Overview
- Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, is on the ballot today against independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
- New features in the day’s profiles connect his platform on housing, transit and economic equality to his upbringing by scholar Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair.
- Mahmood Mamdani’s 2025 book Slow Poison argues Uganda’s post‑colonial power structures shaped the violence of Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni, drawing a harsh Wall Street Journal critique and a contrasting contextual reading in The New Yorker.
- Pro‑Israel advocacy scrutiny has intensified, with Canary Mission listing both parents, Nair publicly declining a 2013 Haifa festival invitation over Israeli policies, and Mahmood defending Columbia protesters during 2024 Gaza teach‑ins.
- Biographical details featured in the coverage note Mamdani was born in Kampala in 1991, moved to New York in 1999, and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, with his parents acknowledging their influence on his politics even as they differ on its extent.