🌙🏛️ From Polling at 1% to City Hall: Zohran Mamdani is Now the Mayor of New York City. Alhamdulillah!

Less than a year ago I watched him speak to a room that barely noticed him. Months later, he’s Mayor of New York City - and maybe the most popular political figure in America.

Last night, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as Mayor of New York City. And I’m telling you—watching it, I kept thinking about a moment less than a year ago on Long Island that still makes me laugh out loud. I was the keynote speaker at a gathering of about 1,000 Muslims, mostly from Southeast Asia, and Zohran was there—so unknown his campaign manager told me they had to beg for him to even be let into the event. At the time he was polling around 1%, running against the sitting mayor and the former governor, and most people in that room didn’t just think winning was unlikely—they thought not getting blown out was the best-case scenario.

Before I take you inside what happened last night—and why it matters—please become a member today. I keep this work free for the world—for readers in Gaza, for students in public schools, for families living in deep poverty, for elders on fixed incomes—because a smaller circle of people who can afford it chooses to carry the cost. Please click here to become a member and please click here to join as a monthly, annual, or founding member. Your support keeps this work free for them, and even for you when you can’t afford to pay.

Now let me tell you why that Long Island moment has been looping in my head all day.

Back then, Zohran spoke before me—just for a few minutes—and I swear to you, people were barely paying attention. Nobody rushed the stage to shake his hand. Nobody lined up for pictures. People looked at him the way people look at someone attempting the impossible—with pity. It’s hilarious now, but it’s also a lesson in how fast life can flip when God opens a door.

And then last night came.

Zohran was sworn in just after the New Year’s Eve ball drop, in a private ceremony held in the abandoned old City Hall subway station—that gorgeous, shuttered relic with tiled arches and chandeliers, tucked underneath the city like buried history. Letitia James administered the oath. Zohran placed his left hand on two Qurans held by his wife, Rama Duwaji—one Quran belonging to his grandfather, the other belonging to Arturo Schomburg, the Black historian whose name is literally carved into the memory of Harlem and Black intellectual life. Then Zohran raised his right hand and took the oath.

That’s not just optics. That’s a statement.

It’s a statement about who belongs.
It’s a statement about what New York is.
It’s a statement about who this city is for.

And it is the kind of symbol that hits differently in December of 2025, when America is living through a moral and political storm under Trump, and when so many people—especially Muslims—have been told in a hundred different ways that they should shrink, soften, and stay quiet.

Zohran did the opposite. He ran forward.

Zohran won because voters trust him. His rise was a yearlong catapult powered by charm, social media savvy, and an unrelenting focus on affordability. That’s the part that matters most to ordinary New Yorkers. Not a thousand ideological debates. The rent. Child care. Buses. Survival. Dignity.

And that brings me back to that Long Island room.

Because I’ve been in rooms like that my whole life. I’ve been in rooms where a person is standing right in front of you carrying something historic—and people can’t see it yet. Not because they’re bad people, but because their imagination has been beaten down by disappointment.

That’s what cynicism does. It makes the future feel closed.

Zohran’s story is a reminder that the future is not closed.

It’s also a reminder that politics is not always a straight line. Sometimes it’s a door. Sometimes it’s a moment. Sometimes it’s a wave that looks small until it suddenly becomes the ocean.

Zohran is the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor. His private swearing-in was intentionally intimate—around 20 people—before the public inauguration on the steps of City Hall. That public ceremony is expected to include Bernie Sanders administering a ceremonial oath and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making opening remarks.

In other words: this isn’t just a new mayor. This is a signal that a new kind of coalition is willing to step into power in the biggest city in America.

And I know what some people will say right now. They will say, “Okay, but can he govern?” They will say, “New York is brutal.” They will say, “The police will fight him.” They will say, “The budget is massive.” They will say, “The city is unforgiving.”

All true.

But here’s what I refuse to do: I refuse to let the hard questions become a way to dismiss the miracle of the moment.

Because for Muslims in New York—especially the working-class Muslims I stood with on Long Island—this is not just a politician winning. This is an entire generation being told: you can belong here without shrinking.

And if you’re not Muslim reading this, let me say it another way: when a city chooses a leader who makes affordability and dignity the center of the agenda, that doesn’t just help Muslims. That helps working people. That helps families. That helps the poor. That helps immigrants. That helps the people who keep the city running but rarely get treated like the city is theirs.

And there’s another layer here that’s worth saying plainly.

Zohran’s story is also a rebuke to the propaganda industry that tells Muslims they can only be accepted if they are silent, grateful, and harmless. It’s a rebuke to the Islamophobes who have tried to make “Muslim” synonymous with “threat.” It’s a rebuke to the cynics who insist power is permanently locked.

None of that means Zohran will get everything right. No human being does.

But it does mean that the people who have been told to stay out of the river just became the current.

And yes, it still makes me laugh thinking about that Long Island event. Because I remember the vibe. I remember the lack of attention. I remember the “aww” energy. I remember the way his team was just trying to survive the day and get a few handshakes.

Now he’s the Mayor.

If you want a practical lesson from that, it’s this: don’t trust the room’s energy as a measurement of destiny. People don’t always recognize history when it’s standing right in front of them.

So I’m celebrating this moment with gratitude and a little holy laughter. And I’m also saying a prayer.

May God protect him from the poison that lives in power.
May God protect New York from the vultures who will try to sabotage any agenda that serves working people.
May God give him courage, humility, wisdom, and the ability to keep the poor at the center of his decisions.

Because if he does that, this won’t just be a symbolic victory. It will be a material one.

Family, if you want more storytelling like this—grounded, honest, and free for the world—please stand with me. Please click here to become a member and please click here to join as a monthly, annual, or founding member. I’m committing full-time to this work in 2026—articles, podcasts, and video—and I want you in that circle as we build it the right way.

Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun

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