New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo are calling for a full investigation into allegations that Zohran Mamdani falsely identified himself as African American on his Columbia University application.
However, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa says the controversy is a distraction from Mamdani’s socialist agenda and only turns him into a victim, energizing his supporters and swaying undecided voters.
Both Adams and Cuomo warned that Mamdani’s alleged racial misrepresentation could signal deeper deceit — with the Adams campaign calling the move "possibly fraudulent" and Cuomo’s campaign warning it might be "just the tip of the iceberg."
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Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, identified as "Black or African American" on his 2009 Columbia University application, even though he now says he does not consider himself Black, The New York Times reported Thursday. Mamdani, then a high school senior, also checked "Asian" and reportedly wrote in "Ugandan" in the space for additional background. He was ultimately not accepted to Columbia, even though his father is a professor at the elite school. He was not a U.S. citizen at the time.
Mamdani told The Times he identifies as "an American who was born in Africa," and said checking multiple boxes was an effort to reflect his "complex background" and not to gain an edge in the competitive admissions process.
However, Adams condemned Mamdani’s actions as "an insult to every student who got into college the right way."
"The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience," Adams said. "It’s a history, a struggle, and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive."
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the Cuomo campaign, echoed the calls from the Adams camp.
"This should come as no surprise as Mamdani — his proposals, his funding, and his background — received absolutely no scrutiny," Azzopardi said. "This issue must be fully investigated because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg."
Adams is running as an Independent, having been elected as a Democrat in late 2021, while Cuomo is weighing an independent route to Gracie Mansion, having lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
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Sliwa, on the other hand, is taking the high road and sees the controversy as a political distraction that will only help Mamdani’s cause.
"There’s so much we can criticize Zoran for…to me, what are we doing here?" Sliwa told Fox News Digital. "We're making him a martyr. We're victimizing Zohran and getting away from the issues of why his election would be a threat to New York City.
"He’s being attacked as a Muslim, he’s being mocked for how he eats in a video. Stop that. You’re enraging people who might otherwise disagree with him on the issues. You’re galvanizing his support."
Mamdani’s win has caused a political earthquake in the Big Apple, striking fear into moderates, independents, conservatives — and even parts of the Democrat Party — who believe his socialist policies could have devastating and long-lasting consequences on the financial capital of the world. Mamdani ran on a platform that included economic policies aligned with progressives and socialists in the Democratic Party, such as a $30 minimum wage, tax hikes on businesses and the rich, and other policies, like creating city-owned grocery stores and imposing a rent freeze for stabilized tenants.
Sliwa warned critics that critics are handing Mamdani a political gift.
"Even people who don’t agree with him on the issues will rally to his defense when they think the attacks are unfair or over the top," Sliwa added. "Let's get back to the issues where there are clear differences between how Zohran Mamdani wants to run the city and the way I want to run this city — or Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo. Stop this, you're just victimizing him."
The Adams campaign is calling on Columbia University to publicly release Mamdani’s 2009 admissions records, clarify whether his non-citizen status influenced admissions or financial aid decisions, and conduct a formal review to determine whether any university policies were violated.
"We need answers," Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said. "Because the people of New York deserve to know whether the man asking for their vote built his career on a possibly fraudulent foundation."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign about the controversy and his opponents' takes on it but did not immediately receive a response.
Mamdani told The Times that aside from those college forms, he doesn’t recall ever identifying as Black or African American. His parents are both of Indian descent. His father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, has lived in East Africa for generations, but Mamdani said there had been no intermarriage in the family with native African groups.
Mamdani has leaned into his South Asian and Muslim identity on the campaign trail.
During a June speech at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, he also stressed his African roots, saying, "I was born in Kampala, Uganda... I was given my middle name, Kwame, by my father, who named me after the first Prime Minister of Ghana."
Fox News’ Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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