Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani publicly released his 700-plus SAT II scores on Wednesday in a jab at critics who have seized on his college career, including his decision to identify himself as both African American and Asian on a Columbia University application.
Speaking at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers union, Mamdani revealed he received 710 on his SAT II English exam and 740 on his world history test.
“I know now that’s of great interest to Eric Adams and many others,” Mamdani said with a smirk, standing alongside UFT President Michael Mulgrew, whose powerful union endorsed the democratic socialist’s mayoral bid Tuesday.
Mamdani’s comments about college test scores came after Adams and his supporters have made Mamdani’s college career a major target for political attacks over the last several days.
The controversy started when the New York Times reported last week that records hacked from Columbia University showed Mamdani had on an application to the college identified himself as both African American and Asian. Mamdani, who was born in Africa to Indian parents and later moved to the U.S., has said he checked both boxes because he felt neither option fully explained his identity.
But the mayor, and an X account affiliated with his campaign called @AdamsWarRoom, assailed Mamdani for the application flap, saying he was trying to use Black identity as a trump card at a time when race was a factor in college admissions. Mamdani, who ended up attending Bowdoin College in Maine, did not get accepted at Columbia.
On the heels of the application fracas, more information about Mamdani from the Columbia hack leaked out, including records showing he netted a 2,140 out of 2,400 score on his regular SAT, the lower end of the median for students admitted to the Ivy League school.
“We can tell,” the Adams war room account tweeted about his SAT score.
Adams and others have also attacked Mamdani for social media posts he put out while in college, including messages espousing socialist views.
“This is horrifying,” the war room account recently wrote on X about a post Mamdani put out years ago saying industries should be “worker owned.”
As the Democratic Party’s mayoral nominee, Mamdani is emerging as the favorite to win November’s general election. The UFT endorsement marked another influential union that has backed Mamdani following his win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary.
In a new poll of the November contest released Wednesday, Mamdani led with 35%, Cuomo trailed at 25%, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa at 14% and Adams placed fourth with 11%.
Addressing the backlash over his tweets and college record during Wednesday’s UFT press conference, Mamdani said he believes Adams is focusing on those issues to distract from “the record at hand.”
“What I hear from New Yorkers is they can’t afford their rent, they can’t afford their ConEdison bill, they can’t afford even a metrocard … If I was Eric Adams I would rather talk about SAT scores than the fact that he raised the rent by 9% over the first years in his mayoralty and increased it yet again this year,” he said, referring to the mayorally-controlled Rent Guidelines Board’s increases on stabilized tenants.
Originally Published:
