Writer

As mayoral front runner Zohran Mamdani heads toward a historic victory, one key question looms: Will he take his compelling values-driven campaign into City Hall?
There are multiple ways to govern. One radical approach, befitting a record-breaking candidacy, is to organize an administration around the principles that powered his campaign. His top initiatives are clear: freeze the rent, no cost childcare, fast free buses. Voters heard him talk consistently about affordability, making clear his first priority. Two other principles emerged in the campaign’s spirit – belonging and community. These promises are the ABCs of the Mamdani administration, the values we see reflected in his answers, his messaging and his record.

“After the President of the United States, the Mayor of New York City is the second most visible job in America. Now, Indian American Zohran Mamdani holds the title. Winning over 50 per cent of the vote in a decisive election powered by South Asians, young people, and fed-up New Yorkers, the 34-year-old Mamdani has helped rekindle faith in American democracy. In the same year that the Trump administration force-fed stories of hate and fear, the Mamdani campaign reminded the city that joy and unity can prevail.”

“America is us, and we are America. No matter how intolerable our presence is to many, we are here to stay.”

“Arti had neatly folded a new-to-her Valentino sweater, handed down from her mother-in-law, into the suitcase when her phone buzzed frantically on the bed. The kids’ school. How did these folks have time to call her on the last day before break, she wondered as she let it go to voicemail?”

“From unfulfilled racial-justice pledges to unionizing nonprofits, the pressures on woman leaders like me aren’t letting up. Donors need to recognize that and invest in our physical and mental health.”

“It is painful to hear Vice President Harris, a child of immigrants, feel the need to say in her acceptance speech that she will be 'a president for all Americans.”

“The ritualistic goodbye curated by the college meant that all of us — students and families — exited a large gym at the same time onto grassy lawns, teary-eyed. Once again, I could deflect, observing and absorbing the emotions of other families and children. Many would be separated by thousands of miles; thankfully, we were only a two-hour drive away. We held each other, my husband, teenager, and I, and whispered our reassurances that we would see each other soon and were ready for this phase.”

“Mobilizing multiple identities is a key strategy for what I term New Majority candidates. These candidates successfully deploy their ethnic identity through community outreach, personal story and mobilizing donors from the community, but also engage with mainstream media, likely voters from different constituency groups, and political parties.”

“I have seen firsthand how the United States can unroll a welcome mat or erect a spiked gate for immigrants. My own story includes encounters with both these sides of America.”

"To pretend that the targeting of Asian Americans is not a symptom of the same illness that results in Latinos being profiled by immigration authorities and Black people being hunted by police is to be complicit in the mythology of America as an inclusive country."

“Our white Founding Fathers designed a government that would work for them and their peers. And we have a lot of work to do to get to a government that looks like, and works for, Americans today.”

“...though I had chosen to slow down, I would sometimes panic about how being a less visible leader would affect my future finances and career opportunities.”

“Performing Whiteness denies who we are as women of color — hearing our names bungled, seeing our stories denied or whitewashed, hiding our truths from shame or fear — all of this eats away at our core.”