The Electoral War for New York’s Immigrant Neighborhoods in 2025

(NEW YORK, UNITED STATES) Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s 2025 mayoral race after building an electoral map anchored in immigrant neighborhoods, defeating Andrew Cuomo and becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor. Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and state assemblymember from Queens, carried every borough except Staten Island and finished the night with over one million votes, a feat not reached since John V. Lindsay in 1969.

The victory reflects a decisive shift in the city’s politics, with younger voters and multi-ethnic communities driving turnout in numbers not seen in half a century. More than 2 million ballots were cast in the general election, the highest total in 50 years, and Mamdani rolled up strong margins across the city: he beat Cuomo by 10 points in Manhattan, 20 in Brooklyn, 11 in the Bronx, and 5 in Queens. Staten Island went for Cuomo, who ran as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary.

Mamdani’s coalition took shape months earlier in the June Democratic primary, where immigrant neighborhoods—defined as areas where more than half of residents are foreign-born—delivered him a crucial edge. An estimated 122,811 people voted in those precincts, representing 11.4% of the 1.07 million primary voters, and Mamdani led Cuomo in those areas by 6.9%, matching his citywide lead. That early pattern hardened across the summer and fall, turning the mayoral race into a contest for the loyalties of immigrant communities in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx.

South Asian enclaves were the strongest backbone of Mamdani’s support. In Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Ozone Park, he beat Cuomo by more than a 60-point margin in some districts. The gains extended into East Asian communities as well: Mamdani outperformed Cuomo in Flushing, Sunset Park, and Manhattan’s Two Bridges. Cuomo, emphasizing his Italian-American roots and a “law and order” message, found more traction in Caribbean neighborhoods in East Flatbush and among Russian and Central Asian communities in South Brooklyn.

The general election rematch shifted the ground even further. After losing much of the Bronx to Cuomo in the primary, Mamdani regained momentum and carried the borough in November by an 11-point margin, a sharp reversal from his 18-point loss there earlier in the year. In Brooklyn’s Brownsville—one of the city’s most economically deprived areas—Cuomo had previously won the primary by 40 points, but Mamdani flipped the neighborhood in the general election and won by 18 points.

At his victory party, the new mayor encouraged supporters to see the campaign’s promises as a plan for governing.

“Together, New York, we’re going to freeze the…”
he said, drawing the crowd into a call-and-response. “Rent!”
“Together, New York, we’re going to make buses fast and…”
“Free!”
“Together, New York, we’re going to deliver universal…”
“Childcare!”
The message echoed a platform focused squarely on affordability: a rent freeze for 2.5 million rent-stabilized residents, fast and free buses, city-owned grocery stores, universal childcare from six weeks old, and affordable housing.

Mamdani thanked the network of volunteers and allies who fueled his rise.

“Let the words we’ve spoken together, the dreams we’ve dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together,”
he told supporters. That organizing muscle came in part from the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which mobilized 104,400 volunteers who, by campaign estimates, knocked on 3 million doors across the city. The scale of that ground game helped him consolidate support in immigrant neighborhoods while bringing out young and first-time voters in large numbers.

Turnout among younger voters was strikingly high, and the returns showed it. Exit data indicated that 78% of voters aged 18 to 29 backed Mamdani, including 84% of women in that age group. The generational tilt aligned with the geography of his vote: younger, more diverse areas with large shares of foreign-born residents centered his advantage in the outer boroughs and parts of northern Manhattan. Mamdani won 51% of voters identifying with “other racial/ethnic” groups, compared to 39% for Cuomo.

The speed and scale of the shift surprised some political veterans. John Mollenkopf, a political science professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, called it a watershed moment.

“This is a real breakthrough for the rising immigrant communities of New York City,”
he said, noting that Latino voters in Washington Heights who had leaned toward Trump in 2024 shifted to Mamdani in 2025. The pattern, he added, suggested that the cost-of-living crisis and transit concerns had become central tests for city candidates, cutting across old partisan lines and neighborhood loyalties.

Cuomo’s base held in parts of the city that have often favored centrists. Staten Island gave him his strongest showing, and he carried wealthy sections of Manhattan, including the Upper East Side, Tribeca, and Midtown. Religious voting patterns also worked in his favor: he won among Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. Mamdani dominated among voters with no religious affiliation or with “other” religions, reflecting the broader demographic reshaping of New York’s electorate and the pull of a platform that placed affordability and public services at the center.

Campaign messages showed those contrasts clearly. Cuomo’s closing argument stressed experience and public order, while Mamdani leaned into the affordability squeeze gripping renters, commuters, and parents trying to secure childcare. The promise to freeze rents for the city’s 2.5 million rent-stabilized residents became a rallying cry in immigrant neighborhoods where overcrowding and rising prices have strained household budgets for years. The pledge for fast and free buses resonated along transit corridors in Queens and Brooklyn, where long commutes and slow routes remain daily burdens. City-owned grocery stores and universal childcare from six weeks old were framed as direct relief for working-class families across the outer boroughs.

Those messages were amplified by the grassroots network that helped carry Mamdani through the primary and into the fall. Volunteers canvassed aggressively in immigrant neighborhoods where turnout has long lagged. In Jackson Heights, Bengali and Nepali families opened living rooms to phone banks and tea-fueled meetups; in Flushing and Sunset Park, volunteers circulated translated flyers explaining the ballot and polling sites; in South Brooklyn, organizers targeted apartment towers where tenant groups were already active. That infrastructure mattered as the campaign sought to reverse Cuomo’s primary gains in parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn and to shore up support in Queens, where Mamdani’s political base sits.

