Zohran Mamdani's social media strategy was about more than viral videos

NBC News

2 days ago

Sitting on the subway and holding a MetroCard as a microphone, Zohran Mamdani had a hot take for New York City: that he should be its next mayor.
The scene was from a June ' Subway Takes ' TikTok video that amassed more than 3 million views — part of a broader push by Mamdani to meet voters where they lived online. By the time his grassroots campaign reached primary day, he had won the backing of major social media figures like Emily Ratajkowski and engaged with voters through popular accounts like Pop Crave.
Thousands expressed enthusiasm for his candidacy in comments on his dozens of social media videos, which experts say pitched his platform and personality to voters so convincingly that he outpaced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in polls before beating him in a sweeping primary win.
When the 33-year-old state lawmaker, then little known, first announced his mayoral candidacy last fall, he was considered a long shot. Mamdani was a self-described democratic socialist and deeply critical of Israel's actions in Gaza — factors that made him an unlikely Democratic candidate at a time when the party has been veering away from left-leaning values.
But in the months leading up to Tuesday's election, Mamdani had skyrocketed from obscurity to internet fame, amassing more than 1 million followers on Instagram, as well as hundreds of thousands on TikTok and X. Though his viral social media campaign has echoes of Kamala Harris' own meme-filled run, analysts say Mamdani's exhibited key differences that helped usher him to real victory.
'If you ask voters, 'Why did you vote for Mamdani?' ... I don't think they're going to tell us, 'Oh, because I saw some cute thing on social media,'' said Jonathan Nagler, a politics professor at New York University and the co-director of its Center for Social Media and Politics. 'I think they're going to say what actually influenced them is because they learned something on social media about policies he had that mattered to them.'
In his viral videos, Mamdani makes his hopes for the city clear: to lower the cost of living by raising taxes on the richest New Yorkers. His core campaign promises — rent freezes, fast and free buses, universal child care — have been the bedrock of his online platform. The more policy-focused online discussion stands apart from the content that defined Harris' online campaign, which included the aesthetics of Charli XCX's Brat and viral nonpolicy soundbites like Harris' reference to falling out of a 'coconut tree.' But along with policy, Mamdani also added personal flair to his online campaigning.
In one recent video, Mamdani dapped up New Yorkers as he walked Manhattan from tip to tip, saying that residents 'deserve a mayor they can see, they can hear, they can even yell at.' He explained ranked-choice voting while speaking fluent Hindi in another video, complete with playful South Asian pop culture references. And when his campaign became the first to reach the $8 million spending cap in this year's mayoral race, Mamdani posted a video urging viewers to stop donating and volunteer to canvass instead.
Anthony DiMieri, a filmmaker who works on Mamdani's campaign videos, said part of the mayoral candidate's popularity comes from the consistency of his character on and off camera. Mamdani is also highly involved in the video ideation process, he said, and will often add in spontaneous jokes or ideas during shooting.
'We met people on the campaign trail who said they joined because of the videos. We were like, 'What brought you here?' and they're like, 'I just loved his videos' and 'I haven't seen anybody like this,'' DiMieri said. 'We've all had a lot of fun doing this work, and I think the fun we're having is translating to audiences.'
The momentum grew offline, too, as tens of thousands of volunteers showed up to door-knock for Mamdani in their neighborhoods. Online, his supporters shared stories of how they convinced their family, friends and neighbors to rank him first.
Pranjal Jain, a digital strategist who worked on influencer strategy for Harris' vice presidential campaign in 2020, said Mamdani's social presence 'dismantles the ivory tower' that so many politicians keep themselves in. He's meeting New Yorkers on the streets with a warm smile, she said, and speaking to them like they're his peers.
'He is so smiley, he's so giggly. He's always hugging people,' Jain said. 'He's just running a grassroots and community-driven campaign, and I think his body language embodies that. Like, I've never seen Cuomo hug anyone in my entire life.'
Experts agreed that the personality that shone through in Mamdani's videos effectively captured his audience in a way that Cuomo couldn't.
'It's not only about online or social media presence and filming spectacular actions,' said Magdalena Wojcieszak, a communication professor at the University of California Davis. 'It's also the fact that Mamdani is a very young 'digital native' outsider who has the charisma, humor, and personable nature that many politicians across the political aisle lack partly due to their age, political experience, and being seen as part of the 'establishment.''
Similar to Harris and President Donald Trump during their presidential campaigns, Mamdani has also been backed by online influencers and celebrities, appearing in videos with personalities ranging from Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Sherman to left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
But Jain said Mamdani's influencer collaborations worked because these videos still incorporated talk of his policies and positions as opposed to relying on 'fluff.' He took a different approach to Harris' campaign, which she said failed despite being backed by ' Brat summer ' and celebrity appearances because those partnerships didn't meaningfully showcase why they aligned with Harris as a candidate.
Throughout his campaign, clips of his mayoral debates, including his handling of questions pressing him on his opinions on Israel and his searing critiques of Cuomo, also became fodder for memes and discourse that propelled him further into online popularity.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has remained firm on some of the most controversial stances in establishment American politics: He has characterized Israel's actions in Gaza as 'genocide' and described the phrase 'globalize the intifada' as capturing 'a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights' — positions that have garnered him accusations of antisemitism.
'It pains me to be painted as if I am somehow in opposition to the very Jewish New Yorkers that I know and love and that are such a key part of this city,' Mamdani said last week at an event in Manhattan, where he also shared that he has gotten anti-Muslim death threats to himself and his family.
Online, Mamdani has also faced increasing Islamophobic rhetoric from right-wing commentators and politicians. After his victory Tuesday, X was inundated with posts calling him a ' Muslim jihadist ' and comparing his win to the 9/11 terror attacks.
To Jain, Tuesday's election was proof that Mamdani's viability as a candidate didn't hinge on his willingness to budge on his beliefs, such as his democratic socialist agenda and his support for Palestinians.
'I think it's really admirable that he stuck to his values. And I think that's what people want to see. No more of this centrist bulls---, right? It's important that we are able to see our politicians' opinions so we know if they're reflected in us or not,' Jain said. 'I feel like he ran a campaign because he believes that he as his most authentic self, really following his values, can help New York, rather than just pandering to try to get in office.'