What Zohran Mamdani Is Up Against

"According to the New York City Department of Records and Information Services, Zohran Mamdani will not actually be the city's hundred-and-eleventh mayor, as many people have assumed. A historian named Paul Hortenstine recently came across references to a previously unrecorded mayoral term served in 1674, by one Matthias Nicolls. Consequently, on New Year's Day, after Mamdani places his right hand on the Quran and is sworn in at City Hall, he will become our hundred-and-twelfth mayor-or possibly even our hundred-and-thirty-third,"

"New York City has already had youthful mayors (John Purroy Mitchel, a.k.a. the Boy Mayor), ideological mayors (Bill de Blasio), celebrity mayors (Jimmy Walker, a.k.a. Beau James), idealistic mayors (John Lindsay), hard-charging mayors (Fiorello LaGuardia), mayors with little to no prior experience in elected office (Michael Bloomberg), immigrant mayors (Abe Beame), and even one who supported the Democratic Socialists of America. (That would be David Dinkins.)"

"Whether Mamdani turns out to be a good or a bad mayor, he will also not be alone in either respect. He will, however, be the city's first Muslim mayor, and the first with family roots in Asia. He is as avowedly of the left as any mayor in city history. And the velocity of his rise to power is the fastest that anyone in town can recall."

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services identified a previously unrecorded 1674 mayoral term by Matthias Nicolls, altering the city's mayoral count. Zohran Mamdani will therefore be sworn in as the city's hundred-and-twelfth mayor, or possibly later renumbered to as many as the hundred-and-thirty-third, depending on further findings. Mamdani will be the city's first Muslim mayor and the first with family roots in Asia. He rose rapidly to victory over former governor Andrew Cuomo and is preparing for governing responsibilities while attempting to maintain the movement energy and inventive outreach that propelled his campaign.

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