Zohran Mamdani announced his run for mayor last fall, with an almost singular focus on affordability.
“While corruption is engulfing City Hall, it’s the cost-of-living crisis that most New Yorkers are concerned about,” he told NY1 on Oct. 23.
The message resonated, and with the help of clever, social media-friendly videos, Mamdani built an enthusiastic base.
What You Need To Know
- Election data shows Zohran Mamdani attracted a surge of young voters in areas like Astoria, Greenpoint and Bushwick
- Working-class Black voters supported Andrew Cuomo but turned out in smaller numbers than 2021
- Mamdani also made unexpected inroads in Latino and Asian communities
“He truly did expand the electorate. They had a plan for who they were going to reach out to, and they did, and they did it relentlessly and it worked,” political analyst Michael Lange said.
Lange kept close tabs on election data, which showed unusually high turnout in areas of Brooklyn and western Queens.
“On the left, it’s a cliché to say you’re going to get young voters to show up in record numbers,” Lange said. “He absolutely did that. In Astoria, Greenpoint, Bushwick, other very, very young neighborhoods, turnout surged two to three times in certain areas compared to 2021.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his long-anticipated run in March. His tightly controlled campaign featured a steady rollout of endorsements from elected officials and major unions. But he limited his media availability and kept voters at arm’s length — sometimes touring neighborhoods from atop a campaign truck.
Mamdani offered a stark contrast, holding jam-packed rallies and on Friday, walking the entire length of Manhattan, greeting supporters along the way.
In the closing days, Mamdani won support from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a critical cross-endorsement from rival Brad Lander.
Cuomo nurtured his base with regular visits to Black churches in places like Central Brooklyn, but the enthusiasm gap was evident Tuesday night.
“Black turnout — I mean, you can look at it in southeast Queens, Canarsie, East New York, East Flatbush — it was just not what it was four years ago,” Lange said.
Mamdani, meanwhile, made unexpected inroads in Latino and Asian communities.
“You had South Asian election districts in eastern Queens that were clocking in more votes than middle-class, Black, home-owning election districts a couple miles away,” Lange said, “whereas in 2021, those middle-class Black districts were sometimes getting two or three times the amount of votes as the South Asian districts.”