Politician born in Uganda may rise to the position of mayor in New York City

The United States’ New York City mayoral race is being led by a politician who was born in Uganda.

When Zohran Mamdani, 33, won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, the country’s political elite was taken aback.

In the event that he prevails, the son of acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair and Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani will succeed Eric Adams as the first Muslim mayor of New York City.

By Tuesday evening, Mamdani had 43.5 percent of the vote, ahead of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was in second place with 36.4%, after 91 percent of the ballots had been counted.

At the age of seven, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, who was born in Kampala in 1991, immigrated to the United States. Two years prior, he had left Uganda for South Africa when his parents moved there for creative and scholarly endeavors.

Mamdani will be certain of becoming the 11th mayor of the city in November if he is confirmed as the Democratic nominee. In the general election, incumbent mayor Eric Adams, his other rival, is running as an independent.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two Democrats, have praised the socialist politician’s campaign as a critique of the centrist Democratic establishment.