THE YEAR IN BIG DREAMS: ZOHRAN MAMDANI MAKES HIS MOVE

POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN NOTABLY BAD AT SOCIAL MEDIA. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE GOOD AT IT AS A CANDIDATE-AND THEN, PERHAPS, AS A LEADER?

- BY KATIE DRUMMOND

ZOHRAN MAMDANI IS, quite literally, everywhere.

The 34-year-old New York state assemblyman, who in recent months has ascended from relative political anonymity to become the presumptive winner of New York City’s November mayoral race, has already graced the covers of Time, New York, Vanity Fair, and The Nation, among other publications. He’s sparred with newscasters on CNN and Fox News, riffed with Stephen Colbert, and bantered like his life depended on it with the hosts of The View.

Mamdani’s ubiquity didn’t start with print pages or broadcast interviews. Much of that conventional media exposure, and Mamdani’s growing celebrity, is a collective byproduct of one single element of his mayoral campaign: a really, really good social strategy. One of Mamdani’s first viral videos, a 2024 supercut of short conversations between the assemblyman and New York-based Trump voters, laid the groundwork for a subsequent mayoral campaign built on clever, conversational clips. See: Very Cold Mamdani, emerging from a polar plunge in the Atlantic Ocean with a vow to freeze rent on rent-stabilized apartments. See also: Sneakers Mamdani, walking the length of Manhattan to advocate for accessible politicians; Citi Bike Mamdani, responding to a bystander’s howl of “Communist” before pedaling off as cameras roll; or Red Rose Mamdani, spoofing The Bachelor while wooing New Yorkers with promises of an equitable future. Yes, the #ZaddyZohran TikTok hashtag is nearly as prolific as the candidate who inspires it.