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Zohran Mamdani employment history: Where has NYC mayor-elect worked in the past
Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, defeating Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.
Democrat Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election, defeating Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani, who will be sworn in on January 1, 2026, has already issued a public message for President Donald Trump while delivering his victory speech.
However, Mamdani is under immense scrutiny, and was already lambasted online for a video where he sought donations the day after he was elected mayor. Mamdani, ahead of his race for faced flak from Eric Adams about his apparent lack of work experience. “Just look at the résumés. I’ve learned this city from the bottom up. From paper boy to the Mayor’s office — I’ve worked every rung of the ladder serving New Yorkers. Mamdani has lived on easy street, I’ve lived the grind,” Adams had written.
While Mamdani has had to battle the ‘nepo baby’ label in his campaign to become mayor, he has worked a couple of jobs before his career as a lawmaker. Here's a look at Zohran Mamdani's employment history.
Zohran Mamdani employment history
Before he represented 36th Assembly District and its neighborhoods of Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and Astoria Heights, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor, who helped low-income homeowners across Queens fight off eviction, and remain in their homes.
Also Read | Donald Trump warns Zohran Mamdani after 'angry' victory speech: 'Be very nice to me'
However, New York Post reported that Mamdani had been employed for only approximately three years in the time between his college graduation in 2014 and election to the New York State Assembly in 2020. Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in Africana Studies.
Then, he was an organizer for an advocacy group in Seattle, called MoveOn. After four months there, Mamdani spent two months at advocacy group TexPIRG, which is in Texas, as per New York Times. Mamdani was the music supervisor for Queen of Katwe, in 2015. The Hollywood movie is about a chess prodigy from a shantytown located in the outskirts of Kampala. It was directed by his mother Mira Nair, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker known for movies like Mississippi Masala.
Mamdani also decided to pursue a rap career in his native Uganda, when he was around 25. He made music under the moniker Mr Cardamom. In 2019, he made a rap video with Indian cuisine icon, Madhu Jaffrey, who starred as a tough grandmother.
Apart from that, Mamdani was a campaign manager for progressive candidates like Ross Barkan, the journalist-turned-politician. Mamdani worked with him during the unsuccessful New York State Senate campaign of 2018. Following this, Mamdani also had a short stint as a financial counselor for Chhaya – a nonprofit working with South Asians in Queens.
