“Let Tonight Be the Last Time I Utter His Name”: Mamdani’s Message to Cuomo After Declaring Victory

APT

Zohran Mamdani has declared victory in the New York City mayoral race, calling his win a “mandate for change.”  In a powerful speech, Mamdani said: “The future is in our hands. We have toppled a political dynasty.” He also wished his rival Andrew Cuomo “the best in private life,” before adding, “Let tonight be the last time I utter his name, as we abandon a politics that answers to the few.”

Transcript

00:00My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty.

00:17I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life.

00:25But let tonight be the final time I utter his name.

00:30As we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.

00:44New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change.

00:53A mandate for a new kind of politics.

00:58A mandate for a city we can afford.

01:03And a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that.

01:07On January 1st, I will be sworn in as the mayor of New York City.

01:17And that is because of you.

01:28So before I say anything else, I must say this.

01:37Thank you to the next generation of New Yorkers who refuse to accept that the promise of a better future was a relic of the past.

01:50You showed that when politics speaks to you without condescension, we can usher in a new era of leadership.

01:59We will fight for you because we are you.

02:05Or as we say on Steinway, Anaminkum Wailaykum.

02:11Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city who made this movement their own.

02:24I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses,

02:36Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties.

02:40Yes, aunties.

02:44To every New Yorker in Kensington and Midwood and Hunts Point, know this.

02:59This city is your city and this democracy is yours, too.

03:09This campaign is about people like Wesley, an $1,199 organizer I met outside of Elmhurst Hospital on Thursday night.

03:19A New Yorker who lives elsewhere, who commutes two hours each way from Pennsylvania because rent is too expensive in this city.

03:29It's about people like the woman I met on the BX 33 years ago, who said to me,

03:37I used to love New York, but now it's just where I live.

03:41And it's about people like Richard, the taxi driver I went on a 15-day hunger strike with outside of City Hall.

03:52Who still has to drive his cab seven days a week.

04:00My brother, we are in City Hall now.

04:03This victory is for all of them.

04:15And it's for all of you.

04:18The more than 100,000 volunteers who built this campaign into an unstoppable force.

04:25Because of you, we will make this city one that working people can love and live in again.

04:36With every door knocked, every petition signature earned, and every hard-earned conversation,

04:44you eroded the cynicism that has come to define our politics.

04:48Now, I know that I have asked for much from you over this last year.

04:58Time and again, you have answered my calls.

05:04But I have one final request.

05:07New York City, breathe this moment in.

05:13We have held our breath for longer than we know.

05:20We have held it in anticipation of defeat.

05:23Held it because the air has been knocked out of our lungs too many times to count.

05:28Held it because we cannot afford to exhale.

05:32Thanks to all of those who sacrificed so much,

05:36we are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn.

05:39To my campaign team, who believed when no one else did.

05:52And who took an electoral project and turned it into so much more.

05:57I will never be able to express the depth of my gratitude.

06:04You can sleep now.

06:05To my parents, Mama and Baba.

06:16You have made me into the man I am today.

06:21I am so proud to be your son.

06:23And to my incredible wife, Rama.

06:34Hayati.

06:36There is no one I would rather have by my side in this moment and in every moment.

06:41To every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents,

06:50or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all,

06:53thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust.

06:57I will wake each morning with a singular purpose.

07:04To make this city better for you than it was the day before.

07:10There are many who thought this day would never come.

07:14Who feared that we would be condemned only to a future of less.

07:18With every election consigning us simply to more of the same.

07:23And there are others who see politics today as too cruel for the flame of hope to still burn.

07:31New York, we have answered those fears.

07:38Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice.

07:42Hope is alive.

07:43Hope is a decision that tens of thousands of New Yorkers made day after day.

07:53Volunteer shift after volunteer shift.

07:56Despite attack ad after attack ad.

08:00More than a million of us stood in our churches,

08:05in gymnasiums,

08:06in community centers,

08:08as we filled in the ledger of democracy.

08:11And while we cast our ballots alone,

08:16we chose hope together.

08:21Hope over tyranny.

08:23Hope over big money and small ideas.

08:25Hope over tyranny.

08:26Hope over big money and small ideas.

08:26Hope over tyranny.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended