Zohran Mamdani’s net worth, background, and rise as New York City’s Mayor

New York City has elected the Muslim and South Asian origin Zohran Mamdani as the new mayor. Born in the family of a Ugandan scholar, Mahmood Mamdani and Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, Mamdani has comprehensively defeated Cuomo after months of debate and campaigning. Once, a small-time rapper has transformed the landscape of local legislative politics. Mamdani, famous for his socialist politics and his revolutionary campaign style, has drawn attention from the global media.

Zohran Mamdani's background and career

Zohran Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda. He is the only child of the postcolonialist author Mahmood Mamdani and the award-winning Filmmaker Mira Nair. His father was a Gujarati Muslim who immigrated to Uganda. Mamdani has both paternal and maternal diasporic links to India. He studied partly in Cape Town and then moved to America. He described himself as ‘privileged’ and said that his reality was not the reality of New York City. "I never had to want for something, and yet I knew that was not in any way the reality for most New Yorkers."

He studied at the Bronx High School of Science, where he ran unsuccessfully for Vice President. There, he co-founded the school's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. He also played soccer for the West Side team. He was fond of Hip Hop music and collaborated with Ugandan rapper HAB under the nickname Young Cardamom.

He graduated in 2014 on African Studies. Before running for office, he was a housing counsellor. He said that he helped immigrants in Queens with eviction notices to help them keep their homes, an experience which motivated him to run for the office.

In 2015, he joined the New York political scene with the Democratic Socialist Party of America and campaigned for several other leaders like Khader El-Yateem and Tiffany Cabán. In 2020, he won the New York 36th State Assembly district, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City in Queens. He ran on the issues of housing reform, prison reform and public ownership of utilities. He was re-elected without any opposition in 2022 and 2024. On October 23, 2024, he announced his Mayoral candidacy. He started campaigning with a call for free city buses and a rent freeze in rent-stabilised housing, increasing affordable housing units, establishing government-run grocery stores, and increasing taxes on the rich whose net earnings are more than $1 million.

Net worth of Zohran Mamdani

According to Forbes, Mamdani has a net valuation of $200,000, which is significantly lower than $10 million of his opponent, Andrew Cuomo. His major property disclosure as a New York City assemblyman was the land in Uganda, which he acquired in 2012. The 4-acre land in Jinja, an area on the banks of Lake Victoria, near the source of the Nile River, is valued between $150,000-$250,000. He lives in a rent-controlled apartment in Astoria worth $2,500. Andrew Cuomo mocked him, calling it a "poor" man's apartment. As a New York City assemblyman, he had a salary of $142,000 per year. Now, as New York Mayor, he will earn a salary of $258,750 a year and will have the option to live rent-free in Gracie Mansion. He doesn't own a car and mostly travels by the Subway. He is married to a Syrian-born American Illustrator, animator and artist Rama Duwaji. Their joint assets have not been disclosed yet.

His father, Mahmood Mamdani, works at Columbia University as a senior professor with a yearly salary of roughly $200,000-$300,000, a year. His mother, Mira Nair, is a renowned filmmaker and made films like Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, and Monsoon Wedding. She owns a $2 million house in New York City. Conservative mouthpiece, New York Post, and conservative commentator Laura Loomer and Meghan McCain claim that Mamdani's parents have a valuation of $2million-$10 million, and he is too privileged to talk about Socialism.