Zohran Mamdani Beats Andrew Cuomo for NY Mayoral Bid—Without Abandoning Trans People

Trump wants to strip kids of life-saving care. Mamdani says he won’t let it happen.

Zohran Mamdani Official Account

New York City is buzzing with excitement this morning, as State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani—a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist and political upstart—has been declared the tentative winner of yesterday’s Democratic Primary, beating out former Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for mayor.

Given the size and scope of the election, plus the city’s ranked-choice voting system, formal vote-tallying will continue through next week. But the initial counts are not even close, and Cuomo told a press gaggle on election night: “Tonight is [Zohran’s] night. He deserved it. He won.” (A spokesperson for the campaign later told The New York Times, however, that it was not a “concession speech” per se.)

In contrast to some supposedly strategic pivots made by Democrats across the country, Mamdani’s apparent victory shows that—in the Big Apple, at least—a campaign built under a big tent works. Meanwhile, spending a political career (allegedly) sexually harassing women and courting rightwing anti-trans extremists fell flat with NYC voters.

Earlier this year, Mamdani told Erin in the Morning that he would fight for trans New Yorkers. “The company you keep says a lot about you — and Andrew Cuomo’s is anti-choice, anti-trans activists and billionaires,” he said. “At a time when Donald Trump is already stripping constitutional freedoms from our city’s residents, we need leaders with conviction, not cowardice.”

Mamdani is also the only mayoral candidate out of the crowded Democratic pool who appears to have participated in the protests against NYC hospitals complying in advance to Trump’s anti-trans health care legal threats.

“In light of Trump’s illegal executive order, the question is being asked: Who are we willing to give up?” Mamdani said in a February social media video, captured in the crowds of one such demonstration. “If you’re NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai, [New York] Presbyterian [Hospital] or Mayor Adams, the answer seems to be everyone. But for the rest of us, it's no one.”

Cuomo said he still may run as an independent, which would still make for a competitive general race alongside the GOP’s Curtis Sliwa and current Mayor Eric Adams, who will be also running as an independent. But Mamdani has energized young voters in the city, especially queer and trans young people.

He’s also gained endorsements from various LGBT organizations, as well as the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Attorney General Letitia James—one of the few state Attorneys General who took hospitals and clinics to task over the cessation of trans-affirming care.

Here’s what you need to know about Mamdani’s platform for LGBT rights.

1. He promises to invest $65 million in public providers of trans affirming care, to offset the federal funding withheld by the Trump Administration.

“The Mamdani Administration will budget $65 million in funding to explicitly support and expand access to Gender Affirming Care (GAC) in NYC,” his LGBT policy platform states. “It will direct $57 million to public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers, and nonprofits providing GAC. In the face of the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of federal support for GAC and his threats to care for adults, this infusion will protect GAC access for both transgender youth and adults.”

The remaining $8 million will be directed to improving the quality of health care through increased telehealth capabilities and a greater emphasis on aftercare and home health support for trans patients.

2. He vows to hold hospitals accountable if they unlawfully capitulate to Trump’s anti-trans demands in advance.

“Hospitals that continue to deny trans youth access to gender-affirming care are in violation of NYS Constitution, as well as multiple state and city laws,” the platform says. “The Mamdani administration will coordinate with the NYS Attorney General and District Attorneys to investigate and hold public hearings on hospitals that deny trans youth their rightful healthcare and hold them accountable to the law.”

3. He says he will make NYC an LGBT Sanctuary City, fortifying protections for trans youth, their families, and their providers.

As per his platform, this includes expanding the 2023 NY Safe Haven for Transgender Youth and Families Act and the 2019 NY Reproductive Health Act; protecting trans New Yorkers by ensuring that private information regarding one’s sex assigned at birth and healthcare will not be shared with other jurisdictions; and safeguarding trans-affirming health care providers from federal harassment and prosecution.

4. He pledges to support the incarcerated trans community.

The Mamdani Administration would follow recommendations from the Task Force on Issues Faced by TGNCNBI People in Custody “in order to ensure the law is actually followed and incarcerated trans New Yorkers are treated with dignity.” This includes Mamdani’s support of Intro 625, a bill that would amend the administrative code of New York City to protect the human rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people in jails.

5. He plans to create an NYC Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.

“LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers represent at least 15 percent of the city's population and they intersect and enrich every community in NYC, yet they have unique needs that are underfunded and unaddressed,” Mamdani’s platform says. “While the Adams administration stripped the funding for the Unity Project, leaving one person to manage all LGBTQIA+ city programs, the Mamdani administration will create an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs [to] oversee and implement LGBTQIA+ initiatives and coordination” across the city.

Dedicated resources to LGBT care will likely be especially critical in the coming months as the White House continues to target trans-affirming policies through attempts to defund or even prosecute health care providers. These efforts have been supercharged by the recent, devastating anti-trans Skrmetti decision at the Supreme Court.

But for today, many New Yorkers are feeling a glimmer of hope; and trans people across the country have been shown we are not political collateral, but important pillars of a broad-based coalition furthering progressive values.