Mike Magee
What is the opportunity for citizens of New York, the largest city in the country, most people are opposing the former corrupt politician, with party machines behind him, and preferring little-known candidates – “sons of immigrant parents with dirty skin and warlike independence”, from suspicious minorities and religious people who all seem to be mingling on the scene, and those who have been increasingly appearing on the scene, and that's a growing number of people. “The efficiency and honesty of the city?”
What if that wasn't once, but twice in the last century?
Of course, by now, the name Zohran Mamdani has sounded in your ears. More information about him later. But let's go back first for a century and introduce another candidate to the mayor, whose life and career presages a modern version.
His name is Fiorello La Guardia, and his body was arranged at Woodland Cemetery on September 21, 1947, not far from home at 5020 Woodbridge Avenue in Riverdale, Bronx. He died at the age of 64 and died of pancreatic cancer.
“Little Flower” (the nickname derived from his name fiore – Flower in Italian) describes his figure (5 feet 2 inches), but not necessarily his personality. The New York Times's itu sued describes his “(New York) any public buildings and “a little fire.”
He was a member of New York's own, and he won the morning of his death in 1947, and the Fire Department's 5-5-5-5 signal is a traditional bell code used to commemorate firefighters who died of duty.
His father was an Italian immigrant who grew up in Foggia, Italy, and his mother (Trieste from the Italian/Croatian border) was Jewish. Fiorello was born on December 11, 1882 on the east side of Manhattan, two years after his parents' marriage in Italy. His father was a skilled musician who became band director in the U.S. Army. As a result, Fiorello was raised on multiple army bases and graduated from high school in Prescott, Arizona, one shot from Fort Whipple. Along the way, the father taught his son to play banjo, mountain trumpet and trumpet, and taught his sister Gemma to play violin, mandolin and piano.
By the age of 20, Fiorello hired skilled languages (Yiddish, German, French, Italian) at the US consulate in Europe and served as an interpreter on Ellis Island when he returned to the United States. Within a few years, he received his law degree from New York University (NYU) in 1910 and in 1914 he ran for the U.S. Congress at the age of 32, losing to the Democratic candidate of Tammany Hall. Two years later, he won a seat despite the Republican initially supporting another candidate. By 2018, he was re-elected, but this time he supported and declared himself a “socialist”.
By 1933, Tammany Hall and his leader, New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, had gone out to clear the way for Fiorello. He ran with the support of a complex German Republican, democratic reformers, socialists, middle-class Jews and Italians, who had been consistent with Tammy Hall in the past.
He entered the mayor's office in 1934. He has committed to job relief for unemployment, performance-based civil service, corruption efficiency and focus on infrastructure including expansion of housing, transportation and parks. Robert Moses was the head of his park department and he held a position until 1960. His voice in support during the election was supported by FDR. The FDR is allocated to New York City, and 20% of the National Civil Engineering Administration (CPA) budget is fully allocated. In return, he provided support from the Labor Party (he helped organize) to support the FDR in the 1936, 1940 and 1944 presidential elections.
One of his major achievements is maintaining the Office of Price Management, which has restrictions on pricing for food, rent and other essentials. By the time he resigned on December 31, 1945, “Tamani Hall had become a shadow.”
Eighty years later, an independent talented politician, who occasionally customizes a “socialist”, shocks his political institutions and defeats a modern version of Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic Tamilny candidate, is surprising, but not all political experts. His name is Zohran Mamdani.
He is also the son of an immigrant. He arrived on the coast of New York at the age of seven, was born to his Indian parents, and grew up in Kampala, Uganda. His father, Mamood Mamdani, is a Muslim from Gujarati in India and is currently a professor of political science at Columbia University. Film producer Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Mississippi; Monsoon Wedding; Salaam Bombay! etc.) said his mother was a Punjabi Hindus.
Like La Guardia, Mamdani has been vocal and politically active since her early years. Shortly after graduating from Bowden College, the voice came in the form of his rap Alter-ego young cardamom. In 2015, he became a fan of Himanshu Suri (Heems), a rising South Asian American hip-hop performer, and volunteered to participate in Heems’ New York City Council movement after reading a country voice article about performers/turned-politicians. Five years later, Mamdani made this self-recognition statement: “When you are a C-rated rapper, trying to promote your music, in many ways, you use the same principles to be an organizer… We might understand where we should have political debates, we might show it about what kind of people the music should look like, but be related to it, but be frank with reality, it is a real thing.
His music and politics have never shy away from controversy since 2015. Pakistani singer Ali Sethi collaborated with him: “He is talking about class division and the truth about them and overcoming their truth. But he has a kind of sunshine, I love. He is not teaching you anything.”
By 2020, the shift in focus clearly demonstrates the political career. But his time as a performer is constructive. “Artists are storytellers in this world… It’s not only what we need to combine art with the need for dignity, but it’s what we have to do.”
Mamdani came out early, often supporting the Palestinian people, emphasizing diversity, and supporting New York City’s “a place where everyone can belong to religion.” Contrary to La Guardia's final tribute to NYFD, Zohran's campaign is still in the correction territory. As journalist Sanya Mansoor pointed out, South Asians “see his rise as a sign of hope in cities that have erupted racism and Islamophobia following the September 11 terrorist attack.”
As the Democratic primary approaches, leaders of some countries, including Bernie Sanders and AOC, have publicly supported Mumdani. But while internal polls show young dynamic candidates, most remain quiet. But young journalists like Sarah Peckño in the United States today did not stop them. As she wrote: “The reason why conservatives criticize Mandani is why people of my age voted for him. We believe in transferring funds from New York City to areas such as mental health care and community building. We support Palestinian rights. We want to see working-class New Yorkers stay in this city. We think tax companies and the rich are a good thing.”
This number made her feel at a loss. Among the higher population communities in South Asia, Mudani won 52% of the first-choice vote. During the main campaign, Mudani's campaign visited 136 mosques throughout the city and focused on three Muslim principles: justice, mercy and commitment to the community. But it's not just values, South Asian advocacy group drums: “You need a political plan to speak for people with serious inequality in society.” Mamdani has one. It seems that the information needs to be amplified, and the Maga Ice movement is intensifying the endangerment. As Heba Gowayed, a sociologist at Cuny Hunter College, said: “Ice was born of Muslim hatred.”
Meanwhile, Zoran proved himself an agile politician by developing a cross-adverb agreement with Jewish candidate Brad Lander, city auditor and the city’s top-ranked Jewish officials. This led to two-thirds of voters choosing Mamdani as their second choice.
Mamdani's victory speech responded to “theme of the little flower”. He declared his ecstatic supporter: “Whether you vote for me, I will be the mayor of every New Yorker, or vote for Governor Cuomo, or be completely unable to vote for a long, broken political system.
Polls seem to show that like La Guardia, Mumdani has fingers on the pulse of voters. A July 29, 2025 poll found that “support for Palestinian rights” is important to 96% of voters, and “willing to criticize the willingness of the Israeli government” is important to 88%. As predicted, young voters supported Mamdani with overwhelming support, but the number of forecasts was much larger. Voters under the age of 40 account for more than 40% of early voter turnout.
Sara Pequeño, a UNC 2019 journalism graduate and USA Today columnist, said that this is the best, suggesting that we may be witnessing our own “little flower” emergency. “I personally have seen the way my generation responded to the Mamdani campaign. The exciting excitement is reminiscent of Barack Obama's first presidency, which is inspired by the idea that Democrats can change themselves,” she wrote.
Mike Magee, MD, is a medical historian and routine journalist at THCB. He is the author of Code Blue: The Inside Medical Industry Complex of America. (Grove/2020)
