The new media strategy scrambling the New York mayor's race

Politico

23-06-2025

LEFT AND CENTER — Just a few short months ago, Zohran Mamdani was languishing in the polls, with one February survey of the New York City mayor's race placing his support at 1%. Today, on the eve of Tuesday's Democratic primary, that same pollster released a survey that suggests he could be the next mayor of America's largest city.
That Mamdani has gone from being a virtual unknown to cementing himself as the clear closest challenger to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a crowded Democratic field is a remarkable story of campaigning in the age of social media. The 33-year-old democratic socialist dominated the online universe for months, producing slick videos for TikTok and X, appearing on everything from morning shows to a dedicated menswear podcast. He even had New York's quintessential downtown-cool publicist sign up to work for the campaign for free.
But as Mamdani attempts to close the deal, he'll need to prove that he can appeal to more than just young, college-educated progressives. That makes his candidacy a test for the left in how to expand beyond the progressive bubble and win in a broader city electorate that moved well to the right in 2024. Eric Adams, New York's current mayor who won with a centrist coalition, is running in the general election as an independent.
Mamdani's media strategy in the closing weeks of the campaign has subtly shifted in an effort to broaden his appeal. He's continued to do longform interviews with popular podcasters and leftist streamers like Hasan Piker, along with members of the city's abundant hothouse of new media.
But, along with the more traditional staples of campaigning for mayor, he's now spending the crucial final days of the campaign talking to national — and center-left — podcasts like The Bulwark, Pod Save America and Derek Thompson, one of the co-authors of the new book Abundance.
The Bulwark was founded by Never-Trump Republicans. Pod Save America features veterans of the Obama administration. And Thompson's book Abundance, which he co-authored with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, has sparked anger among parts of the American left who see it as anti-union, among other complaints.
Thompson introduced Mamdani as someone with 'very different politics on a range of issues' from him and pressed him on some of his major policy goals like freezing the rent for New York's tenants in rent controlled buildings or a pilot program of city-owned grocery stores. In turn, Mamdani talked about why government needs to be efficient in order to get people to believe in it, a major theme of Abundance and how he's evolved on questions like 'defund the police' from 2020 to now.
It hasn't always worked to Mamdani's benefit. On The Bulwark's podcast, host Tim Miller asked about the phrase 'globalize the intifada' and whether it makes him uncomfortable, to which Mamdani replied: 'To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights. The very word [intifada] has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it's a word that means struggle.'
The answer sparked a round of controversy, given that a common interpretation of the phrase is that it's an appeal towards global political violence, often against Jews, in the name of Palestinian rights. The major Cuomo-supporting Super PAC and Cuomo allies hammered him for his answer. Mamdani has had to answer questions on it since and tried to clean up his remarks somewhat on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC — another serious-minded medium that appeals broadly to center-left New Yorkers — earlier today.
Mamdani's experience in the race has served as an example of the possibilities for the progressive movement in an age of new media, but also the drawbacks. Anti-establishment figures like Mamdani who are willing to sharply criticize the traditional ways government functions can find purchase online, driving up engagement and name recognition. But attempts to broaden that coalition — such as drawing in more 'normie' Democrats who historically make up much of the Democratic primary electorate in New York City — can carry risks. The very same positions that can make someone a social media star can make them unappealing to the majority of people who show up to the polls.
At a recent rally at the music venue Terminal 5 on Manhattan's West Side, Mamdani told the raucous crowd that 'to everyone who pulls me aside to whisper with the best intentions: 'You have already won,' I am sorry, but the days of moral victories are over.' The thousands of assembled onlookers screamed their support.
If he's proven correct after ranked choice tabulations — in the primary, New Yorkers can rank up to five candidates in order of preference, and tabulations occur a week after the first round is reported — it will mean he's expanded well beyond his narrow lane. If not, it will suggest that a push to court the center-left through expanding the aperture of media appearances is limited in what it can accomplish.
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What'd I Miss?
— Iran targets US air base in Qatar in apparent retaliatory strike: A U.S. air base in Qatar was attacked today by ballistic missiles fired from Iran in what appears to be a retaliatory strike, the Pentagon said.'Al Udeid Air Base was attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran today,' the Defense Department said in a statement. 'At this time, there are no reports of U.S. casualties.'
