Yashica Dutt writes:

A day before Zohran Mamdani won the general election and became the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor of New York, the city felt alive in ways it had not for a long time. New Yorkers everywhere were already calling him their mayor. At a campaign event where Mamdani had met with night-shift workers at LaGuardia Airport and traveled to Jackson Heights to serve them food, an editor of a Bangla-language newspaper presented him with an edition to be published the following week, announcing Mamdani as the first Muslim mayor of New York. A day earlier, Mamdani had visited the same street on Fordham Road in the Bronx where he had done his now-famous interview asking people why they had voted for Donald Trump a year ago. Unlike then, when many ignored him or simply walked away, this time Mamdani was swarmed by a crowd, many declaring him “our mayor.” On election night, at a corner of Midwood in Brooklyn, Pakistani New Yorkers who had canvassed for Mamdani began celebrations with “dhol” (the double-headed South Asian drum) beats and dancing before the polls had even closed at 9 p.m.

In the week before the election, Mamdani met with voters at the East Asian grocery store H Mart in Long Island City, attended a South Asian-majority rally with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna in Jamaica, Queens, and watched a Buffalo Bills game with New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul in Astoria. He also distributed Halloween candy at Park Slope, practiced Tai Chi with seniors on the Lower East Side and visited several queer and Black- and Latino-majority nightclubs on the weekend before the election. Mamdani requested a track by trans pop star Kim Petras at a queer Latino party hosted at the popular electronic music venue Elsewhere and vibed to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” at the Afro-Caribbean spot Damballa from behind the DJ booth. At every event, people jostled to talk to Mamdani and take photos (at the Jamaica Queens rally, some attendees came close to tripping as the mass of people lurched forward after his speech).

The excitement around Mamdani in New York had been palpable (local New York City publication Hell Gate recently compared it to Beatlemania), fueled by his skyrocketing popularity, viral debate performances and multiple sightings across town. Mamdani sightings had become so ubiquitous that it led many online to wonder if they were the only ones left who hadn’t met him in person yet. Mamdani also seems to have unlocked a unique kind of celebrity, whereby his access and ubiquity further fuel the frenzy. In videos from clubgoers who witnessed Mamdani’s drop-ins on Saturday night, each of his appearances is met with wild cheers and enthusiasm. [Continue reading…]