New York’s newly elected Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, addressed an enthusiastic crowd at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater on Tuesday, following his decisive victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican contender Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani acknowledged that his support base comprises progressive, working-class voters, immigrants, and people of color who feel disconnected from the current Democratic Party.

He assured the audience that change is on the horizon for New York City politics, promising a government that more accurately represents and serves its diverse population.

“This new era will be characterized by a blend of competence and compassion—qualities that have often been considered mutually exclusive,” Mamdani stated in his victory speech. “We will demonstrate that no issue is too big for the government to tackle, nor any concern too small to matter.”

He continued, “For too long, City Hall has served only those who could return the favor. Come January 1, we will inaugurate a city government committed to serving everyone.”

Mamdani managed to mobilize more than 100,000 volunteers to knock on over 3 million homes in 273 New York neighborhoods while campaigning.

The ground-zero canvassing effort pulsed through the city, sending shockwaves to traditionalist politicians who slammed his plans of creating city-run grocery stores, free childcare and free transportation.

Still, Mamdani said his administration will chart the “most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost of living crisis,” invoking socialist predecessors Eugene Debs and Fiorello Henry La Guardia in his acceptance speech. 

“We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small,” the Democratic socialist promised.

“Indeed, New York will remain a city of immigrants. A city built by immigrants, a city powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, a city led by an immigrant.

“So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,” he added. 

Amid the White House’s increased immigration raids, Mamdani has railed against removals and promised to do so while in office with an iron fist, pointing to the strength of his base at the polls. 

“Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni Bodega owners and Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses, Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties, yes aunties,” he told supporters.

“To every New Yorker in Kensington and Midwood and Hunts Point, know this city is your city, and this democracy is yours too.”