Zohran Mamdani: 5 lessons for Democrats

The Hill

6 days ago

New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has stoked a debate in the wider Democratic Party with his surprise primary victory.
Do Democrats need to follow more of his lessons to get back on track with their brand? Or does the democratic socialist's brand of politics fit a left-leaning New York primary, but not the rest of the county?
The answer is probably somewhere in between, but a number of Democrats interviewed by The Hill said there are clear lessons the party can learn from the upstart's victory.
Affordability
Mamdani mounted his campaign on a message of affordability, coining soundbites such as 'freeze the rent,' 'city-run grocery stores' and 'make buses fast and free' as cornerstones of his campaign.
Political observers say the unequivocal cost of living promises resonated with an electorate seeking change.
'He answers the questions very directly and very specifically. … He's like, 'I want to freeze rents, I want to create free buses, I want to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour,'' said Grant Reeher, the director of Syracuse University's Campbell Public Affairs Institute.
Democrats say the national party's messaging on economic issues in 2024 was weak, as Americans blamed then-President Biden for inflation.
Mamdani's victory shows the importance for candidates to be seen as being the side working to make things more affordable for average voters.
Authenticity
One of Mamdani's biggest assets, some Democrats say, is his authenticity.
The political neophyte went from relative obscurity to becoming a boldface name by keeping it real throughout his campaign. Not only did the 33-year-old speak about issues important to New Yorkers, but he did it in a way that was true to himself, instead of out of a Democratic playbook.
In a 30-second video posted to his Instagram and TikTok accounts four days before election day, for example, Mamdani could be seen walking with his sleeves rolled up surrounded by a crowd of his supporters delivering his message of affordability directly to voters.
'It's the authenticity, stupid!,' one top Democratic strategist said. 'Mamdani is showing that at least part of the path forward for Democrats is to stop running away from your perceived weaknesses; instead run directly at them.'
Eddie Vale, another Democratic strategist, agreed: 'The lessons that everyone can learn from and do is just be normal. Talk like a human being. Do events and tons of digital and podcasts, where normal people are.
New blood
Mamdani's youthfulness and grassroots campaign funding strategy appealed to voters who are looking for a new generation of political leadership — one that sheds the trappings of big-money interests and fights for regular people, Democrats said.
For example, Mamdani's campaign relied overwhelmingly on crowdfunding and matching funds from the city's Campaign Finance Board.
Mamdani is definitely an outsider, but 39 percent of voters in a poll by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country said they think the Democratic Party is corrupt. So being seen as an outsider helped Mamdani.
Some Democrats think leaders of the party in Washington need to reach out more to Mamdani.
'It is baffling to me that Hakeem Jeffries hasn't embraced Mamdani wholeheartedly as a rising star,' Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said. 'Mamdani has done what few Democrats, including and especially Jeffries, can: Excite, rather than infuriate, the base. Fight with a smile. Disarm. Lead with love and big ideas.
Don't just be against Trump
For several cycles, Democrats have sought to rally their base around an anti-President Trump message. It worked during the 2018 and 2020 elections, but it fell flat in 2024.
'This party has to be for something for a change,' a second Democratic strategist said, adding that the party 'can't just be against Trump.'
Mamdani successfully walked the line between putting forward a vision of his own for New York and being an anti-Trump candidate. In doing so, some say he set an example for Democrats nationally.
'It's important to give voters something to vote for and not just something to vote against, and that's something that Mamdani did well,' said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. 'He wasn't just the anti-Trump candidate, he wasn't just the antiestablishment candidate, but he talked about big picture ideas, things that voters really care very much about.'
Social media and retail politics
Democrats dropped the ball on social media in 2024 and had a hard time connecting with voters overall.
But Mamdani set an example for what effective social media campaigning looks like and leveraged the power of retail politics to connect with voters even more.
'Have a campaign that beats the moment,' Smikle said. 'It is 2025. It's driven a lot by social media, a lot by influencers, but also by really, really strong retail politics.'
Mamdani coordinated a citywide volunteer effort that elevated his ground game and allowed his campaign to reach every corner of the city. More than 30,000 people knocked on nearly 1.6 million doors across the city.
'His intense ground game — you can't underestimate the power of that,' Reeher said. 'Even from political science research, we know that the most effective way to get people to turn out is face-to-face contact. He's doing a lot of that. … He's got tons of volunteers.'
'You can't short-shrift the ground game, the retail politics,' he added.
Mamdani also used social media to generate energy around his campaign, becoming a trend of sorts on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. He amassed his own following of more than 4.5 million across the two platforms and collaborated with various social media influencers in New York City throughout his campaign.
'He's generating enthusiasm from younger voters, and he's running a race on his own terms — not defensively, on someone else's terms,' Setzer said.