Charisma, optimism, mastery of social networks, an army of 100,000 volunteers on the streets and a concise message. This is how Zohran Mamdani managed to become the next mayor of New York on a historic election night, in which more than 2 million New Yorkers voted, a figure that had not been surpassed since the 1960s. His victory, along with that of other Democratic candidates in states such as neighboring New Jersey or southern Virginia, puts both Donald Trump’s Republican Party, a year after his electoral victory in the 2024 presidential election, and the foundation of the Democratic Party on alert. The rise against all odds of the young Muslim, immigrant and socialist politician will force the Democratic leadership to take stock, while it still struggles to overcome the existential crisis determined first by Joe Biden’s disastrous campaign and then by the defeat of Kamala Harris. The party knows that it must look to the future and that it will have to take into account the movement created by Mamdani.
On Wednesday morning, in his first press conference as mayor-elect, Mamdani made clear his intentions for when he takes office on January 1: “The hard work to improve the lives of New Yorkers starts now.” The Democrat assured that his first day in town hall “will be focused on the cost of living crisis”, the central axis of his campaign. “He will focus on providing solutions to New Yorkers who have been economically excluded from this city,” he said.
He also recalled what he had already advanced during his victory speech Tuesday night: that his will be an administration that will not shy away from confronting Trump, especially regarding his immigration agenda, and if the president decides to intensify his anti-immigration offensive in the city. “My message to (immigration) agents and everyone in this city is that everyone will be held to the same standards of law. If you break the law, you must be held accountable. Unfortunately, across the country there is a growing sense that some people may break that law, whether it’s the president or the agents themselves. And what New Yorkers are looking for is an era of consistency, an era of clarity, an era of conviction.”
Below are some of the keys to the victory of the mayor-elect of the most populous city in the United States.
An easy to understand message
Mamdani’s proposal has always been the same: build a more accessible city. New York is the most expensive city in the United States and is among the most expensive in the entire world. The average rent exceeds $3,000 a month and, although New York is also the richest city in the entire country, one in four New Yorkers cannot afford the essentials: housing, food, child care or medical care.
Faced with this reality, Mamdani’s plan is succinct. He repeated this throughout the campaign: freezing the rents of rent-controlled apartments for four years (it is estimated that 40% of the city’s units are of this type), making nursery schools free for children up to five years old and making public transport buses free for their users.
Mobilization of the young vote
Theirs is a movement that is mostly, although not exclusively, young. Mamdani, 34, has managed to do what few politicians have managed to do in recent years: connect with young people. He did it effortlessly: on the weekend before the election, he was seen bar-hopping all over the city and ended up partying at dawn with his followers.
In Tuesday’s vote, the Democrat would have taken 62% of the votes of those under 30 and more than 50% of those aged 30 to 44. By comparison, in the 2024 presidential election, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was about 10 points behind Mamdani among those under 30, and Trump was 15 points behind.
It’s a phenomenon not seen since 2012, and before that 2008. That year, former Democratic President Barack Obama, to whom Mamdani is constantly compared, won about 66% of the vote among voters under 30. When he ran for re-election in 2012, he got 60%.
A viral politician
The bond that Mamdani has managed to build with younger people is largely due to his mastery of social media. The 34-year-old Democrat proved himself to be a millennial in every sense of the word and ran a viral campaign almost from start to finish. After announcing his candidacy a year ago, a video from 2019 began circulating in which he appears rapping shirtless, wearing only an apron, from inside a food cart. At that point the polls gave him little or no chance of winning.
However, his team was cultivating their presence on the networks, posting video after video, coil After coiland has racked up millions of views, comments and pleases. Actors, comedians, rappers and other popular cultural icons have joined his campaign, and the politician has been able to exploit other viral trends to position himself. For example, the week before this Tuesday’s election, he posted a video in Spanish in which he began by saying: “New Yoooooooool!“, in reference to the Bad Bunny song that has become a city anthem. Months earlier, he was on the streets of the Big Apple celebrating the local basketball team, the Knicks, when they reached the NBA Eastern Conference finals last season.
Charisma and optimism
Mamdani’s voters characterized his campaign as one of hope and optimism, especially in response to Trump’s victory a year ago. Many interlocutors on Tuesday assured that the Democrat has regained confidence in politics in a country torn by politicization and which is facing the authoritarian drift of the federal administration. Mamdani did it with a charisma not seen since Obama.
Over the past year, the now-elected mayor has made it a priority to speak directly to his constituents. He literally toured New York from top to bottom. He spoke to taxi drivers, seniors, night workers, healthcare and subway workers, and members of religious congregations. He has participated in events such as the Puerto Rican parade in Manhattan, the Caribbean parade in Brooklyn and the marathon through the city’s five boroughs. At the same time, a historic army of 100,000 volunteers helped him knock on 3 million doors.
