Astoria to City Hall: The Grassroots Power Behind Zohran Mamdani’s Win

A love letter to our new mayor and to our beloved NYC.

At Moka & co in Astoria, Queens

The night New York City elected its first Muslim South Asian millennial mayor, I took my five-year-old daughter to an election party in Astoria—the neighborhood where I was born, where my children were born, and where Zohran Mamdani first cut his teeth in politics.

I wanted her to remember that this happened in her lifetime, that she was part of the generation after her mother’s, who grew up in fear, under the shadow of 9/11. For Muslim families like ours, who’ve called Queens home for decades, the moment carried a weight that can’t be measured only in votes.

@portofentrybyjenn

A post shared by PORT OF ENTRY l Jennifer Chowdhury on Instagram: "Salam mayor @zohrankmamdani from your cousins in Astoria and your little niece too! #mamdani #nycmayor #muslimamerican #immigrantstories @zohrankmamdani"

Astoria’s streets hold so many of our stories—the immigrant dreams, the surveillance years, the slow rebuilding of community trust. As a journalist who has spent years documenting Muslim life in America, I’ve watched how our neighborhoods have been both targets of sus…