Zohran Mamdani wins New York City mayoral election
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The newly-elected Democratic mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani has told his supporters that his victory can be a template for how to defeat President Trump. In his victory speech, the 34-year-old said that in a moment of political darkness, New York would be the light. We get reaction from Democrats and Republicans. Also in the programme: Fashion wars in Paris; and are we on the cusp of an AI bubble that could tank the global economy? (Photo: Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani speaks during an election night party in the Brooklyn borough of New York, 4 November 2025. Credit: Sarah Yenesel/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello and welcome to News Hour, live from the BBC World Service in London. |
| 0:14.2 | I'm Rebecca Kesbby. |
| 0:15.9 | So from relative political obscurity to running America's commercial capital, Zohra Mamdani, |
| 0:22.7 | the 34-year-old self-proclaimed democratic socialist, |
| 0:26.6 | has just been elected mayor of New York. |
| 0:29.4 | He wasn't a particularly well-known figure in the city until a few months ago, |
| 0:33.8 | but his campaign promising to make New York affordable for ordinary people by adding |
| 0:38.7 | new taxes on high earners and corporation really took off, particularly online, where he often |
| 0:45.3 | addressed voters in Arabic, Hindi, Urdu and Spanish. Mr. Mamdani is multilingual, he'll be the first |
| 0:51.8 | Muslim mayor and the first of South Asian descent. Oh, and he was |
| 0:56.4 | born in Uganda. For a cosmopolitan city, like New York, he ticked a lot of boxes on his campaign, |
| 1:02.8 | often using humour. I know some of you have expressed concerns about my age. You're worried |
| 1:08.4 | about a 33-year-old becoming mayor of New York City. That's why this |
| 1:12.4 | weekend I'll be making a change. I'm turning 34. |
| 1:16.0 | Labor Day might be over, but the democracy clearance sale is still on through November. |
| 1:21.6 | We're selling New York City and everything must go. |
| 1:25.6 | Or at least that's what the billionaires think. |
| 1:27.8 | The future mayor of New York City. How's it going? Pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to meet you, my friend. What are some of your favorite restaurants in Chinatown? So I grew up with my mother. So what do you feel like you've got to do to close the deal with New York citizens? You know, it is in many ways the same thing that got us here, which is canvassing. |
| 1:45.1 | Oh, really? |
| 1:45.7 | You know, for all in many ways the same thing that got us here, which is canvassing. |
| 1:45.2 | Oh, really? |
... |
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