His Name is Mamdani and Gen Z Loves Him 

On Nov. 4, New York City elected a new mayor who is the first to be of Muslim and South Asian descent; he is also the youngest to hold the position in over a century. Winning with over a million votes and securing 78% of the Gen-Z votes, according to the AP Voter Poll, the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has become a symbol of hope for younger generations seeking change. 

Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign focused on making New Yorkers’ lives cheaper, safer and easier. Mamdani’s campaign website states that his platform is that the city has become too expensive, so he plans to “lower costs and make life easier.” His campaign promises included making the city’s bus fares free, freezing stabilized rent, providing universal childcare and increasing the minimum wage by 2030, funded by taxation of big corporations and the wealthiest 1% in New York City. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, New York ranks as the third most expensive state for renters. 

The causes that Mamdani fights for gained support from many younger people struggling with high home prices, lack of housing, continuously rising mortgage rates and wage stagnation. It is now becoming increasingly difficult for younger people to afford homes, and Mamdani is trying to address this issue. 

Being only 34 years old, many younger people gravitated towards him and his campaign due to his youth and heavy internet presence. His TikTok and Instagram accounts currently have 3.3 million and 9.6 million followers, respectively. His presence online led to his campaign reaching millions, including those outside of New York City. 

His most popular TikTok was posted on Nov. 11 and has amassed 22.9 million views, which is almost three times New York City’s population of 8.48 million people, according to the NYC Department of City Planning. The video includes Mamdani introducing himself and his campaign for Mayor of New York City, but what’s interesting is that he’s saying it all in Arabic. 

“I’m from you and for you,” said Mamdani on Nov. 11 in the video. “And we will see you.”

 Mamdani did a series of TikToks in which he spoke with other New York City residents in their languages while endorsing his campaign. He did this as a way to reach multiple minority groups and gain their support. His ingenious way of marketing his campaign for mayor shows that he is aware of the audience he has to target the most, Gen-Z. By having an online presence to spread his mission ideas and campaign, he was able to reach younger audiences who shared the same ideals and could show up and vote for him, and most likely did not know of him or his campaign beforehand.

Many voters and online users felt they could relate to Mamdani’s immigrant and multicultural background. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, and born to parents Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, who are both of Indian descent. His family moved to the United States when Mamdani was around five to seven years old. 

The U.S. is currently in an era when immigrants have been the targets of abuse and persecution. Many in the city and online took pride in seeing another immigrant running for mayor and advocating for their rights. 

In a mayoral race against two white men much older than him, with one of them even being the former New York Governor, Mamdani’s chances at winning seemed slim at first. Andrew Cuomo, having been the governor of New York City from 2011 to 2021, was both the second most popular candidate and the most controversial option. During Cuomo’s time as governor, he was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, leading to his removal from office. He also faced scrutiny for his handling of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. 

Cuomo’s controversies and endorsement from President Donald Trump, combined with Curtis Sliwa’s unpopularity, led to younger voters, who sought change in the country after President Trump’s election, to vote for Mamdani. 

CBS News reported that a year ago, Mamdani was polling at only 1% at the beginning of his campaign and was not very well known amongst New Yorkers. But by the end of the election, he beat all odds by securing 50.4% of the votes and gained endorsements from fellow democratic socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Mamdani’s campaign success is even more astonishing, considering Time Magazine reported that over 20 billionaires raised $22 million to stop Zohran Mamdani. These efforts were done in vain, though, as Mamdani still won the election on a campaign that spent less than $13 million, according to the NYC Campaign Finance Board. 

The appeal of Zohran Mamdani came mostly from his relatability, which is something younger voters place much importance on. He positions himself not as the man of the people, but as part of the people. This bridges the distance between common residents and the politicians meant to represent them. He displays this quality clearly in his victory speech on Nov. 4, following the news of his win, “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

The large percentage of Gen-Z voters who came out and voted for Mamdani shows that young voters want those representing them to truly represent them. By looking like them, acting like them, talking like them, and believing in them as a city. 

The reason why Mamdani won the election and garnered the attention that he did during his campaign is best explained by Zohran Mamdani himself. “The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate,” said Zohran Mamdani at his victory party.  

“I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”