When Zohran Mamdani was declared the next mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, he made history becoming the first Muslim mayor and the youngest to lead the city in over a century.

But standing beside him, smiling quietly as the crowd roared, was someone about to make history too – his wife, 28-year-old artist Rama Duwaji.

While Mamdani’s political rise has captured headlines, his love story with Rama is straight out of a movie — one that begins not in City Hall, but on a dating app.

A match made on hinge

The couple first connected on Hinge in 2021, back when Mamdani had just been elected to the New York State Assembly. Rama, a Syrian-American illustrator based in Brooklyn, wasn’t familiar with New York politics — and Mamdani wasn’t exactly looking for the spotlight.

Their first date was refreshingly normal: coffee at Qahwah House, a cozy Yemeni café in Brooklyn, followed by a walk through McCarren Park. On their second date, Mamdani took Rama on a tour of his Astoria district, the same neighborhood that would one day help make him mayor.

By October 2024, the two were engaged.

“Couldn’t possibly be prouder,” Rama wrote on Instagram alongside photos of the couple and a childhood picture of Mamdani.

Just days after announcing their engagement, Mamdani launched his campaign for mayor. The couple celebrated their nikah and engagement party in Dubai that December, a rooftop ceremony overlooking the Burj Khalifa, filled with white roses and trailing greenery.

“This engagement and Nikkah were more than an event — it was a floral installation set against Dubai’s dusky skyline,” LMF Dubai, the event designer, wrote on Instagram.