Nyc Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Identified As Black, Asian On Columbia Application: Report

Zohran Mamdani, nan Democratic nominee for politician of New York City, identified arsenic "Black aliases African American" connected his 2009 Columbia University exertion moreover though he now says he does not see himself Black, The New York Times reported Thursday.

According to The Times, nan soul information came from a leaked database of past Columbia applications which was portion of a caller hack targeting nan Ivy League school.

Mamdani, past a precocious schoolhouse senior, besides checked "Asian" and reportedly wrote successful "Ugandan" successful nan abstraction for further background. He was yet not accepted to Columbia moreover though his begetter is simply a professor astatine nan elite school.

Students are seen connected nan field of Columbia University connected April 14, 2025, successful New York City. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

But astatine nan time, Columbia, for illustration galore elite universities, utilized race-conscious admissions, a strategy nan Supreme Court struck down successful 2023.

"Even though these boxes are constraining," Mamdani said, "I wanted my assemblage exertion to bespeak who I was."

New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters during an predetermination nighttime gathering. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

His parents are some of Indian descent. His father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, has lived successful East Africa for generations, but Mamdani said location had been nary intermarriage successful nan family pinch autochthonal African groups.

Mamdani has leaned into his South Asian and Muslim personality connected nan run trail. During a June reside astatine Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, he besides stressed his African roots: "I was calved successful Kampala, Uganda... I was fixed my mediate name, Kwame, by my father, who named maine aft nan first Prime Minister of Ghana."

President Donald Trump brought up Mamdani astatine a rally Wednesday, saying if he interferes pinch migration laws "we’ll person to apprehension him." 

Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, during a run arena astatine nan NAN House of Justice successful nan Harlem vicinity of New York, connected Saturday, June 28, 2025.  (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"Look, we don’t request a communist successful this country, but if we person one, I’m going to beryllium watching complete them very cautiously connected behalf of nan nation," Trump added.

Fox News Digital has reached retired to nan Mamdani run for comment.