The New York Mamdani town hall candidate identified as black at Columbia’s request

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for the mayor of New York, identified as “black or African-American” at his request from the University of Columbia 2009, even if he now says that he does not consider himself black, The New York Times reported THURSDAY.

According to the Times, internal data came from a database disclosed from the previous applications of Columbia which were part of a recent hack targeting the Ivy League school.

Mamdani, then a high school student, also checked “Asian” and would have written in “Ugandan” in space for additional training. He was ultimately not accepted in Columbia even if his father is a teacher at the elite school.

Today, 33 years old, Mamdani told Times that he identifies himself as “an American who was born in Africa”, and said that checking several boxes was an effort to reflect his “complex background”, not to win an advantage in the competitive admission process.

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Students are seen on the campus of Columbia University on April 14, 2025 in New York. (Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)

But at the time, Columbia, like many elite universities, used admissions concerned with the breed, a system that the Supreme Court announced in 2023.

“Even if these boxes are binding,” said Mamdani, “I wanted my university application to reflect who I was.”

Mamdani told Times that outside of these college forms, he does not remember never having identified as black or African-American.

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The New York town hall candidate, the state representative, Zohran Mamdani, speaks to the supporters during an electoral night meeting. (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

His parents are both of Indian origin. His father, the professor of Columbia, Mahmood Mamdani, has lived in East Africa for generations, but Mamdani said that there had been mixed marriages in the family with indigenous African groups.

Mamdani looked into his South Asian and Muslim identity on the campaign track. During a June speech at the National Action Network in Al Sharpton, he also underlined his African roots: “I was born in Kampala, Uganda … I was given my second first name, Kwame, by my father, who appointed me the first Prime Minister of Ghana.”

President Donald Trump spoke of Mamdani during a rally on Wednesday, saying that if he interferes with immigration laws, “we will have to stop him.”

Zohran Mamdani, candidate for town hall in New York, during a campaign event at the Nan House of Justice in the Harlem district of New York, on Saturday June 28, 2025. (Adam Gray / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Listen, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to watch them very carefully on behalf of the nation,” added Trump.

Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, rejected the remarks, accusing Trump of “an attempt to send a message to each New York who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation”.

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Fox News Digital contacted the Mamdani campaign to comment.