NYC's wealthy elected Mamdani, while low-income households rejected socialism

Zohran Mamdani obtained a comfortable first place in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. The 33-year-old socialist took 43.5% of the vote, beating Andrew Cuomo's 36.4% and Brad Lander's 11.3%. He is expected to win officially in the second round of voting. In addition to the nature of his win, he drew attention to the coalition of voters, making him the presumptive Democratic nominee in the Big Apple.

"Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, 'It always seems impossible until it is done.' My friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. (...) Together, we have shown the power of the politics of the future, one of partnership and of sincerity," Mamdani said in his victory speech.

Following the election, The New York Times published exit polls with the demographics of the Democratic primary. According to their findings, Mamdani performed very well among NYC's wealthiest neighbors.

Indeed, he won by ten percentage points among middle-income people, raising that threshold to thirteen percentage points among those with high incomes. His strongest points were in Queens, Brownstone Brooklyn and Manhattan. In contrast ,Cuomo won in most African-American neighborhoods and the low-income group by a thirteen-point margin.

In addition, the Muslim assemblyman won among whites by five points, among Asians by fifteen and among Hispanics by six. Cuomo, the state's former governor, could not gain as much traction among his primary voter base: African-Americans. While he carried this demographic group by 18 points, a larger gap was expected, but did not materialize.

While there is still no hard data on the results by education level, an Emerson College poll had Mamdani with 62% of the vote among people with a college degree.