Bowdoin students closely watching Mamdani in NYC mayor’s race
BRUNSWICK — As the closely watched New York City mayoral election approaches next week, some students at Bowdoin College are paying close attention — in large part because of frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s history at the small liberal arts school.
Mamdani, who earned the Democratic nomination in June, majored in Africana studies at Bowdoin and graduated in 2014. While there, he co-founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and wrote opinion pieces for the student newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient.
Throughout the race, polling has consistently put Mamdani ahead of his opponents: Andrew Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary and is now running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Students interviewed on Bowdoin’s campus Friday were generally aware of Mamdani’s connection to Maine. Several were excited that a recent graduate could soon lead the nation’s largest city, while others said his campaign has brought more national recognition to the small college.
“It’s definitely cool to see that someone that goes here can have such a big political presence,” said Sienna Phillips, a first-year student who has followed the race through social media and the news. “I feel like he’s a very well-spoken person, so I think that definitely speaks to Bowdoin.”
Sophomore Rye Hughes suspected that he lived in Mamdani’s old dorm room at the Baxter House. Hughes said there’s a small cupboard in his dorm room that previous occupants signed, and he found Mamdani’s signature among them. The college confirmed Friday that Mamdani did indeed live there. Hughes and his roommate are planning to host an election watch party on Tuesday.
Students from many different states said friends and family members back home are watching the race and have remarked about Mamdani’s connection to Bowdoin.
“I have a couple of friends who are from New York, and they’re a lot more plugged into [the race],” said sophomore Mia Cheney.
Annabel Close, also a sophomore from Arizona, said she’s been watching the election closely. “It’s amazing to see someone who took the same classes we’re taking, who was at the same campus that we’re at, and he’s gone on and is having this amazing political career,” she said.
The race has also brought some heightened scrutiny to the college. Close mentioned a New York Times piece published this week that examined whether Mamdani’s Bowdoin education exemplified right-wing concerns about liberal arts colleges — something she found interesting but not true to her experience.
“At the end of the day, Bowdoin is just an academic institution, where we have intellectual discussion about things, and I think wherever that discussion goes regardless of political ideology,” Close said.
First-year student Whittier Henry said he was following the race from afar and supported Mamdani as a candidate before learning he went to Bowdoin around the same time Henry was starting at the college. He said Mamdani’s campaign has been exciting because it has brought a younger voice to Democratic politics.
“He understands the matters that we care about more,” Henry said.
Friends and professors of Mamdani from his time at Bowdoin have told the Press Herald they see the same qualities in him now as a high-profile political figure that they observed when he was a student.
Bowdoin English Professor Guy Mark Foster taught Mamdani more than a decade ago and remembers him as an eloquent writer and eager contributor. He called Mamdani warm, funny, and generous, and said he was culturally literate and sensitive about issues of race — important traits for a course focused on texts complicating the idea of Blackness in America.
“The Zohran I remember is the Zohran I see on TV,” Foster said, though he noted one difference: Mamdani now wears a suit.
Foster especially recalls Mamdani’s final paper for the course, which he re-read after seeing him campaigning on television. The paper demonstrated Mamdani’s orderliness of mind and sophisticated thinking, qualities Foster sees him bringing to politics.
Like others at Bowdoin who crossed paths with Mamdani, Foster said it is exciting — but not surprising — to see him on the national political stage.
https://www.sunjournal.com/2025/10/31/bowdoin-students-closely-watching-mamdani-in-nyc-mayors-race/
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