Even if you don’t live in New York, you’ve probably heard about the mayoral race that was happening in the largest U.S. city. The three major candidates were Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and, of course, Zohran Mamdani. Many moments from this race went viral on social media, hence why we’ve all heard of Mamdani. However, you might be wondering, who is Mamdani, and why did his campaign work?
Zohran Mamdani was the democratic candidate for the New York City mayoral race. He’s only 34 years old and has become the first Muslim and South Asian mayor in NYC. He’s unapologetically a democrat and used this to fuel his campaign. He’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and despite the idea of socialism having been “feared” by many for a while, he still persevered and became mayor-elect.
By identifying himself as a socialist, he immediately drew people’s attention. Even though some of it was negative press, it was still press. His opponents claimed that socialism would ruin New York, and the other candidates would be better suited for the city. Mamdani took these criticisms and ran. He turned these ideas on their head and showed how his beliefs would help NYC.
The main platform he ran on was that New York is too expensive. He promises that he’ll lower costs and make living in New York more affordable. His main goals are to freeze rent and to stop the unethical practices of certain landlords. Everyone knows that living in such a popular city is expensive, so by making this promise, he drew everyone’s attention.
One step in his plan to make NYC affordable is to make city-owned grocery stores. This idea caused such a stir in the city, and it got everyone talking. A large part of New York’s culture is the bodegas, small convenience stores that also sell prepared foods. People believed that with the city’s grocery stores, bodegas would go out of business. However, Mamdani clarified that this wouldn’t be the case.
Besides the fact that there would only be a handful of grocery stores owned by the city, and they’d only sell affordable groceries, bodegas will still sell their prepared foods along with their other best sellers. By ensuring these promises, Mamdani got the bodegas and their union on his side.
Mamdani also ran on the idea that public transport should be free in the city. About half of the bus riders in NYC weren’t paying for the bus, leading to a loss of $315 million in revenue. To fix this problem, Mamdani came up with the solution to make public transport free.
He claims that he’ll budget for the city to now pay for the rides and drivers, stating that it’ll be a change in the long run. To show the importance of public transport and its accessibility, he rode the public bus to one of the mayoral debates.
Citizens of New York resonated with this idea, and it got more voters on his side. Mamdani’s beliefs are those of the people of New York. His platform is one that he believes in, and the people of NYC believe in, too.
Another distinguishable characteristic of his was that Mamdani always stayed true to his ideas and to himself. While people hated the socialist policies he believed in, they also hated his ethnicity and faith. People believed that he was trying to use his background to get more diverse groups on his side; however, he said he was trying to “claim the fullness of his background.” By addressing this issue, he got voters who identified with a similar problem on his side.
Mamdani connected with a large group of voters that had a range of ethnicities. By celebrating his heritage and religion, he got followers who believed in the same religion as him or shared his journey as an immigrant. This is another way he stood out from everyday politicians.
What exactly made his campaign so special? Why does everyone know about the mayoral election in New York City, when let’s be honest, most can’t even name the mayor in their own town? Zohran Mamdani’s use of social media got him very far. He catered to the young voters and got them out on the streets volunteering and voting.
Mamdani took to the streets himself, doing various interviews and connecting with the people in the city. A huge trend on social media right now is the street interview. Content creators will stop “random” people on the streets to interview them. Mamdani used this strategy and conducted interviews with influencers, and even conducted his own. He walked the streets of New York and connected with his voters.
Just days before the election, he went to different nightclubs to help with DJ sets and encourage citizens to vote for him. These moments went viral because the next morning at 6 a.m., he went canvassing and did the same thing with the early risers of the Big Apple.
Mamdani utilized various social media sites to promote his campaign. He followed trends that are seen on these sites and connected with users globally to get them talking about his campaign. Talking to others and using such methods worked. Users all over X and Instagram celebrated his win alongside the people of New York while living thousands of miles away.
If you look at Mamdani’s various social media pages, you can see what trends he used to gain traction. A culmination of all these trends got people talking about his campaign strategy. When looking at his pages, you see a distinct style of print used for his posters.
Similar to Barack Obama’s hope poster, which could be recognized anywhere, Mamdani used an orange and blue color scheme and blocky font for his campaign posters. With such a distinct type of font being correlated to someone, people will think of Mamdani when they see these colors.
One thing that Mamdani’s campaign received that so many past campaigns didn’t was the sheer number of volunteers he had working with him. More than ever, Gen Z showed up and got to work for Mamdani; they canvassed and spread his message to the other citizens of New York. With these volunteers and his campaign, he broke early voting records in NYC.
Mamdani had many viral moments when it came to his campaign, and that’s why everyone has heard about him. He used all the press he could get, whether it was good or bad, to get the citizens out and voting.
Zohran Mamdani’s campaign and beliefs are the reasons why he was elected as the mayor of New York City. With everyone watching his campaign, we can now watch to see how he runs the city and hope for more viral moments.
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