “There’s a lot of natural overlap between those groups, and I think that just fueled momentum.”
Now, as the city prepares to elect a new mayor on Tuesday night, the election has become a referendum of sorts on the Middle East, with some New Yorkers processing and expressing their feelings about Israel and the Palestinians through their vote for the next leader at City Hall. Mr. Mamdani and his top rival, former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, have made more appeals to voters on issues related to the future of Israel, the Palestinians, Gaza, the West Bank and Hamas more than any candidates in recent memory.
Mr. Mamdani stunned the city with his defeat of Mr. Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June. Just a few days later, the connection between the protest movement and Mr. Mamdani’s rise had its most powerful expression.
At a Manhattan performance by the comedian Ramy Youssef, Mr. Mamdani appeared arm-in-arm onstage with Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the Columbia University antiwar protests who had just been released from a federal immigration jail.
“I am excited about the possibility of raising my son in a city where you are mayor,” Mr. Khalil told him, The New Yorker reported.
Four months later, on the eve of the election, polls indicate Mr. Mamdani is likely to succeed.
His rise should cause the Democratic establishment to rethink its ardent support of Israel, said Representative Ro Khanna of California, who campaigned with Mr. Mamdani over the weekend. “I think the base still does not get how much anger there is at what took place in Gaza,” said Mr. Khanna.
He said Mr. Mamdani’s campaign appealed to a sense of “morality in our foreign policy.”
Some Jewish leaders have denounced Mr. Mamdani’s rhetoric about Israel, and a recent letter signed by more than 1,100 rabbis decried his role in the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.
Mr. Mamdani has denied accusations of antisemitism. Last week, he told ABC News, “I’m looking forward to being the mayor for every New Yorker, for every Jewish New Yorker.”
But some supporters of Israel say that Mr. Mamdani’s avowed anti-Zionism makes them fear he will not treat all New Yorkers equally.
Josh Kadden, 32, is the co-founder of the Nova Exhibit, which featured portraits and memorabilia of those killed by Hamas at a music festival in Israel on Oct. 7. Protesters gathered outside the exhibit in New York in June 2024, shouting “Long live the intifada” and lighting flares. One person was arrested, and visitors were forced to remain inside until the police dispersed the crowd. Mayor Eric Adams visited the exhibit the next day.
“If Mamdani was mayor, would he have acted so decisively?” Mr. Kadden asked. “Jewish people in this city need a mayor who is protective of them, and I am very concerned that this will not be a priority of Mamdani.”
Dan Senor, host of the “Call Me Back” podcast, which often focuses on U.S. foreign policy in Israel, worried that Mr. Mamdani could decline to support people and institutions with a connection to Israel — or those in New York who have served in the Israeli military, as most Israeli citizens are required to do. “There are large swaths of the city that could face discrimination at his hand, and at his discretion, based on his designation of which Jews are worthy of the city’s protections,” said Mr. Senor, 53, a strong supporter of Israel.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Mr. Mamdani has focused his message on the cost of living in New York City and has said less on the issue of Palestinian rights. Mr. Cuomo, by contrast, made a point on Monday of publicly expressing condolences to Long Island family of Omer Neutra, a captain in the Israel Defense Forces, whose remains were returned to Israel by Hamas for burial.
It is unlikely that Mr. Mamdani, as mayor, would have a significant impact on U.S. foreign policy, but that has made his position on Palestinian rights no less important to many in his base. For them, his advocacy gave him instant credibility.
“His moral consistency and his showing up for Palestinian rights played a really big role in activating and mobilizing a much bigger volunteer base than other candidates would usually get,” said Beth Miller, the political director for Jewish Voice for Peace Action.
For supporters, his position is not merely symbolic. “It matters,” said Tanzilan Nahar, who said she is in her 30s and who attended the rally with her toddler daughter. “He stands on the right side of history.”
Tahrima Shimo, also at the rally, said Mr. Mamdani’s public comments on Palestinian issues gave her confidence to speak out, especially when she feared consequences. “He let us be more open and less scared of what was happening around us,” said Ms. Shimo, 27. “Because he did it, we’re able to.”
In most cities, international diplomacy might not factor into local politics, but it often has in New York.
At a debate before the Democratic mayoral primary in June, the moderator asked which country the candidates would first visit after being elected. Three answered that they would visit Israel or “the Holy Land,” before Mr. Mamdani replied that he would remain in New York to govern.
The Democratic Socialists of America, which counts Mr. Mamdani among its members, is ready to brainstorm policies. On its Sunday schedule was a meeting of its “NYC Palestine Policy Committee,” to “iron out policies that the anti-war working group membership would like to see implemented at the municipal level,” according to the D.S.A.’s website.
A New York mayor who is concerned about Palestinian rights can assert influence beyond the city limits, said Ms. Miller, of Jewish Voice for Peace Action. A mayor can cut off the city’s financial and cultural ties to the Israeli government and be more accommodating to protesters, she said.
“The New York City mayor can play a huge role in how people who speak out for Palestinian rights here in this city are treated,” she said.
The son of a Columbia University college professor and a filmmaker, Mr. Mamdani moved with his parents to New York when he was 7 years old and was raised amid dinner-table discussion of global affairs, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The struggle for Palestinian liberation was at the core of my politics and continues to be,” Mr. Mamdani said in an August 2023 keynote speech to the Democratic Socialists of America convention.
In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Israeli military retaliation, Mr. Mamdani was a consistent voice of protest, at rallies and on social media.
In September 2024, a month before announcing his candidacy, he joined protests of a speech at the United Nations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Later, in an appearance on “Democracy Now,” he connected his antiwar stance with his philosophy of leading the city.
New Yorkers, he said, need a politician who “meets their needs as opposed to telling them there isn’t enough money for you here for everything you need to live a dignified life, but we have enough to kill children abroad.”
To Sumaya Awad, a Palestinian New Yorker who is a writer, organizer and member of New York’s chapter of the D.S.A., that argument has been energizing.
“Zohran was able to tie together that when we say we want to tax the rich, when we say billionaires should not be making a profit at the expense of the blood and sweat of New York workers, that part of standing for those values is standing up against a genocide,” she said.
Imam Muhammad Shahidullah, a community activist who organizes interfaith programing for Muslim and Jewish children, said that Mr. Mamdani’s appeal is far-ranging. When Mr. Mamdani visited with the imam’s community to celebrate Ramadan, “he came to support Muslims, he came to support immigrants, he came to support Palestinian rights,” Mr. Shahidullah said. “He provided many different windows for people to connect through.”
But for many voters, Mr. Mamdani’s position on Palestinian rights was key. Mr. Bathla said this was clear back in January, when he was canvassing for Mr. Mamdani, then a virtual unknown.
He knocked on a door of a woman in her mid-20s. “The first question out of her mouth was, ‘What’s his stance on Palestine?’”
Mr. Bathla said that he has been asked this question before, when volunteering for centrist Democrats. “This was the first time in my political experience where I had a good answer,” he said.
Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.
Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City.
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