How social media used by Zohran Mamdani to beat Cuomo

Sitting in the metro and holding a metrocard as a microphone, Zohran Mamdani had a hot catch for New York: that he should be his next mayor.

The scene came from a June “Subway Takes”Tiktok Video which has raised more than 3 million views – part of a wider Mamdani push to meet voters where they lived online. As his basic campaign reached primary day, he had gained support for main social media figures like Emily Ratajkowski and signed up with voters through popular accounts as Want.

Thousands of people expressed their enthusiasm for his candidacy in comments on his dozens of social media videos, which according to experts Beat him in a radical primary victory.

When the 33 -year -old legislator, then little known, first announced his candidacy for the town hall last fall, he was considered a long -term shot. Mamdani was an self -proclaimed democratic socialist and has deeply critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza – factors that made him an unlikely democratic candidate at a time when the party has moved away from the left values.

But in the months preceding the elections on Tuesday, Mamdani had skyrocketed from the dark with the internet renown, raising more than a million followers on Instagram, as well as hundreds of thousands on Tiktok and X. Although his viral campaign on social networks has echo echoes of echoes of echoes of echoes Run filled with memes of Kamala HarrisAnalysts say that Mamdani exposed key differences that helped him to the Icher to a real victory.

“If you ask the voters:” Why did you vote for Mamdani? ” … I do not think they will say to us: “Oh, because I saw something cute on social networks”, “said Jonathan Nagler, professor of politics at New York University and co -director of his Center for Social Media and Politics.” I think they will say what really influenced them, it is because they learned about the social networks. “

In his viral videos, Mamdani clearly shows his hope for the city: reducing the cost of living by increasing taxes on the richest New Yorkers. Its basic campaign promises – freezes, fast and free bus, universal daycare services – were the foundation of its online platform. The online discussion more focused on policies is distinguished from the content that defined the Harris online campaign, which included the aesthetics of Charli XCX’s kid and non -police viral sound bits like Harris’ reference to the fall of a “coconut palm”. But with politics, Mamdani also added a personal flair to his online campaign.

In a recent video, Mamdani baptized New Yorkers as he A Market Manhattan from Pointe à la PointeSaying that residents “deserve a mayor they can see, they can hear, they can even scream”. He explained the classified choice vote While speaking of Hindi fluently In another video, with playful references to South Asian pop culture. And when his campaign became the first to reach the expenditure ceiling of $ 8 million in this year’s town hall race, Mamdani published a video exhorting viewers to stop making a donation And volunteer to solicit in the place.

Anthony Dimeri, a filmmaker who works on Mamdani campaign videos, said that part of the mayor’s candidate’s popularity comes from the consistency of his character on and out of camera. Mamdani is also very involved in the video ideation process, he said, and will often add spontaneous jokes or ideas during filming.

“We met people on the campaign campaign who said they had joined because of the videos. We said to ourselves, “What brought you here?” And they are like: “I loved his videos” and “I didn’t see anyone like that,” said Dimière. “We all had a lot of fun doing this work, and I think the pleasure we have translated to the public.”

The momentum is also offline, as Tens of thousands of volunteers introduced themselves to Mamdani’s door in their neighborhood. Online, his supporters shared stories The way they convinced their family, friends and neighbors to classify it first.

Pranjal Jain, a digital strategist that worked on the influencer strategy for the Harris vice-presidential campaign in 2020, said that the social presence of Mamdani “dismantled the ivory tower” in which so many politicians stood. He meets New Yorkers in the streets with a warm smile, she said, and speaking to them as they are his peers.

“He’s so smiling, he’s so gawk. He still kisses people,” said Jain. “He just sets a basic campaign and community campaign, and I think his body language embodies this. Like, I have never seen Cuomo kiss someone in my whole life. ”

Experts have agreed that the personality that shone in Mamdani’s videos actually captured his audience in a way that Cuomo could not.

“It is not only a question of online presence or social networks and the filming of spectacular actions,” said Magdalena Wojcieszak, professor of communication at the University of California Davis. “It is also the fact that Mamdani is a very young exterior native of the” native “who has charisma, humor and kind nature that many politicians through the political aisle are partly lacking because of their age, their political experience and their political experience as part of” establishment “.

Similar to Harris and President Donald Trump during their presidential campaigns, Mamdani was also supported by online influencers and celebrities, appearing in videos with personalities ranging from Saturday Night Live Cast Member Sarah Sherman Streaming Twitch on the left Hasan Piker.

But Jain said that Mamdani’s influencer collaborations worked because these videos still incorporated discussions on their policies and positions rather than relying on “Fluff”. He adopted a different approach to the Harris campaign, which, she said, failed despite her support “Summer de Grenouet” And Celebrity appearances Because these partnerships did not show significantly why they aligned themselves with Harris as a candidate.

Throughout his campaign, clips of his mayor debates, including his manipulation of Questions urging him for his opinions about Israel and his Cuomo burning criticismhas also become fodder for the same and the discourse that propelled it more into online popularity.

Meanwhile, Mamdani has remained firm on some of the most controversial positions in American policy: he has Characterized the actions of Israel in Gaza as a “genocide” And described the expression “globalizing the intifada” As capturing “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights to defend Palestinian human rights” – positions that have collected accusations of anti -Semitism.

“It hurts me to be painted as if I was somehow in opposition to the very Jewish New Yorkers that I know and that I love and which are a key element of this city”, Mamdani said last week During an event in Manhattan, where he also shared that he had obtained threats from anti-Muslim death for himself and his family.

Online, Mamdani also faced an increasing Islamophobic rhetoric of right -wing commentators and politicians. After his victory on Tuesday, X was flooded with messages calling him “Muslim jihadist” And Comparison of his victory to terrorist attacks on September 11.

For Jain, Tuesday’s elections were proof that Mamdani’s viability as a candidate did not depend on her desire to move her convictions, as her democratic socialist program and her support for the Palestinians.

“I think it is really admirable that he has held his values. And I think that is what people want to see. More of these centrist bulls —, right? It is important that we can see the opinions of our politicians so that we know if they are reflected in us or not,” said Jain. “I have the impression that he has led a campaign because he believes that he as me the most authentic, really according to his values, can help New York, rather than simply complying to try to get into office.”