(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo want an investigation into claims that Zohran Mamdani, running this fall to lead the city, falsely identified himself as African American on his Columbia University application.
Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary for mayor last month, identified as “Black or African American” on his 2009 Columbia University application, the New York Times reported, citing leaked documents from the elite college. In interviews, Mamdani has acknowledged that he is neither but said his claim was an attempt to represent his complex background. He wasn’t accepted to Columbia and has never attended an Ivy League university.
Mamdani, 33, was born in Uganda to Indian parents and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018, according to his campaign. He currently serves as a New York State Assembly member representing sections of Queens.
But Adams, a Black Democrat who is running for reelection as an independent, accused Mamdani of lying about his race and ethnicity in an attempt to gain an upper hand in the admissions process. He said Mamdani’s claim was an “insult to every student who got into college the right way.”
“The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience,” Adams said in remarks over the weekend. “It’s a history, a struggle, and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive.”
The Adams campaign also called on Columbia University to publicly release Mamdani’s 2009 admissions records, clarify if his non-citizen status influenced admissions or financial aid decisions, and conduct a formal review to determine if university policies were violated. The Trump administration is already investigating the university over claims of antisemitism on campus.
Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary but is still running for mayor on an independent line, suggested that Mamdani’s claim could be the “tip of the iceberg.”
“This should come as no surprise as Mamdani — his proposals, his funding, and his background — received absolutely no scrutiny,” Cuomo campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement. “This issue must be fully investigated because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg.”
But Curtis Sliwa, who won the Republican primary to run for mayor, called the grist over Mamdani’s college application claims a distraction from the issues facing New Yorkers and the Democratic Socialist’s “radical” agenda.
“The fact that he checked off Asian, African American, he said he was from Uganda — is that the best they have on him?” Sliwa, a founder of the Guardian Angels, told Fox News. “Let’s get back to the issues.”
Mamdani’s rise has sent shockwaves through New York’s political establishment and drawn national attention from Republicans who have criticized the city’s dramatic shift to the left. The latest polls show Mamdani is the frontrunner of the mayoral race, ahead of Cuomo and Adams. The general election is Nov. 4.
Critics argue that Mamdani’s socialist policies could have devastating and long-lasting consequences on the financial capital of the world, and could prompt an exodus of businesses from the city. The Queens lawmaker has pledged, if elected, to scrap fares for New York City’s public bus system, make the City University of New York “tuition-free” and push to increase New York City’s minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.
