New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) speaks to supporters during an election night gathering in NYC, June 24, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The results of the New York City 2025 mayoral primary drew significant extreme and hateful rhetoric across the political and ideological spectrum this week. New York State Rep. Zohran Mamdani’s apparent win in the Democratic primary generated a wide range of troubling responses.
While the primary results will not be officially certified until at least next month, after mail-in ballots and ranked-choice votes are counted, these early reactions raise concerns about the hateful rhetoric that is likely to only increase as the general election approaches this fall with Mamdani as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Unfortunately, it should come as no surprise that anti-Zionists have felt empowered and energized by Mamdani’s win; the candidate himself has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and has defended anti-Israel rhetoric, including calls to “Globalize the Intifada” — a slogan generally understood as a call for indiscriminate violence against Israel, and potentially against Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide — despite the damage it wreaks on the Jewish community.
Antisemitic Reactions
Antisemitic and anti-Zionist influencer Sulaiman Ahmed referenced common antisemitic conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, writing on X: “Israel did 9/11. American [sic] is waking up. That’s why Zohran Mamdani WON.”
Another influencer who traffics in antisemitic conspiracy theories, known as “ADAM” (aka “AdameMedia”), similarly posted: “America now know [sic] who REALLY did 9/11. That’s why Zohran Mamdani is now Mayor of New York. And coincidentally enough the ones behind it are the ones crying the loudest right now. Their fear op is dying.”
Conspiratorial anti-Zionist influencer account “GenXGirl,” who sometimes platforms overt antisemitism, wrote a lengthy X post that echoed classic antisemitic tropes about alleged Jewish power: “Zohran Mamdani's win in the NYC mayor race is a huge blow to corrupt Zionist billionaires…Americans are waking up to the Zionist BS and we’re sick of it. I hope this is the first of many wins for the people against the corrupt Zionist billionaire controlled establishment. 2026 should be a single issue election. Kick out the Israel 1st bootlickers out of government.”
Extreme Anti-Zionist Praise for the Election Results
Many anti-Zionist activists and influencers celebrated Mamdani’s win as the presumptive Democratic nominee for the mayoral race. Anti-Zionist X influencer “Revolutionary Blackout” (aka Nick Cruse) wrote: “Zionists in New York tried to make the Mayoral race a referendum on Zionism and got blown the fuck out 😂.” Another anti-Zionist X influencer account, “Tiberius,” shared with its almost 175,000 X followers: “A lot of people will have voted for Zohran because he isn’t Israel’s little bitch like the majority of US politicians. Let this be the beginning of the end of AIPAC.”
The conspiratorial anti-Zionist Quds News Network, co-founded by New York City-based political organizer and anti-Israel activist Raja Abdulhaq, posted on Telegram: “Despite a well-funded Zi**ist campaign against him and the presence of nearly a million Jewish residents across the five boroughs, efforts to unseat him failed.”
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), wrote on Facebook: “Make no mistake, this is a win for Palestine. It's a reflection that Americans are tired of the Zionist propaganda and the corrupt leaders of the democratic [sic] party.”
Other leading anti-Israel groups responded with tempered support for Mamdani’s victory, lauding the failure of the “Zionist lobby” but noting that the primary win is just one step in a continued effort to oppose Israel.
Palestinian Youth Movement’s response to Mamdani’s primary victory. (Screenshot/Instagram)
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), for example, commented on the day after the election that “last night's outcome illustrates that the longstanding tactics of the Zionist lobby are failing. The terrain has shifted.” PYM added: “It will be up to our mass movement to hold Mamdani and other elected officials accountable, and to ensure that they do not capitulate to right-wing, reactionary and Zionist forces that will continue to exist within New York City politics.”
Extreme Anti-Zionist Criticism of the Election Results
However, some of the more radical factions of the anti-Israel movement expressed more critical reactions to Mamdani’s win, lamenting that his politics are not extreme enough for their liking. They used the attention on the mayoral primary to boost their extreme anti-Israel positions, including the belief that real change can only come through violent armed resistance and not peaceful elections.
The extreme anti-Israel Instagram influencer account “NYC Resists with Gaza” posted an image of Leila Khaled, a leader of the designated terrorist group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) holding a rifle, with the slogan, originally coined by Mao Zedung, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” and additional commentary that read, “you can’t decolonize the ballot box.”
Graphics posted on Instagram by @nycresistswithgaza on June 25, 2025, the day after the Democratic primary for New York City’s mayoral election. (Screenshot/Instagram)
Leaders of the New York-based extreme anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime (WOL) also noted that they did not support Mamdani or the Democratic party in general because they do not comport with their extreme anti-Israel agenda. WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani wrote on X: “I didn’t vote in the Democratic primary despite all the door knocks and phone calls I’ve gotten (which were exclusively for Zohran by the way) because I actually can’t since I’m not a registered Democrat. I meant it when I said they were a genocidal party.”
Anas Saleh, another WOL leader, commented, “I see so many people celebrating in NYC. Sure, Mamdani isn’t Sex Pest Cuomo, but at the end of the day, he’s still a Democrat. He works for the same party that funded and committed the genocide of the Palestinian people. I can’t celebrate that.”
Unity of Fields and the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, two groups known for their extreme positions and open support of violence against Jews, also denounced Mamdani in the lead-up to and after the primary. Unity of Fields referred to Mamdani as “Ziohran Mamdani” (utilizing a common anti-Zionist rhetorical tactic of pejoratively referring to Israel supporters as “zios”) and retweeted a post that stated Mamdani and his supporters were “regurgitating genocidal rhetoric against the palestinian [sic] people to appease a bunch of genocidal zionist narcissist [sic].” The Bronx Anti-War Coalition criticized Mamdani’s politics as “liberal zionism.”
Anti-Muslim and Xenophobic Responses
Mamdani’s win also spurred significant anti-Muslim and xenophobic responses from various conspiratorial right-wing figures, anti-Muslim extremists and elected officials. These reactions included numerous posts promoting the pernicious conspiratorial claim that Sharia, or Islamic law, is infiltrating the American court system.
Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the prominent anti-Muslim group ACT for America, wrote on X: “The Mayor of New York City will most likely end up being Zohran Mamdani. Sharia Law will be coming to the United States.“ U.S. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) wrote on X: “If Mamdani has his way, NYC classrooms won’t be teaching the Constitution in civics class. They’ll be teaching Sharia Law.” Laura Loomer commented on Mamdani’s win on multiple social media platforms, referring to Mamdani as a “SHIA MUSLIM INVADER.”
AI-generated graphics depicting the Statue of Liberty wearing traditional Muslim religious attire or being replaced entirely by a statue of a veiled Muslim woman proliferated online, advancing the nefarious and bigoted notion that Muslims seek to take over America. One such example was shared by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), posted with the caption, “This hits hard.”
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