Few American politicians have come as far as fast as Zoran Mamdani.

He began 2025 as a little-known state legislator, and in the first minutes of 2026, he'll be sworn in as the mayor of New York, often called the second toughest job in America.

Photographer Kara McCurdy documented his remarkable rise as Mom Donnie's campaign photographer.

She's been capturing images of Mom Dani since before his first race for State Assembly in

2020.

Ali Rogan spoke with her about her experience watching history unfold through her camera lens.

Kara, thank you so much for being here.

You have been photographing the mayor-elect since even before his first campaign for

State Assembly.

What did you think of him when you first got to know, Zohran Mandani?

I thought this guy is so charismatic charismatic and we really connected initially on our

shared politics. And so I really valued that this was somebody who felt such a deep conviction

to what he believed in that he was, you know, willing to talk to me, who was a complete stranger

at the time when we met about his politics, and even bring me into the fold and show me how we could kind of share this with so many more people all of New York City and now all of the world, really.

Knowing now what he's achieved in such a short political lifetime, did you ever think that he could

reach these heights of his political career so quickly? So Hiron is somebody who you know that

what he's going to go after he's going to get. He really, if he has a vision, he's going to see it

through. I'm not sure that anybody could

have predicted even the past 12 months, but I always believe that he was going to be somebody

that was going to make a big splash in local politics. Was there a moment where you realized that in his run for mayor,

that he was really going to transcend this kind of dark horse candidate position in the race?

I think I started to pick up on it in the mayoral campaign early. Just seeing the voters and the supporters engagement and enthusiasm,

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