New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani greets voters with NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander on Broadway. Photo Via Getty Images
***
Zohran Mamdani, New York State Assemblymember, is the current Democratic candidate for New York City’s mayoral election in November. Mamdani’s victory during the Democratic primary took many by surprise. People wondered how Mamdani, a thirty-three-year-old self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist with limited experience in politics, had achieved a triumphant landslide victory against former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and current New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, garnering 56.4% of the vote, according to The New York Times.
The answer lies within Zohran Mamdani’s campaign strategies, specifically his campaign’s ingenious use of social media and video creation. Within a mere five months of announcing his candidacy for New York City mayor, Mamdani became a social media sensation. This overnight vitality came as no surprise to Mamdani’s team, as his social media videos were curated specifically to resonate with younger audiences.
It’s no secret that both millennials and Generation Z are characterized by an innate longing for relatability, which stems from the political distress and uncertainty both generations have faced throughout their adolescence. According to data from the American Psychological Association, as of 2017, 63% of Americans reported being incredibly stressed about their nation’s future, with millennials being significantly more likely than older people to express concern. As millennials and Gen Z enter adulthood amid higher prices, unemployment rates, and inflation, they are left with not only uncertainty about the future but also fleeting hope for their nation’s progress.
The feeling of a doomed future lingered until the arrival of Zohran Mamdani. The mayoral candidate took social media by storm at the beginning of 2025, with his TikTok and X videos exceeding 1 million views. His most popular uploads include canvassing on the streets of multiple New York City boroughs, asking voters what they want in a candidate. Other videos featured Mamdani strolling through areas such as Bushwick, Midtown, and Co-op City, discussing his plans to improve the city, including freezing rent, introducing fast, fare-free buses, and implementing city-owned groceries. These videos, which show Mamdani casually walking through areas besides the popular West Village or Times Square, discussing how to make the city affordable for all, deeply resonated with young New York voters. Seeing a political candidate who seemed to care about more than the wealthy upper-class of New York, venturing to areas outside of uptown Manhattan to reach voters, instilled a newfound sense of hope and security in the young voters of New York.
However, any successful campaign model comes with its half-baked imitations. Andrew Cuomo, who ran against Mamdani in the Democratic primary, has tried to adopt Mamdani’s video creation tactics to gain votes for his run as an independent candidate in the November election. Following Mamdani’s primary and Cuomo’s announcement that he will remain in the race, Cuomo’s team uploaded a video almost identical to Mamdani’s, but lacking the authenticity and passion of its inspiration. The video begins with Cuomo standing in a New York City park, dressed casually, as he discusses his plans to make the city safer and more affordable. While Cuomo’s clear goal with this video is to convey a relaxed, relatable attitude to voters, his monotone delivery, along with the stiff, ultra-high-definition cinematography, causes his efforts to fall flat, with him appearing even more out of touch than in his previous suit-and-tie videos. While Mamdani’s videos are also made with expensive equipment and a team behind the scenes, he is able to emulate an effortless, authentic video style that looks as if anyone watching could create something similar. As Cuomo’s video continues, it shows the mayoral candidate interacting with city residents, entering family-owned stores, and greeting street walkers with handshakes and back-pats. This is clearly imitating Mamdani’s most viral TikTok videos, which include him entering his favorite city restaurants and engaging in casual conversation with passersby. When watching the video, one can easily spot Cuomo’s evident disingenuity when interacting with the public, with each person feeling like a tally mark to up his likability.
Overall, we, as a nation, are at a pivotal political moment. Many adolescents are dissatisfied with the current state of the United States government and feel a sense of overwhelming responsibility to clean up the mess made by the generations before them. With the perceived rise of authoritarianism and nationalism under President Donald Trump’s administration, young Democratic voters are looking for a candidate who can bring them the affordable, safe future they were emptily promised by preceding Democratic candidates. Stale campaigns, catering to the moderate middle-class Democrat, are not resonating with millennial and Gen Z voters the way they did with previous generations. Rather, these younger age groups are looking for a candidate who emulates passion, promise, and personability, which they find in Zohran Mamdani. Hard as they may try, these three qualities are impossible for other politicians to strategically forge, as they cannot be bought.
***
This article was edited by Isabel Adkins and Emma Cate Martin.
Lauren Gracia 
Cooper Toland 
Annabella Volpe