New York City’s newest first lady is a VCU grad

In one of the nation’s most closely watched elections on Tuesday night, Zohran Mamdani was elected the mayor of New York City.

Mamdani is a Democratic socialist, and his campaign was opposed by many of the city’s financial leaders as he campaigned alongside Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, then again Tuesday as Cuomo ran as an independent in the general election.

Mamdani has ties to Richmond. His wife, Rama Duwaji, is a VCU Arts alumna.

Duwaji, who works as an artist, attended VCU’s school in Qatar before transferring to the Richmond campus, where she had her first exhibited show as an artist.

The couple met on the dating app Hinge, and got married at the New York City Clerk’s office earlier this year.

Duwaji, who is of Syrian ancestry, voted alongside Mamdani on Tuesday morning in New York.

Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org. (VCU is a sponsor of The Richmonder, but did not influence or review this story.)