Zohran Mamdani a ‘fresh voice’ in biggest US city: 'Republicans have a formidable foe' - McNamee

Zohran Mamdani was elected as the youngest mayor ever of the United States' biggest city, New York. 

The 34-year-old was born in Uganda to renowned academic, Mahmood Mamdani, and actress, Mira Nair.

The family migrated to Cape Town when he was five years old and then to the US when he was seven, settling in New York City.

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Mamdani was virtually unknown until 2022, says Dr Terrence McNamee, geopolitics specialist and senior fellow at the Montreal Institute for Global Security.

"He didn’t really have a proper job until he became an assemblyman, and then he developed a profile within local politics. He emerged as this extraordinarily gifted communicator, a voice of the progressive left."

McNamee added that Mambani’s election was significant due to New York’s unique dynamic and the current state of the Democratic Party.

"We can’t underestimate just how gifted a political communicator he is. He is very much a fresh voice. He is also very much a child of a party that is very much fragmented and fractionalised," he says.

"I think they [the Republicans] have got a really formidable foe in Mamdani."

To listen to McNamee in conversation with 702 and CapeTalk’s Mandy Wiener, click below: