Where Mamdani Found the Blueprints to Run for Mayor
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has managed a State Senate campaign. He’s been a tutor and a rapper. And in 2016, he helped his mother, the director Mira Nair, with the music in her movie, “Queen of Katwe.”
But his first and only full-time job outside of politics involved counseling struggling homeowners at a small nonprofit in Queens.
Mr. Mamdani’s work at the nonprofit, the Chhaya Community Development Corporation, has mostly been an aside in this year’s mayoral campaign, occasionally mentioned by his opponents to criticize his comparatively thin résumé.
But a closer look at his year there, based on accounts from current and former co-workers and his past statements, shows how Chhaya laid the path for his rise and sharpened his politics into a message of empathy that has resonated with New Yorkers amid the worst housing shortage in nearly 60 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-howeowners.html