As Zohran Mamdani walked through the streets of the Upper East Side on his way to a campaign event to greet early voters, he could barely take a few steps without being stopped by his supporters.
Two smiling women seemed fascinated by him and told him they followed him on Instagram.
This millennial Democratic mayoral candidate thanked them, then posed with another young man who had his phone ready for a selfie.
A crowd of reporters surrounded Mamdani and recorded his every move, such as running out onto the road to shake hands with a taxi driver who shouted, "We support you, man."
With a clear lead in the polls, the 34-year-old is on the verge of making history when New Yorkers vote on Tuesday as the youngest mayor in more than a century and the city's first Muslim and South Asian leader.
Not a celebrity just a few months ago, few could have predicted his rise from hip-hop musician and housing consultant to New York state alderman and front-runner to lead the largest city in the US, a job that comes with a $116 billion budget and the scrutiny of the world.
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Leader of the three-man race
From viral videos and community meetings to content creators and podcasters, Mamdani reached out to disillusioned voters at a time when faith in the Democratic Party among its own members is at an all-time low.
But the question is whether he can fulfill his ambitious promises and how a politician with no executive experience will cope with the attack that will surely come from the Trump administration.
And then there is the complicated relationship Mamdani has with his own party's establishment, as he transforms himself into the national representative of the left-wing Democrats.
He describes himself as a democratic socialist, which practically means giving a voice to workers, not corporations.
This is the politics of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom Mamdani has often shared the stage.
Trump threatened to pull federal funds if New York elects a "communist."
Mamdani's response was that he was more like a Scandinavian politician, only darker-skinned.
His victory would be seen as a rejection of politics as usual by New Yorkers as they struggle with the cost of living – which is Mamdani's number one political issue.
His main rival on Tuesday's ballot is Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the party primary.
Cuomo accuses Mamdani of anti-business policies that will kill New York.
He claims he has shown he can stand up to Trump, but Mamdani calls Cuomo the president's puppet.
Kurtis Sliva, the Republican candidate, mocks both of them.
During the last debate, he said, "Zorhan, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin. And Andrew, your failures could fill a New York City public school library."
Rent freeze and free buses
Madani's message was laser-focused on affordability and quality of life.
He promised universal child health care, a rent freeze on subsidized housing, free public transportation, and city-owned grocery stores.
It's a message that has gone down well with New Yorkers who are fed up with excessively high prices.
"I support him because I'm a housing advocate and I see how the cost of living just keeps going up and up," Miles Ashton told the BBC ahead of the candidates' debate early last month.
"We all want an affordable city."
The costs of Mamdani's policies will be covered by new taxes on corporations and millionaires, which he insists will raise $9 billion - although some, such as the libertarian Cato Institute, say his stated sum doesn't fit the bill.
He will also need the support of the state legislature and Governor Katie Hochul to be able to implement the collection of new taxes.
She supported him, but claims to be against raising income taxes.
Hochul, however, wants to work with him on achieving universal health care, which at five billion dollars is by far the biggest election issue on his agenda.
While riding the M57 bus through Manhattan to promote the free bus plan, he told the BBC why his emphasis on affordability is the right approach in the Trump era.
"It is time to realize that to defend democracy, we do not just have to stand up against an authoritarian administration."
"We also need to make sure that democracy can meet the material needs of working-class people. That's something we haven't been able to do in New York so far."
Among New Yorkers who told the BBC they would not vote for Mamdanih, the two biggest factors in that decision were doubts that he would be able to finance his own political agenda and his inexperience.
What does the New York business world think?
After Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June, Wall Street leaders were in no mood to celebrate the victory.
Some even threatened to leave the city.
But since then there has been a noticeable turn - the mood is less panic and more cooperation.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon even said he would offer help if Mamdani was elected.
Construction investor Jeffrey Gural, who has met with Mamdani, says he is too inexperienced to lead the country's largest city.
He thinks his rent freeze plan will hurt tenants and that his tax on the rich will drive away the companies that make the most money.
Gural, however, supports Mamdani's plan for universal child health care, a benefit he provides to his own staff at his casino in the north of the state.
The change in tone after the party elections was partly due to a coordinated effort on Mamdani's part to confront his own critics.
Alexis Bitar, a self-taught jewelry designer who turned his own firm into a global company, hosted Mamdani and 40 business leaders at his 1850s Brooklyn townhouse on October 14.
They were a mix of CEOs and company owners from the financial, fashion, and art sectors.
More than half were Jewish and all were either on the verge of supporting or opposing Mamdani's candidacy.
Questions were asked about business, his experience in management, and how he would finance his own politics.
"I think he made a great impression," Bitar told the BBC.
"What's fantastic about him is that he's extremely well-equipped to answer questions – and he does so with great dedication."
Apology to the police
Part of Mamdani's interaction with his critics was his willingness to change his stance.
In 2020, after a white police officer killed a black man, George Floyd, in Minnesota, Mamdani called on the city to cut police budgets and called the New York City police "racist."
But in the meantime he has apologized for it and says he no longer holds those views.
Crime is the top priority for Howard Wolfson, who worked for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is now a Democratic strategist.
He was present at a meeting last month between the mayoral candidate and Bloomberg, who spent $8 million during the party's race to defeat him.
Wolfson told the BBC that he would judge Mamdani's performance by how he maintained order in the city.
“I think it’s great that he has the initiative to reach out to others and that he’s engaged, but I’m much more interested in how he’s going to manage,” he says.
"Public safety is truly a prerequisite for success or failure."
Many see Mamdani's promise to ask Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on as a way to allay concerns that he will be soft on crime.
He says he will maintain current staffing levels in the New York Police Department and establish a new community safety department with mental health teams that will be dispatched instead of armed officers to non-threatening, psychiatric calls.
Castle divided around Gaza
One position on which Mamdani has remained steadfast is his criticism of Israel and lifelong support for Palestinian rights.
It represents a departure from the Democratic Party establishment and could serve as a deciding factor for many voters in the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.
He caused discontent during the party election process when he refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada."
But after New York Jews conveyed their own discomfort to him, telling him they felt unsafe hearing it, he said he was discouraging others from using it.
A letter signed by more than 1.100 rabbis cited Mamdani in condemning the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.
Jewish voters are largely split in polls between Mamdani and Cuomo.
Brad Lander, the city's comptroller, or finance chief, who agreed with Mamdani in the Democratic Party primary to support each other's candidacy against Cuomo, says that the latter appeals to many New York Jews and that they are very enthusiastic about Mamdani.
"He is a mayoral candidate who is deeply committed to keeping everyone safe, regardless of their religious beliefs," Lander told the BBC.
Sumaiyya Chaudhry and Farhana Islam from the group Muslims for Progress conducted a poll for a mayoral candidate.
Islam said that while everyone is excited that he could become the first Muslim mayor of New York, he doesn't have to rely on his own identity to garner support.
"His political goals speak for themselves and are enough in themselves to make him popular."
After his victory in the party elections, the Islamophobia Mamdani faces has intensified.
He now has police security, and last month a Texan was arrested on charges of making terrorist threats against him.
In one message, the man said that "Muslims have no place here."
Mamdani decided to give a speech about Islamophobia after Cuomo laughed at a radio host's comment that Mamdani would welcome another attack like the one on September 11, 2021.
In an emotional speech, he recounted how he had previously hoped that by ignoring racist attacks and focusing on his central message, he could become something more than just his religion.
"I was wrong. No amount of redirection is enough," he said.
The future of the party
What might bring Mamdani victory in liberal New York may not be a recipe for success on the national level.
And Democrats in Congress seem concerned about the implications of his rise amid ongoing tensions within the party between moderates and progressives.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not endorse Mamdani, while his fellow New York House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed him just hours before early voting began.
Democratic strategists argue that the problem Mamdani poses for the party establishment is that Trump and Republicans already portray Democrats, no matter how moderate, as socialists.
And it's a tactic that is believed to have had some effect among Cuban and Venezuelan voters in the 2024 elections.
Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democratic representative from New Jersey, told The Washington Post that he believes Mamdani advocates "extremist views" at odds with the Democratic Party and that he fears Republicans will use the candidate as a kind of "spook."
At a campaign event on the Upper East Side, Mamdani told the BBC he planned to deal with fierce criticism if he wins, citing the energy behind his candidacy.
There will no doubt be resistance, he said, but the mass movement behind him will overwhelm it.
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