On Jan. 1, 2026, Zohran Mamdani will take his place as the first Muslim and first South Asian to serve as mayor of New York. A self-described democratic socialist, he campaigned for a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay for rent freezes, an end to bus fares, city-owned grocery stores, free child care and more.
Mamdani will be the city's youngest mayor in more than a century, and his defeat of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo marked a challenge to the political establishment that was fueled by one of the earliest turnouts in decades and the youth vote.
Snopes has worked to get to the bottom of a number of rumors related to Mamdani — including that ISIS endorsed his campaign, that his city-run grocery stores would not sell alcohol, cigarettes or lottery tickets because of Islamic law and that he fabricated a story about his aunt facing Islamophobia after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Here are 10 rumors about Mamdani we've investigated:
