The victory of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has drawn national and international attention, as he will be the first South Asian and Muslim mayor of New York City. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, made affordability a core issue of his campaign.
The reverberations of Mamdani’s surprising rise, after polling at 1% earlier this year, have been felt in the state’s capital as well. Mehak Jamil is a co-founder of the Albany Muslim Advocacy Coalition, an organization dedicated to empowering the Muslim community in the Capital Region. She says Mamdani’s win and visibility as a Muslim politician was an inspiration to the Coalition - in January, Mamdani was the keynote speaker at the coalition’s inaugural gala.
“Seeing the way he ran his campaign, even his election night party, from the music he chose to the language he used in his speech, it was all peppered with facets of his identity," she said. "That was really beautiful to see that there's somebody who is so true to himself despite all the disparaging attacks on him for being Muslim, for being South Asian, for being young, [or] for being progressive."
According to Jamil, the Albany Muslim Advocacy Coalition was founded in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza, which she said made her realize the lack of engagement the Albany Muslim community had with its elected representatives.
“AMAC came about as a result of the war in Gaza, the war in Palestine, and I think the Albany Muslim community had the same awakening that Muslim communities across the country had, which was, we have deliberately sat out of the civic process," she said. "And of course, there are systemic obstacles and systemic barriers that made it difficult for us to get involved, or broke our trust with the system. But there was also an active role that we played in it, which led to our ultimate disenfranchisement.”
Manik Elahi, president of the Albany County Young Democrats, also echoed Jamil’s sentiment, saying that Mamdani’s win was an indication of the power of a broad coalition.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani's win reflects the fact that not only is America diverse, but it is a coalition of people from all different walks of life, and that is the direction of inclusivity that we need to continue to be going towards,” he said.
Although Mamdani’s campaign was propelled by a broad coalition of voters, fellow elected officials and community leaders, he also faced an onslaught of Islamophobic rhetoric throughout his campaign, from fellow candidates and online. According to a report from South Asian civil rights organization Equality Labs, 500,000 of the 17.1 million mentions of Mamdani online across 12 online platforms from January through October 2025, referred to Mamdani as a “terrorist.”
Twelve days before election day, on Oct. 24, he spoke in front of a mosque in the Bronx about the impact these attacks had on him and Muslim New Yorkers in general.
“Islamophobia is not seen as inexcusable," he said. "One can incite violence against our mosques and know that condemnation will never come. Elected officials in this city can sell t-shirts calling for my deportation without any fear of accountability.” (ABC News)
Jamil said the speech resonated strongly with her, especially when two days after Mamdani’s speech, AMAC hosted a town hall on anti-Muslim hate and bias. The town hall was hosted in the Al-Hidaya Mosque in Latham, and Muslim community members offered testimonies of hatred they faced to State Senator Patricia Fahy and Assemblywoman Gabriella Romero.
Jamil believes the word “Islamophobia” is not strong enough to describe the rhetoric Mamdani and Muslims in public office face.
“I don't even think they're rooted in fear, you know, ‘Islamophobia,’ because I think that prioritizes the feelings of the oppressor over the victims, which is the Muslim community that's dealing with all of these attacks," she said. "I think that that whole tirade of anti-Muslim hate that was unleashed against him really opened up a frank conversation for us to have with our legislators here locally, because we've seen, obviously, not at the same scale of what's happening in New York City, but we've seen, we hear it from our students, we hear it from our workers.”
Dr. Niloufer Siddiqui, an associate professor of political science and researcher at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany, says Mamdani offered his electorate more than just what is called “descriptive representation.”
“By descriptive representation here, I'm thinking kind of narrowly about someone who belongs to your identity group being in a position of power," she said. "So in that case, you are seeing someone who looks and acts or sounds, or has a name similar to you in a position of power.”
Siddiqui said Mamdani has made himself unique in speaking to the concerns of marginalized communities in New York City, and his words are resonating with those who share his identity, especially Muslims who have faced hatred and bias post-9/11.
“Beyond what can this Muslim mayor offer me in access or [in] terms of goods and services, there is something I think resonant for a Muslim community that has often felt that their rights are not fully protected, right, or at least, at the very least, that they have not seen people who look like him or believe what they believe in important positions of power,” she said.
Although New York City has drawn the attention of many Muslims in Albany and across the country, Jamil hopes to take advantage of that attention and redirect it to elections and elected officials in the Capital Region.
“There's a lot of other really important races coming up as well at state levels and national levels across the country," she said. "I think it goes to show again, this awakening that the Muslim community across the country has had in the past two years, that we've got to show up. We've got to get involved.”
Albany also made history on election night, with the election of Dorcey Applyrs who will be the first Black person and woman of color to be mayor of the city of Albany. Elahi is a co-chair of Applyrs’ transition team, and says that her inclusive rhetoric should be an example for the Democratic party overall.
“What Mayor-elect Applyrs has done a phenomenal job of during not only her campaign, but now, how she's indicating how her governance style is going to be is one of inclusivity," he said. "She said this at her election night event as well, even if you didn't vote for her, she wants to hear from you. And I think that's the type of leadership that the Democratic Party really needs in this moment.”
Applyrs was also endorsed by the Albany Muslim Advocacy Coalition, and Jamil says that Albany’s mayoral race mirrored New York City’s.
“It's really just such a wonderful feeling to see that progressive Democrats won in both cities," she said. "Dorcey's election was no less historic as the first person of color and a woman at that in the mayoral seat in Albany. Dorcey is also somebody who I think has been so authentic to who she is. And there is something genuine about that that you just cannot replicate with all the money in the world, with all the consultants in the world, you cannot replicate that sincere authenticity.”
