New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani and two of his most prominent backers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, framed his election as a one-on-one battle versus President Donald Trump and his administration at a raucous rally in Queens on Sunday,
Speaker after speaker at Sunday’s rally, which drew thousands to a tennis stadium, said electing Mamdani would essentially serve as an opening salvo in a fight to take back the country from Trump and his allies.
“We gather here today at both a perilous moment for our country,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And on the precipice of hope for our city.”
She said electing Mamdani would “send a loud message” to Trump, adding that the forces opposing the New York state legislator in the election “mirrors what we are up against nationally,” condemning “an authoritarian, criminal presidency fueled by corruption and bigotry.”
“There was a day before his presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And there will be a day after.”
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, rallied supporters alongside Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez after early voting in the New York mayoral contest began on Saturday — and as less than 10 days remain until the Nov. 4 election. The rally was billed as “New York Is Not For Sale,” echoing framing Sanders has used in rallies he’s held across the country this year.
Taking the stage after Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, Mamdani talked up his improbable path to the Democratic nomination, saying that at one point was tied in polls with “someone else,” at 1%.
“Now as we stand on the precipice of taking this city back from corrupt politicians and the billionaires that fund them, let our words ring out so loud tonight that Andrew Cuomo can hear them in his $8,000-a-month apartment,” Mamdani said, adding he hoped Cuomo’s “puppet master in the White House” could hear them too.
“We climbed in the polls faster than Andrew Cuomo could dial Donald Trump’s number,” he added. “People began to be able to pronounce my name.”
Mamdani called for an end to “the era of government that deems an issue too small or a crisis too big.”
“Because we need a government that is every bit as ambitious as our adversaries,” he added. “A government strong enough to refuse the realities we will not accept and forge the future.”
“No longer will we allow the Republican Party to be the one of ambition,” he continued. “No longer will we have to open a history book to read about Democrats leading with big ideas. My friends, the world is changing. It’s not a question of whether that change will come. It’s a question of who will change it.”
Polling has consistently shown Mamdani, 34, with a 10- to 20-point advantage over Cuomo in the three-way general election, which also features Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Cuomo recently got an endorsement from New York Mayor Eric Adams, who like Cuomo was running as an independent before dropping out in September. Influential Republican figures in the city have also rallied to Cuomo over Sliwa, seeing him as having the best shot at defeating Mamdani.
“This election is taking place when we have an administration in Washington, which every day is moving us toward an authoritarian society, undermining our Constitution and the rule of law,” Sanders said in his address, adding, “The reason why this campaign has generated so much interest around the world and so much excitement is that people want to know the answer to one very simple question. And that is, in the year 2025 when the people on top have never, ever had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working-class people to come together and defeat those oligarchs? You’re damn right we can.”
Some Democratic leaders have been slow to rally behind Mamdani, the one-time activist in the Democratic Socialists of America who is running on a platform of freezing rent in the city’s rent-stabilized units, enacting universal childcare and providing free buses, among other plans. His unapologetically pro-Palestinian stance has also energized anti-Israel progressives amid the war in Gaza. At one point during warm-up speeches from progressive officials, the crowd began chanting “DSA, DSA, DSA,” during a call-and-response for the Democratic Socialists of America.
Speaking at Mamdani’s rally, New York state Sen. Julia Salazar talked up how many Democratic socialists have been elected in her state since her 2018 election and won loud applause when she decried “the genocide in Palestine.”
“And now we are on the verge of electing Zohran Mamdani to become our Democratic socialist mayor right here in the largest, greatest city in the country,” she said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani last month, praising his focus on affordability. So too, on Friday, did House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Hochul spoke at Sunday’s rally flanked by Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie, the Democratic leaders of the state Senate and state Assembly, respectively. Hochul took aim at Trump in her address, saying the president is “taking a wrecking ball to our very values, our people and our progress,” condemning ICE raids in New York, his handling of the government shutdown and the federal indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which Trump pushed prosecutors to pursue.
“If they can come after Tish James, they can come after any of us,” Hochul said.
She emphasized the need the three Democratic leaders have for Mamdani to be mayor in New York, calling for a fighter who will join them in pursuing their priorities.
“He doesn’t get out in the gutter with everybody else,” Hochul said. “He rises up with grace and courage and grit.”
The crowd at one point began chanting “tax the rich,” to which Hochul said, “I can hear you.”
“I’ve got one plea for you,” she said. “I love to see this energy and this passion. … I am so excited about what is going on here. … But take that energy, that passion, and take it into ‘26 so that we can take back the House of Representatives, so we can take back the Senate, and we can take back our country.”
Trump has sought to influence the race, condemning Mamdani as a “communist” and threatening to withhold additional federal funding from the city should Mamdani win. Mamdani in turn has promised to fight Trump’s efforts to kneecap the city and has positioned himself as the candidate most open to combating the president.
In his address, Mamdani noted that Trump won the presidency just days after he had announced his mayoral campaign. The Bronx and Queens saw some of the most significant shifts to the right of any counties in the country in Nov. 2024.
“No matter what article you read or channel you turned to, the stories seemed to be the same,” Mamdani said. “Our city was headed to the right. Obituaries were written about Democrats’ abilities to reach Asian voters, young voters, male voters. Again and again, we were told that if we had any hope of beating the Republican Party, it would only be by becoming the Republican Party.”
“Andrew Cuomo himself said that we had lost not because we had failed to speak to the needs of working-class Americans, but because we had spent too much time talking about bathrooms and sports teams,” Mamdani continued. “This was a moment where it seemed our political horizon was narrowing. And in this moment New York, you had a choice, a choice to retreat or to fight. … And the choice that we made was to stop listening to those experts and to start listening to you.”
The latest chapter in this heated mayoral race followed Mamdani’s emotional address Friday condemning the “racist, baseless” attacks he’s faced for his Muslim faith in recent days, including from his main rival in the race, he said. Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor in New York City history.
“And I thought that if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” Mamdani added, appearing to grow emotional. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”
Mamdani’s Friday speech followed a radio appearance Cuomo made on Thursday, in which the former governor appeared to agree with a conservative radio host who said that Mamdani would cheer if a terror attack happened in the city. A Cuomo campaign spokesperson later told NBC News the candidate did not agree with the radio host, and Cuomo said at a press conference that he thought the remark was “offensive.”
“Zohran himself is the person who has created the tension with the Jewish community and the LGBT community and the Italian community and the Black community, etc,” Cuomo said. “He is not the victim, he is the offender, and it’s a political tactic.”
At Mamdani’s Sunday rally, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who also ran for mayor in the June primary, talked up how Mamdani would “work to keep Jewish New Yorkers and all New Yorkers safe” and condemned anti-Islamic sentiment Mamdani has faced in recent weeks. Lander was among several Jewish and Muslim speakers who addressed the crowd on Sunday.
“Let me tell you something else,” Sanders said. “At a moment when Americans are extremely distressed about where we are as a nation, economically and politically, a victory here in New York will give hope and inspiration to people throughout our country and throughout the world.”
