Hope Rising: Watching Zohran Mamdani's Historic Victory from Atlanta, Georgia

I've spent the last twenty years discovering that the best creative work happens when you combine strategic thinking with genuine passion for storytelling. But Tuesday night, June 24th, as I watched the election results come in from my home in Atlanta, I wasn't thinking about design or campaigns or business strategy. I was crying.

It's been a few days since Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City, and I'm still processing what that moment meant to me.

The Move That Changed Everything

Currently, Samira and I live in Atlanta, Georgia, but that wasn't always the case. Three years ago, we made one of the hardest decisions of our lives—we left New York, the city that had been our home, our community, our everything. We left because we literally couldn't afford to stay.

We have two beautiful children, and we both strongly believe in Montessori education. We lived in the North Bronx, but for our kids' ages, we didn't have a lot of great school options in our area. We started looking for programs, mostly in Westchester or somewhere relatively close. The price quotes we were getting were staggering—the same as college tuition. Thirty, forty, even fifty thousand dollars a year, per child. We have two kids. The math wasn't mathing.

The combination of limited local options and the prohibitive cost of quality education elsewhere made it clear that staying in New York wasn't financially viable for our family. We were looking at other states, but because both Samira and I had family in Atlanta, it became the most sensible move. Samira comes from a big family—she's one of seven siblings who are all very close. I also come from a big family, though some of my family members were still in New York.

Leaving behind that family support system was heartbreaking. But we came to the conclusion that we just really couldn't afford it, and we had to leave.

Why Zohran's Campaign Resonated So Deeply

So when I heard Zohran Mamdani talking about making New York affordable so that people don't have to leave—talking about rent freezes, free buses, creating 200,000 affordable housing units—it really resonated with me. I was one of those people he was talking about. Samira and I were among those New Yorkers who wanted to stay but couldn't.

His campaign spoke to experiences I knew intimately. I've been on NYC buses where I had to scrape up change growing up. I've been in situations where pre-K wasn't affordable for Samira and me. I've navigated systems that seemed designed to push working families out rather than support them.

But it wasn't just the policies. It was watching how Zohran ran his campaign—with authenticity, with genuine connection to communities that often feel ignored. Born in Kampala, Uganda, and moving to New York at age 7, he understood what it meant to build a life in a place that doesn't always make space for you. As a Muslim, as someone from the South Asian community, as an immigrant, he was speaking directly to experiences of feeling othered while still believing deeply in the possibility of belonging.

The Power of Authentic Leadership

What moved me to tears wasn't just that he won, though that was extraordinary. At 33 years old, this relatively unknown state assemblyman had just defeated Andrew Cuomo, the former governor backed by the party establishment, in what's being called a stunning upset. If he wins in November, Mamdani would become the first Muslim mayor in New York City's history.

What got me was how he did it. He sat for interviews with people who disagreed with him. He engaged in cross-endorsements with rivals, encouraging supporters to rank them highly as well on their ranked-choice ballots. He campaigned aggressively, including walking the length of Manhattan on Friday. He built something real.

This is the kind of leadership we champion in our organizational development work—leadership that doesn't require assimilation or the erasure of identity. Instead, it leverages lived experience as a source of wisdom and connection. Zohran didn't succeed despite being a young Muslim immigrant; he succeeded because his identity gave him insight into the challenges facing working families across the city.

And being Muslim myself, knowing firsthand the racism and prejudice that comes with that identity—being Caribbean and African American, being Black in New York—to see someone who looked like me, who shared some of my experiences, who understood what it meant to navigate those systems, defy all the odds... it gave me something I didn't realize I'd lost.

It gave me hope.

The Moment Everything Changed

"Tuesday night was Assemblyman Mamdani's night, and he put together a great campaign. And he touched young people, and inspired them, and moved them, and got them to come out and vote. And he really ran a highly impactful campaign," Andrew Cuomo said in his concession speech. Even in defeat, there was recognition of what Zohran had accomplished.

