You seem to be conflating the margin between the winner and the next candidate with an overwhelming majority of people all feeling the same way. The former is a mandate, the latter is just being the least disliked.
And remember, the day after the election last year people thought Trump had gotten a majority of the popular vote. But then, once absentee ballots were counted he fell just shy of it. This morning there was still 9% of the vote uncounted in NYC, so it’s not unlikely here also Mamdani will have a plurality rather than majority.
You are confusing a 2-way race with a 3-way race. Mamdani could've won with a lot less than 50% (since there was no ranked choice - and even if it was, I doubt any Sliwa voter would have given Cuomo any 2nd place votes).
The fact that he cleared 50% in a 3-way race is itself a mandate.
> The fact that he cleared 50% in a 3-way race is itself a mandate.
Most people would not agree with this.
To put it another way, he is leading a city where a majority or close to a majority did not support his candidacy. A mandate is when a large majority of the people you are leading supported your rise to leadership and you are no leading with their approval.
>To put it another way, he is leading a city where a majority or close to a majority did not support his candidacy. A mandate is when a large majority of the people you are leading supported your rise to leadership and you are no leading with their approval.
No. A majority supported his candidacy. In case you're confused about that, a "majority" is more than 50%. Mamdani received more than 50% of the vote despite something like 40-60 million dollars in attack ads making all sorts of unsubstantiated claims and outright lies about him, his policies and his background.
His victory with a majority is not in question, is it? How, exactly do elections work here? The person with the most votes wins. Full stop. Are you making some sort of claim that such is not the case. If so, where's your proof?
I'd also note that Mamdani's margin of victory (~8.5%) is right in line (with a few exceptions) with margins going back decades.[2]
Mamdani was, by far, the best candidate in the race. HIs opponents being a handsy, disgraced serial sexual harasser, a bribe taking incumbent who oversaw the most corrupt mayoral administration in decades and a media clown whose claim to fame was that he used to ride the subways at night with his gang and beat up random strangers.
As such, who should we have voted for in your opinion?
Actually, if you don't actually live in NYC, we don't care what your opinion might be. We don't tell you how to vote in your local elections, so mind your own damn business!
All that said, are you claiming that Mamdani should not be allowed to become mayor? Do you claim that his election somehow illegitimate?
Shall we, as some have suggested, strip Mamdani of his citizenship and deport him[0][1] as well?
Huh?
Trump v. Harris (2024) [0]
Trump: 49.8%, Harris: 48.3%
Margin: 1.5%
Mamdani v. Cuomo vs. Sliwa (2025) [1]
Mamdani: 50.4%, Cuomo: 41.6%, Sliwa: 7.1%
Margins:
Mamdani v. Cuomo: 9.8%
Mamdan v. Sliwa: 40.7%
how is that even remotely comparable?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidentia...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_City_mayoral_ele...
Edit: Fixed formatting.