The election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City sent social media timelines into a joyous uproar. Voters turned out in droves, and the internet celebrated the 34-year-old’s win with memes and jokes.
The moment felt distinctly celebratory, as many outside of New York City celebrated the liberal city's grassroots win in an important mayoral race.
Who is Zohran Mamdani, and how did the NYC mayoral race unfold?
As of the 2025 elections, Zohran Mamdani became the city’s first Muslim mayor, its first South Asian mayor, and the youngest mayor in more than a century. He isn't in office yet, however: the lawmaker from Astoria will be sworn in officially on Jan 1, 2026. Mamdani will be the city’s 111th mayor.
As a progressive outsider, Mamdani challenged entrenched party structures and, in mediating between identity and class politics, tapped into a moment of change in the Democratic Party. Cuomo, who originally lost the Democratic primary election to Mamdani earlier this year, chose to run as an Independent.
Mamdani initially launched his campaign with almost no name recognition and limited funds. Yet he prevailed in the race against former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, securing roughly 50.4% of the vote to Cuomo’s roughly 42%, according to The Times.
He had run on broad-based issues that are important to many New Yorkers, such as affordable housing, free city buses, and universal childcare. He appealed especially to younger voters and working-class communities, who have been hurt the hardest by rising prices in an already-expensive city.
27 of the best memes and jokes about Mamdani's mayoral win
As soon as the election results were announced, folks on social media turned to humour to make sense of and celebrate the historic moment. Memes emerged referencing Mamdani’s age, his background as a democratic socialist, and his rise from low-profile contender to victorious mayor-elect.
Many posts riffed on the surprise of the win, Republicans trying to diss Mamdani's background, and the notion that the city, as well as the country as a whole, is reenergized with his win.
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Ted Cruz tweeted, "This seems like an easy one, New York City. 🫠" with a faux ballot with two options: "A Democrat: just a Democrat" and "An actual communist Jihadist: a literal Karl Marx-quoting America-hating Jihadist."
X user @feraljokes filled in the second option's voting circle with a "Hell yeah" in his tweet.
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When Mamdani found out mid-voting that former Vice President Dick Cheney had passed, his reaction was not what many expected. @flackospalace tweeted, "He did not give a FUCK LMFAOOOOO."
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@Geiger_Capital tweeted, "Realizing that the US political landscape is accelerating into Nationalism vs Communism."
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@banhmigoddess joked, "Inshallah we will turn every Blank Street Coffee location in Manhattan into a Qahwah House." She added in a follow-up tweet, "ok so i am finding out that Blank Street was co-founded by two Muslims and also i really like their salted pistachio matcha. so maybe let's do Starbucks instead."
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@laugh_track_nat posted a TikTok video of a woman smiling and gesturing for cars to turn and wrote, "Me directing traffic for all the people who said they would leave NY if Mamdani won."
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@kendallhosseini wrote, "seeing mamdani win while living across the country from nyc."
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