NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani defied the odds, defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night and becoming mayor in an election that saw 2 million voters cast ballots.
Just months ago, when Mamdani entered the race, he was polling in the single digits and few believed he could defeat Cuomo.
In the end, Mamdani defeated him twice.
And in a year when Democrats have largely been floundering, Mamdani electrified the party and managed to draw new voters to the polls too.
So why did he win so decisively?
Here are five reasons:
Affordability trumped all
While Cuomo focused his primary campaign on issues like crime and safety, Mamdani homed in on affordability in a city that has long been viewed as way too expensive. And his campaign ran so hard on that issue, it became synonymous with his campaign from start to finish.
At campaign rallies, Mamdani frequently stood in front of signs reading, “A City We Can Afford.” A visit to his website also plainly states that Mamdani is “running for Mayor to lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers.” His supporters also carried placards reading “Build Affordable Housing” and “Childcare for all.”
Morris Katz, who served as a strategist for the Mamdani campaign, told The Hill in an interview that the broader narrative for Mamdani’s campaign was “Life doesn’t have to be this hard. New York can be more affordable and it’s government’s job to deliver that.”
His message was consistent
In the aftermath of last year’s elections, Democrats have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about messaging. One of the criticisms of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign was that voters couldn’t figure out what each candidate stood for and what rationale they had for running.
Mamdani never had that problem.
“When you have Trump voters supporting a democratic socialist, you are communicating something pretty clearly and consistently,” said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.
“If you watch Zohran’s launch video, and then you watch the first ad of the primary campaign and then if you look at our messaging in the general, it has been the same campaign the entire campaign,” Katz told The Hill.
Experience didn’t matter
Cuomo spent a lot of time touting his own experience as New York governor and his familiarity with the levers of power on a local and national level.
Even in his final ad in the election, he underscored his executive experience while also highlighting Mamdani’s inexperience.
“Life in New York is tough right now,” Cuomo says in the campaign spot. “Candidates who need on-the-job training can’t fix it.”
But in the end, it didn’t matter.
Mamdani used his inexperience to his advantage. And in some ways, his campaign was the progressive version of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, which revolved largely around a narrative of bucking the establishment and “draining the swamp.”
He flooded the zone
Mamdani, who was relatively unknown months ago, was seemingly everywhere all at once — one of the key pillars of his strategy.
And he didn’t just rely on paid and earned media; he pushed the bounds of traditional campaigning.
Last week, for example, he held a press conference strictly for “creators” and influencers, generating more than 31,000 livestreams and a combined reach in the tens of millions.
Mamdani also made a surprise appearance Sunday at 1 a.m. at an LGBTQ bar in Brooklyn, where he spoke from the DJ booth and was met with cheers and applause.
The democratic socialist even ran ads on Fox News.
“Love him or hate him, you couldn’t get away from him,” said one Democratic strategist. “When we say we we need to reinvent the playbook, we need to follow this kind of playbook, not the one we’ve run in years past.”
The energy on the left
Throughout the last year, some Democrats have highlighted that the energy in their party as being from the progressive side, pointing to Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
And the organizing machine surrounding Mamdani’s campaign did not disappoint. Everyone from labor groups to small-dollar donors helped push the campaign from obscurity to prominence.
But even progressives acknowledge that Mamdani’s campaign is specific to New York and couldn’t be replicated elsewhere, especially in a swing state.
“He ran one of the most impressive campaigns to date, but I think we would be kidding ourselves if we think he could win in Pennsylvania right now,” the strategist said.
Susan Del Percio, a New York-based political consultant, agreed. “No one should read that much into what his win would mean for the Democratic Party,” Del Percio said. “This race happened in an insular world of New York politics.”