To be honest, I'd been feeling like I'd lost hope in electoral politics. Watching so much division, so much performance, so many politicians who seemed disconnected from the real struggles of working families. But seeing Zohran's victory—seeing him win by staying true to his values, by speaking directly to people's lived experiences, by building genuine community—reminded me why authentic leadership matters.

What This Means for Equity and Inclusion

Zohran's victory represents something we talk about constantly in our DEI work: the transformative power of authentic representation. This wasn't just about having a Muslim candidate or a South Asian candidate—though that representation matters immensely. It was about someone who refused to distance himself from his identity or water down his values to be more "electable."

In our consulting work, we see organizations struggling with this same tension all the time. Leaders from marginalized backgrounds are often pressured to code-switch, to make themselves more palatable, to minimize the very experiences that give them unique insight into systemic challenges. Zohran's campaign showed what's possible when leaders refuse to do that—when they lead with their full selves and trust that authenticity resonates.

His platform wasn't just progressive policy; it was equity in action. Rent freezes, free buses, affordable childcare—these aren't just nice ideas, they're the infrastructure of inclusion. They're the policies that make it possible for working families, for immigrants, for communities of color to actually stay and thrive in the places they call home.

This is exactly the kind of systemic thinking we encourage in our organizational work. True inclusion isn't just about representation in the room—it's about changing the systems that determine who gets to stay in the room, who can afford to be in the room, whose voices get centered when decisions are made.

What This Means Going Forward

"What we offer is a vision to keep New Yorkers in the place that they call home, and an antidote to the current political climate and the hatred and the division that it spews," Zohran said in his victory speech. "We are showing people that hope is not something that is naive. It is, in fact, righteous when it is built upon a plan and a vision."

That's what moves me most about this moment. It's not naive optimism—it's hope built on concrete plans and real organizing. It's the kind of leadership that doesn't just talk about change but demonstrates what's possible when you center dignity, affordability, and genuine community care.

The Lesson for All of Us

As I watched from Atlanta that night, cheering on Zohran's victory from almost a thousand miles away, I was reminded of something crucial: no matter how down you get or how difficult the challenges you're facing, always stick to your plan. Always be authentic to who you are, and let that help lead the way. People see authenticity. People respond to it.

You don't always have to get it right, and you're going to experience failure. But the wins—when they come from a place of genuine connection and real values—they feel so much better. They feel so much more meaningful.

Zohran's victory wasn't just about defeating Andrew Cuomo or even about winning a primary. It was about proving that in a time of cynicism and division, authentic leadership that centers working families and marginalized communities can still break through. It was about showing that hope, when built on organizing and genuine connection, can move mountains.

Looking Ahead

Now Zohran faces the general election in November, where he'll likely face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who's running as an independent. The race will have very different contours than the Democratic primary, but what he's already accomplished—energizing new voters, building a grassroots movement, centering affordability and dignity in his platform—that foundation is solid.

These past few days, I've been reflecting on what Tuesday night represented, not just as a political moment, but as a masterclass in inclusive leadership. From Atlanta, Samira and I will be watching and cheering him on as the campaign moves toward November. His victory reminds us that the work we're doing through Hyphens and Spaces—helping organizations become more human-centered, more inclusive, more aligned with justice—it's all connected to this larger project of building the world we want to live in.

Sometimes you need to see it to believe it's possible. Tuesday night, watching a young Muslim immigrant defeat the political establishment by staying true to his values and centering working families, I saw it. A few days later, that feeling hasn't faded.

Hope is rising. And that feels like everything.

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Yusef Ramelize is Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Hyphens and Spaces, a consultancy focused on creating more human-centered organizations. He and his family moved from New York to Atlanta in 2022, and he continues to believe in the power of authentic leadership to create meaningful change.

Ready to bring more authentic, inclusive leadership to your organization? We'd love to explore how we can support your team in creating workplaces where everyone can show up as their full selves. Connect with us via email or fill out our intake form to start the conversation.