Courtesy of Aniqa Chowdhury '26

On Tuesday night, Democrat Zohran Mamdani ’14 was elected as the next mayor of New York City, making him the first Muslim and South Asian mayor in the city’s history.

Mamdani’s win in the largest city in the United States makes him one of Bowdoin’s most high-profile living alumni. Professor of History Patrick Rael, who taught Mamdani as a student, expressed his pride in seeing a member of the Bowdoin community succeed on such a large scale.

“Teaching here for over 30 years, the sight of former students popping up to do amazing things is pleasantly familiar, but this is next level. Bowdoin students are incredible. You are studying with, practicing with, eating with people who will become important figures in our public life, people who will leave incredible legacies,” Rael wrote in an email to the Orient. “Be inspired, if only by the achievement, to value yourself and your potential.”

Bowdoin Democrats leader Brittany Yue ’27 was overjoyed by the result of the mayoral race, emphasizing the weight of Mamdani’s achievement as a fellow Polar Bear.

“I was thrilled to hear the news,” Yue said. “I think it’s incredible that a Bowdoin alum was able to find so much success, especially in such an important race that was obviously very contested and very much in the news and on people’s minds as of late.”

Yue predicts Mamdani’s win could herald broader change within the Democratic Party.

“I would view this as pretty transformational for the Democratic Party,” Yue said. “Obviously, we see a shift here with [Mamdani], being a democratic socialist, beating a very much establishment Democrat. So we can see a shift in the way that people are looking to shape the future of the Democratic Party.”

Bowdoin College Conservatives leader Zak Asplin ’27 argued that Mamdani’s campaign was emblematic of how schools like Bowdoin emphasize leftist ideologies in their curriculums.

“It’s indicative of the wider perception that the College is facing within professional circles and much of the mainstream,” Asplin said. “[Mamdani represents] what Bowdoin actually teaches and indoctrinates students on, which is far-left-of-center social and economic policy.”

Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History Brian Purnell, with whom Mamdani took many of his Africana Studies classes, discussed Mamdani’s place as a student of the College and his utilization of the education Bowdoin has to offer.

“I would say Mamdani … is the best of us. He is the best of what we produce…. He is not the best of us because of his particular political position on an issue…. He is not the best of us because he has a worldview or a view on political economy that is right. He is the best of us because he took what this institution offers all of its students,” Purnell said. “He took a liberal arts education devoted to advancing the common good, and he discerned a way to make that kind of liberal arts education real in his life for the benefit of others.”

Rael shared his hope that Mamdani’s Bowdoin education will serve him well as the next mayor of New York City.

“[Mamdani] was an Africana Studies major. At Bowdoin, these students learn that the story of African Americans is the story of everyone who’s tried to make this country not just talk its talk, but walk its walk. The story of African Americans is the story of a struggle to extend the blessings of liberty to all,” Rael wrote. “If that history helps [Mamdani] stand up to corruption, authoritarianism and exploitation, then I will be pleased that Bowdoin could offer it to him.”

During Mamdani’s time as a student, he founded Bowdoin’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Cedar Greve ’26 commented on both what Mamdani’s win means for the Palestinian cause and some of their concerns. Greve is involved with Bowdoin SJP, which was unchartered by the College following the encampment in Smith Union last spring.

“We are heartened by what [Mamdani’s] win signifies in shifting public opinion on Israel and anti-Zionism at large. However, we are deeply concerned by [Mamdani’s] repeated affirmation of Israel’s so-called right to exist as a state with equal rights for all,” Greve wrote. “This is a Zionist framework that falsely imagines the possibility of reforming a colonial state based on dispossession and subjugation. We affirm dismantling Zionism as a necessary condition for Palestinian liberation.”

Additionally, SJP urged Mamdani to adhere to a pledge he signed in 2024 to abstain from any events sponsored by the College until all the requests from the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum, a referendum that passed in May of 2024 with a supermajority, are met. The referendum requested that the College take a public stance against the scholasticide in Gaza, disclose and reduce investment in arms manufacturing and reinstate a committee to oversee social responsibility in Bowdoin’s investments.

“We implore [Mamdani] to remain committed to the pledge he signed in 2024 to sever all ties from College-sponsored events until the demands of the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum are honored,” Greve wrote.

The College did not formally acknowledge [Mamdani’s] candidacy until his victory on Tuesday night. Soon after Mamdani was projected to win by multiple news sources, Bowdoin’s Instagram shared a post recognizing his victory. The post featured an AI-generated stock image of a city street and a bus shelter billboard edited to feature the “B” of the Bowdoin logo.

“Zohran Mamdani ’14 has been elected the 111th mayor of New York City. Bowdoin has a long tradition of graduates who have pursued careers in public service, including mayors, governors, legislators, ambassadors and judges,” the caption of the post read.

The post garnered more than 600 comments, many criticizing the lack of an image of Mamdani in the post as well as the caption’s non-congratulatory tone. In an email sent to the College’s administration, communications team and leadership from the McKeen Center for the Common Good, Adrienne White ’15 detailed her anger regarding the post.

“Your decision to exclude his photo, and any trace of enthusiasm at all, from your post about his historic win as mayor of New York City was not a neutral act. It was a deliberate erasure. It was disrespectful, dehumanizing and deeply inconsistent with the values Bowdoin claims to uphold,” White wrote.

In an email to the Orient, White explained her rationale for challenging the College’s administration.

“Seeing a classmate with a shared college experience continuing down a path in the pursuit of the common good to help millions of people gives me hope that Bowdoin grads can make the world a better place,” White wrote. “I was motivated to email the administration after discussing the post with friends, who also emailed the administration…. It did not go unnoticed how different the tone of the Instagram post was from the rest of Bowdoin’s content.”

Asplin also described the post as embarrassing to the College.

“Bowdoin doesn’t want to be represented by [Mamdani] clearly because I think they’re under the impression that it is a dangerous thing to be represented by,” Asplin said. “I don’t think there’s any need to celebrate Mamdani’s win, but we should certainly congratulate him on it. It’s a big deal to have a New York mayor who is a Bowdoin alum.… [The post] was trying to cover the fact too little too late, which is [that] you’re producing political extremists.”

On Wednesday morning, another post was shared on Bowdoin’s Instagram, this time including a photo of Mamdani and a link to a Bowdoin News article recognizing his win. The article wished him success and again highlighted Mamdani as part of a tradition of Bowdoin graduates who have pursued careers in public service.

“Bowdoin joins with many voices from around the country in wishing the mayor-elect well as he steps into this important role,” the article reads.

Anne Vasquez ’26 noted that even though she did not expect much in terms of communication regarding Mamdani’s win, she was still disappointed by the College’s posts.

“I didn’t even know if they were even going to say anything…. And so then to see that it’s a post that didn’t even have his face in it, and it’s just a stock image of New York City with the Bowdoin logo on it—not even a congratulations to an alumni who is now the mayor of the biggest city in the country,” Vasquez said. “It was so lukewarm and ridiculous.”