How Mamdani connects climate policy to his affordability agenda as he runs for New York mayor

Zohran Mamdani gives a victory speech after winning the Democratic primary at an election night watch party in Long Island City, New York, on 24 June 2025. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

As she canvassed for Zohran Mamdani in New York City on Tuesday last week, Batul Hassan should have been elated. The mayoral candidate – a 33-year-old state assemblymember – was surging in the polls and would within hours soundly defeat Andrew Cuomo on first preference votes in the Democratic primary election.

But Hassan’s spirits were hampered by record-breaking temperatures. In Crown Heights, where she was the Mamdani campaign’s field captain, the heat index soared into the triple digits.