How Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani Took on New York’s Billionaires, and Won

Professor Peter Beattie, Political Economist, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

11-Nov-25 15:00

How Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani Took on New York’s Billionaires, and Won

Pause
Embed

Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral election, defeating Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.
Not only that, he also received more than 50% of the popular vote. He’s a proud Democratic Socialist, and notably, the first Muslim and South Asian to become mayor of New York City.

Billionaires reportedly spent over 22 million dollars trying to stop him, yet he won. Donald Trump and Elon Musk publicly attacked him and endorsed Andrew Cuomo. Yet, Mamdani won.

Not only did he win, he won on an unabashedly, proudly, multicultural, people-centered platform focused on affordability, including pledges to freeze rents, provide fast and free public buses, and ensure universal childcare.

He plans to fund these initiatives by taxing New York’s wealthiest residents: multimillionaires and billionaires.

So, how did a Democratic Socialist become mayor in the heart of global capitalism? And what does it signal?

We speak to Professor Peter Beattie, who's a political economist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Produced by: Dashran Yohan

Presented by: Dashran Yohan

This and more than 60,000 other podcasts in your hand. Download the all new BFM mobile app.

Categories: politics, international

Tags: universal childcare, the bigger picture, beyond the ballot box, Zohran Mamdani, democratic socialism, capitalism, new york city, affordable housing,

Today’s Shows

11:00 AM

Best of Enterprise

(REPEAT) Alexandre Salesse, Partner at BCG, explains how the "Single Buyer" model and "Take or Pay" contracts have created a reliability gold standard at the cost of future flexibility.

12:00 PM

Just For Kicks

(REPEAT) The pundits look ahead to match week 27 of the EPL, featuring the big match between the wounded Arsenal against their neighbours in turmoil, Tottenham Hotspur.

1:00 PM

A Bit of Culture

(REPEAT) Does good always triumph over evil? Kam, Sheryll and Dhanya will unpack that, as well as talk about AI caricatures and whether it's cool to show off your partner on social media.

2:00 PM

Ringgit & Sense

(REPEAT) Dr. Mohaini Ahmad Basri, licensed financial planner with Wealth Vantage Advisory talks about EPF dividends, and who gets the most benefit from them.

2:30 PM

The Property Show

(REPEAT) Dr. YM Cheng, Founder and Principal Consultant of ChineseZodiacFengshui.com, discusses Fengshui outlook for Commercial and Residential properties for the upcoming Year of the Horse.

3:00 PM

Best of The Bigger Picture

(REPEAT) With TB cases on the rise and clusters reported across the country, we speak to a respiratory physician to break down what you need to know about the disease and precautions to take.

4:00 PM

Best of Evening Edition

(REPEAT) We speak to Balan, founder of a lion dance troupe and seasoned performer, about his journey to becoming part of this art form and what led to his passion for it.

5:00 PM

BBC World Service

This episode of The Life Scientific features Caroline Smith, Head of Collections and Principal Curator of Meteorites at the Natural History Museum, home to one of the finest meteorite collections in the world.

PROGRAMMES