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
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.