The race unfolded against a backdrop of rising living costs that have pushed housing, transport, and food higher on the city’s political agenda. City Hall will now face immediate pressure to translate campaign promises into policy. Rent rules affect millions of families; bus policy depends on coordination with the MTA; city-owned grocery stores would test procurement and distribution systems; universal childcare from six weeks old raises staffing, facility, and funding questions. Supporters say the scale of the mandate points toward bold action. Critics will likely press the new administration on costs and timelines, and point to the delicate balance of city budgets and state oversight.

For immigrant neighborhoods, the stakes are tangible. Households in Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Ozone Park that backed Mamdani by lopsided margins are looking for relief from rising rents and steep childcare bills. Bus riders in Flushing and Sunset Park want faster routes and predictable schedules. Tenant associations in Two Bridges and Brownsville, where Mamdani flipped a 40-point primary deficit into an 18-point general election win, expect aggressive action on affordability and housing quality.

At street level, the campaign felt different from recent city elections. Kadir Gaurab, a yellow cabbie, put the mood bluntly after the results landed.

“Zohran has the same expectation [to deliver] of a Tom Brady, a LeBron James, a Aaron Rodgers. He’s a historic figure.”
The comment captured the mixture of hope and pressure surrounding a mayor-elect who channeled frustrations over cost of living into a citywide coalition. In immigrant-heavy neighborhoods where taxi drivers, home health aides, delivery workers, and small business owners share crowded buses and crowded apartments, those expectations now sit with City Hall.

Mamdani’s path to victory also ran through complicated local divides. While he dominated in South Asian and East Asian communities, Cuomo’s showings in Caribbean parts of East Flatbush and in Russian and Central Asian enclaves in South Brooklyn underlined the heterogeneity of immigrant politics. That patchwork posed challenges in the primary—especially in the Bronx, where Mamdani underperformed—but in the general election his campaign stitched together a broader multi-ethnic coalition. The late swing in the Bronx, turning an 18-point primary loss into an 11-point win, signaled that a pocketbook pitch could shift long-standing loyalties when backed by aggressive organizing.

The final map resembled a generational wave as much as a leftward one. Younger voters, who powered turnout in many immigrant neighborhoods, swung hard for the new mayor. Campaign data showed staggering margins among voters aged 18 to 29, with 78% backing Mamdani and 84% of women in that group supporting him. Those figures, along with the over one million votes he amassed citywide, underscored the scale of the mandate his team claims on cost-of-living issues.

On policy, the administration will be judged quickly. Tenants and transit riders will watch for movement on a rent freeze and bus service. Parents and caregivers will look for a timeline on universal childcare from six weeks old. The idea of city-owned grocery stores, pitched as a way to stabilize prices and ensure access in food deserts, will face logistical tests. Even supporters acknowledge that delivering these pledges will require coordination across agencies and, in some cases, cooperation with state authorities in Albany.

Cuomo, for his part, emerges with a base that remains powerful in parts of the city. His wins in Staten Island, on the Upper East Side, in Tribeca, and in Midtown Manhattan kept the race competitive and ensured that questions about public safety and quality of life will shape debates in the months ahead. Religious voting patterns suggest a continued divide: while Cuomo won among Catholics, Jews, and Protestants, Mamdani’s coalition was strongest among voters with no religious affiliation or those identifying with “other” religions. How those differences play out in policy fights over policing, housing, and social services will define the early battles of the new administration.

The political meaning of the result is already taking shape. Analysts and community leaders describe the outcome as a mandate to address the cost-of-living crisis, defend immigrants, and oppose Trump-era policies that many voters in immigrant neighborhoods saw as threats to their families and livelihoods. The map of the mayoral race, with sweeping wins across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, and only Staten Island siding with Cuomo, reflects a new balance in city politics—one that puts immigrant communities at the center of the city’s future.

For voters who flocked to the polls in record numbers, the test now is delivery. Mamdani’s supporters say the clarity of the platform—rent relief, faster and free buses, universal childcare, affordable housing—gives the city a straightforward agenda. Skeptics warn that the details will be hard, and that the next budget cycle will reveal the limits of the city’s finances. The mayor-elect’s backers counter that the same volunteer army that knocked on 3 million doors can also mobilize to back legislation, press agencies, and keep momentum going in Albany and at City Hall.

What is certain, for now, is the scale of the political transformation. As John Mollenkopf put it,

“This is a real breakthrough for the rising immigrant communities of New York City.”
The neighborhoods that rallied to Zohran Mamdani—South Asian sections of Queens, East Asian districts in Queens and Brooklyn, immigrant-heavy blocks in Manhattan and the Bronx—have not just shaped a single election. They have redrawn the coalitions that drive power in the city, and they will expect to see those promises kept.

The official certification of results is handled by the New York City Board of Elections. But the political verdict is already etched across the city’s map: in immigrant neighborhoods from Jackson Heights to Sunset Park and in diverse corners of Manhattan and the Bronx, voters powered a coalition that carried a first-time citywide candidate to an unmistakable win in a hard-fought mayoral race.