Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani officially won the Democrat primary for New York City mayor on Tuesday after the city’s Board of Elections released ranked-choice voting tabulations.
The results show New York State Assembly Member Mamdani, 33, increased his lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 56 percent to 44 percent.
“The contest only went to three rounds because the nine other candidates besides Mamdani and Cuomo were axed following the second round under what is known as batch elimination, in which two or more candidates can be dropped at the same time if their first choice votes combined is less than those for the candidates immediately ahead of them,” amNY reported.
Mamdani received 543,344 votes from ranked-choice voting, which is the highest amount of votes a Democrat mayoral primary winner has received in 36 years, according to the report. More than one million New Yorkers voted in the primary, also marking the highest turnout since the 1989 election.
Mamdani additionally surpassed Mayor Eric Adams’ 7,000-vote ranked choice victory in 2021 over then-city Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.
“I am humbled by the support of more than 545,000 New Yorkers who voted for our campaign and am excited to expand this coalition even further as we defeat Eric Adams and win a city government that puts working people first,” Mamdani said in a statement.
The official results confirm a projected victory from Election Day on June 24, when Mamdani maintained a significant lead over Cuomo in first-round votes and Cuomo conceded the race. In November, Mamdani will face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who was first elected as a Democrat and is running again as an independent, as well as Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent attorney Jim Walden.
The Board of Elections said it could not provide a detailed breakdown of how votes were transferred between candidates until all ballots have been certified. The board will continue to tabulate ranked-choice votes each week until all absentee and affidavit votes have been counted and certified, according to the report.
A spokesperson for Cuomo did not eliminate the possibility of his running in the general election as an independent.
“Extremism, division and empty promises are not the answer to this city’s problems, and while this was a look at what motivates a slice of our primary electorate, it does not represent the majority,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said, per the outlet. “The financial instability of our families is the priority here, which is why actionable solutions, results and outcomes matter so much. We’ll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps.”