— Oil prices tumble as Iran attack avoids crude infrastructure: Oil prices fell sharply this afternoon following an Iran attack against U.S. military bases in Qatar and Iraq in what was seen as a symbolic move that did not disrupt the supply of Middle Eastern crude into the global market. Prices tumbled below $70 a barrel, down more than $5 from the day before when the U.S. military action against Iran's nuclear facilities drove prices higher. President Donald Trump, who had campaigned on lower energy costs, had taken to his Truth Social account earlier today to warn against higher oil prices amid the Middle East conflict, saying 'I'M WATCHING!' Iran said it fired the same number of bombs against the base — avoiding Qatar neighborhoods — as the U.S. dropped in a weekend bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities. The move was interpreted as an attempt to ratchet down hostilities, and as fears that Iran would target the Strait of Hormuz and oil infrastructure in the region dissipated.
— White House tries to find messaging balance on Trump's regime change comment: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to explain President Donald Trump's comment suggesting he's open to regime change in Iran today, saying that the president 'believes the Iranian people can control their own destiny.' In an interview with Fox and Friends, Leavitt said, 'If the Iranian regime refuses to come to a peaceful, diplomatic solution, which the president is still interested and engaging in by the way, why shouldn't the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades?'
— Florida asks Supreme Court to let it enforce state illegal immigration law: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to allow enforcement of a state immigration law that recently landed him in contempt of court. The law makes it illegal for an undocumented immigrant to enter Florida. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams put the law on hold in April, predicting it would eventually be found unconstitutional. Now, Uthmeier wants the Supreme Court to stay her order as the case makes its way through appeal, saying Williams' decision 'inflicts irreparable harm on Florida and its ability to protect its citizens from the deluge of illegal immigration.'
— Supreme Court OKs rapid deportations to countries where immigrants have no ties: The Supreme Court today cleared the way for the Trump administration to swiftly deport foreigners to countries where they have no previous ties. The justices lifted an order from a federal judge in Boston who had placed restrictions on the deportations to those countries. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had issued a nationwide injunction that required the administration to give immigrants 'meaningful' advance notice and a chance to raise objections before they are sent to so-called third countries — nations not specified in their original deportation orders. But the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency request to put Murphy's injunction on hold. The high court's majority offered no explanation for its ruling, but all three of the court's liberal justices dissented.
AROUND THE WORLD
LOW EXPECTATIONS — The outbreak of open conflict between Israel and Iran — and the U.S. decision to join the attacks — has further dampened Ukraine's already low expectations of what it might be able to get out of this week's NATO summit. Leaders of the alliance, seeking to avoid a blowup with President Donald Trump, have sought for weeks to focus more on upping the alliance's spending commitments rather than Kyiv's plight or its future in the group. That's a significant shift from the group's approach for most of the time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy intends to attend the two-day summit, which starts Tuesday, and hopes to meet with Trump, but a meeting isn't confirmed, according to a person who speaks regularly with the Ukrainian government, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions. While such meetings usually come together at the last minute, the focus on Iran could make that less likely to happen.
In the days leading up to the summit, it was not clear whether Zelenskyy would participate amid fears that the visit wouldn't be worth his time without a guarantee of significant American face time.
RETURN FROM EXILE — The exiled son of Iran's last shah today offered himself up as interim leader to take over running the country, as he called on the West to give its full-throated backing to regime change. Reza Pahlavi, whose supporters style him as the 'Crown Prince of Iran,' appealed to the international community to help the Iranian people force out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his religious dictatorship.
In part that requires military action to dismantle the regime's apparatus of terror but it also needs practical steps to support opposition groups with better internet and communications, as well as backing for mass strikes, Pahlavi told POLITICO in an interview in Paris today.
He offered an amnesty to those working inside the state machinery who defect and help to bring it down, 'provided that they commit now to join with the people.' A new 'secure platform' is being set up for dissidents and internal opponents to coordinate their efforts to overthrow the dictatorship and help bring about a 'free and democratic' society, he said.
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RADAR SWEEP
DISAPPEARING ACT — How far would you go to protect your personal information? As data breaches become more common and new technologies can track everything from what floor you're on in a building to how long you look at a product in stores, those who can afford it are investing in more extreme security measures. Clients of HavenX, a privacy management firm, pay tens of thousands monthly to stay off the grid by sustaining a network of aliases, decoy addresses, and multiple phone numbers. Benjamin Wallace writes on the costs and sacrifices of keeping your information offline for The Atlantic.
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Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter.