By MIKE MAGEE
What are the chances that citizens of New York, the largest city in the nation, would vote in a majority to oppose a formerly corrupt politician with a party machine behind him, and instead favor a little known candidate – the son of immigrant parents with “swarthy skin and belligerent independence,” from a suspect minority and religious heritage, who actively mixed music and politics, who seemed to come out of nowhere but be everywhere at once, and was ultra focused on “efficiency and honesty in municipal government?”
And what if that had occurred not once, but twice in the last century?
Certainly by now, the name Zohran Mamdani is already ringing in your ears. More on him in a moment. But let’s first travel back a century to introduce another candidate for mayor whose life and career presaged the modern day version.
His name was Fiorello La Guardia, and his remains were laid to rest on September 21, 1947 in Woodland Cemetery, a short distance from his home at 5020 Woodbridge Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He died at age 64 from pancreatic cancer.
“The Little Flower” (a nickname that derived from his first name Fiore – Italian for flower) described his stature (5 foot 2 inches) but not necessarily his personality. The New York Times obituary described him “as much a part (of New York) as any of its public buildings” and “a little firebrand.”
By any measure, he was one of New York’s own, earning the morning of his death in 1947 the Fire Department’s 5-5-5-5 signal, a traditional bell code used to honor firefighters who have died in the line of duty.
An Italian immigrant, his father was raised a Catholic in Foggia, Italy, and his mother (from Trieste on the Italian/Croatian border) was Jewish. Fiorello was born on the East Side of Manhattan on December 11, 1882, two years after his parents’ marriage in Italy. His father was a skilled musician and became the bandmaster for the U.S. Army. As a result, Fiorello was raised on multiple Army bases, and graduated from high school in Prescott, Arizona, a stone’s throw from Fort Whipple. Along the way, the father taught the son to play the banjo, cornet, and trumpet, and taught his sister, Gemma, to play violin, mandolin, and piano.
Skilled in languages (Yiddish, German, French, Italian), by the age of 20 Fiorello was employed by the US Consulate in Europe, and on return to the U.S. served as an interpreter on Ellis Island. Within a few years, he managed a Law Degree from NYU in 1910, and in 1914, at age 32 ran for U.S. Congress as a Republican, losing to the Tammany Hall’s Democratic candidate. Two years later, he won the seat even though Republicans initially supported another candidate. By 2018, he was re-elected but this time with Democratic support and declaring himself a “socialist.”
By 1933, Tammany Hall and its leader, NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker, were out, clearing the way for Fiorello. He ran with the support of a complex coalition of German American Republicans, Democratic reformers, Socialists, middle-class Jews, and Italians who in the past had aligned with Tammany Hall.
He came into the Mayor’s office in 1934 good to go. He had promised work relief for the unemployed, merit-based civil service, efficiency over corruption, and a focus on infrastructure including expanded housing, transportation and parks. Robert Moses was the head of his Parks department, a post he held until 1960. His vocal support during the election for FDR paid off handsomely. Fully 20% of the entire national Civil Works Administration (CPA) budget was allocated by FDR to New York City. In return, he delivered his Labor Party’s (which he helped organize) support to FDR in his Presidential elections in 1936, 1940 and 1944.
One of his main achievements was the maintenance of the Office of Price Administration which placed limits on pricing of food, rents, and other necessities. By the time he stepped down on December 31, 1945, “Tammany Hall had been reduced to a shadow.”
Eight decades later, an independent minded, gifted politician, also occasionally self-defined a “socialist” bucked his own political establishment and soundly defeated the modern version of a Democratic Tammany candidate, Andrew Cuomo, surprising many, but not all political pundits. His name is Zohran Mamdani.
He too is the son of immigrants. He arrived on New York shores at the age of seven, born of Indian parents and raised in his early years in Kampala, Uganda. His father, Mamood Mamdani, is a Muslim from Gujarati, India, and currently a professor of political science at Columbia University. His mother is a Punjabi Hindu, noted filmmaker Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala; Monsoon Wedding; Salaam Bombay! and others).
Like La Guardia, Mamdani has been vocal and politically active since his early years. Soon after graduating from Bowden College, that voice took the form of his Rap alter-ego, Young Cardamom. In 2015, he became a fan of rising South Asian American hip-hop performer Himanshu Suri (Heems) and after reading a Village Voice article on the performer/turned politician, volunteered to help out in Heems’ New York city council campaign. Five years later, Mamdani offered this self-appraisal, “When you are a C-list rapper, seeking to get the word out about your music, in many ways you are using the same principles of being an organizer… We might have an idea of where we should have political debate, we might have an idea of what music should look like and where it should be performed, but frankly it has to engage with the reality of things.”
His music and his politics since 2015 have never shied away from controversy. Pakistani vocalist, Ali Sethi, with whom he collaborated said, “He’s talking about class divisions and the truth about them and overcoming them. But he has such a sunniness, which I love. He’s not lecturing you about anything.”
By 2020, the shift in emphasis clearly pointed to a career in politics. But his time as a performer had been constructive. “Artists are the storytellers of this world…It’s not just that we need to combine the arts with the need for dignity, it’s that we have to.”
Mamdani came out early and often in support of the Palestinian people, emphasizing pluralism and supporting a New York City “where everyone can belong regardless of religion.” In contrast to La Guardia’s final salute by the NYFD, Zohran’s campaign is still in correction territory. As journalist Sanya Mansoor noted, South Asians “see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and Islamophobia erupted following the September 11 terrorist attacks.”
As the Democratic primary approached, a few national leaders like Bernie Sanders and AOC openly supported Mumdani. But most remained quiet, even though internal polls showed the young dynamic candidate in the lead. But young up-and-coming journalists like USA Today’s Sara Pequeño didn’t hold back. as she wrote, “The reasons conservatives are criticizing Mamdani are the reasons people my age voted for him. We believe in moving funding from the NYPD into areas like mental health care and community building. We support Palestinian rights. We want to see that working-class New Yorkers can remain in this city. We see taxing corporations and the wealthy as a good thing.”
And the numbers bore her out. In neighborhoods with high South Asian populations, Mumdani won 52% of the first-choice votes. During the Primary campaign, Mumdani’s campaign visited 136 mosques across the city and focused on three Muslim principles: justice, mercy, and commitment to community. But it was more than just values, said South Asian advocacy organization Drum Beats: “You need a political program for people that speaks to the grave inequalities in society.” And Mamdani had one. And as if the message needed any amplification, the MAGA ICE campaign reinforced what was at stake. As CUNY Hunter College sociologist, Heba Gowayed, wrote, “ICE was born out of Muslim hate.”
At the same time, Zohran proved himself an agile politician by forming a cross-endorsement agreement with Jewish candidate Brad Lander, city comptroller and highest ranking Jewish official in the city. That led to 2/3 of Lander’s voters choosing Mamdani as their second choice.
Mamdani’s victory speech echoed “The Little Flower’s” themes. He declared to ecstatic supporters, “I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for Gov. Cuomo or felt too disillusioned by a long, broken political system to vote at all. I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you, that is safe for you.”
Polls seem to suggest that Mumdani, like La Guardia, had his finger on the pulse of the voters. A July 29, 2025 poll found that “support for Palestinian rights” was important to 96% of voters and “willingness to criticize the Israeli government” was important to 88%. Younger voters as predicted overwhelmingly supported Mamdani, but in much larger numbers that predicted. Voters under 40 made up over 40% of the early voter turnout.
UNC 2019 Journalism graduate and columnist for USA Today, Sara Pequeño, said it best and suggests we may be witnessing the emergency of a “Little Flower” of our own. She wrote, “I have personally seen the way my generation has reacted to Mamdani’s campaign. There is a palpable excitement reminiscent of Barack Obama’s first run for the presidency, an excitement fueled by the idea that the Democratic Party can change, in spite of itself.”
Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and regular correspondent for THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex. (Grove/2020)
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