0-56%: The New York City Mayoral Primary That Captured the Country

Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in Bryant Park on October 27, 2024. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

At the time of his campaign’s launch in October 2024, Zohran Mamdani was polling at nearly 0%. On June 24, Mamdani won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary with over 56% of votes in the final round ranked choice instant runoffs. 

The former Assemblyman's historic victory shocked pundits, government officials and civilians alike, but one thing shocked above all else: Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. This has not deterred many voters, but attracted them. President Donald Trump has called for his arrest, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lauds his victory as hope for the country. How Mamdani did it, and whether he can do it again in November, are the questions on everyone’s mind heading into the general election.

Written on the front page of Mamdani's website is the campaign's guiding principle: the fact that New York City is too expensive. 61% of New Yorkers reported they are finding it more and more difficult to meet the financial burden of living in New York City; thus, this focus has shaped the bubbling excitement around his meteoric rise to victory in the primary. 

Bringing back free buses, creating city-owned grocery stores, and freezing the rent are campaign promises exciting New Yorkers, as 91% of his prospective voters reported feeling a level of excitement about voting for him when asked prior to the election — the highest percentage of any candidate by over 10%. Over 27,000 individual donors maxed out Mamdani’s allowance for campaign spending, prompting him to take to social media to implore supporters to stop sending money. 

“Oftentimes [Democrats have] spoken about democracy, but if you cannot afford to live in the city you call a home, you don’t have all that time to be concerned about values,” Mamdani said in an interview with the New Statesman. 

Many attribute Mamdani’s exponential growth to the sweeping success of his social media strategy. Utilizing Instagram and TikTok, Mamdani amassed a dedicated following through his videos made to appeal to younger voters, who showed up at the polls in record numbers for a mayoral primary. 

He is credited with creating a mass surge in early voting registration, with 37,000 people registering to vote early in the two weeks leading up to the election, compared to 3,000 for the same 14 days in 2021. This election saw the largest number of voters for a mayoral primary since 1989, with over 1 million voters casting a ballot in the election, more than 500,000 of whom voted for Mamdani. 

Voters aged 25 to 34 had the largest turnout of any demographic, and many reported consistently following the campaign updates through social media channels, where Mamdani was frequently keeping voters up to date on campaign events and fundraising status. His use of social media is already being replicated by other politicians, like Jersey City mayoral candidate Mussab Ali.

It’s not just New York City’s civilian population that Mamdani has mobilized. He has received endorsements from many big-name politicians including Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Trump, on the other hand, is not a fan. He has repeatedly called Mamdani a communist and said that if Mamdani followed through on claims to fight against Immigration Customs and Enforcement operations within the state, he would have him arrested. He questioned his citizenship status, despite Mamdani being a U.S. citizen since 2018 and moving to the country at age 7. 

Many Republicans have expressed excitement about Mamdani’s success, as they think it will allow them to villainize the party and detract from potential gain in the upcoming election. By conflating Mamdani’s positions with far left extremism, therein lies potential to paint the entire party with the brush of communism and scare voters away from alternative Democratic candidates.

But these hopes might amount to nothing more. With November closing in, polling shows Mamdani taking the election with a runaway lead of 20 points on his nearest opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The two built up a staunch rivalry, having emerged as the front-runners leading the election and frequently targeting one another in campaign advertisements and on the debate stage. 

The two have already faced off against one another, as Cuomo ran in the Democratic primary, but later conceded to Mamdani before the final votes were tallied. Many “Never Cuomo” voters cited his history of 11 sexual harassment allegations as a reason they won’t be checking his name in the ballot box, according to a report by the New York Times. 

Given former mayor Eric Adams’ announcement that he was abandoning his reelection campaign, there has been speculation that Cuomo might see a bump in polls, as many Adams supporters default to him as their alternative. Voters could also align themselves with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, though he trailed behind the other candidates in polling before the announcement with 9%, representing less potential challenge to Mamdani’s accrued lead. 

Mamdani resides in an almost unicorn-like position within American politics at the current moment. Studies of the 2024 congressional election cycle show that far-right candidates outperformed far-left opponents by a large margin, with the only explicitly socialist candidates making up 1% of the primary-winning population. 

At a time when many civilians don’t feel that their concerns are being taken seriously by politicians, Mamdani’s campaign’s consistent focus on the message of affordability has made him broadly appealing. For a person with Mamdani’s political identity and progressive policy plan to gain the traction that he has without relying on large corporate donors is highly unusual, and represents a potential pendulum swing back in the leftward direction as a response to the current administration.