It was hardly a fair fight.
When the New York City mayoral race began some months ago, Zohran Mamdani had all the disadvantages you’d expect of a young, relatively inexperienced, politician. Little money. Few high-powered endorsements. Scarce volunteers. And, as he put it himself recently, “I started this race at one-per cent name recognition.”
By comparison, his chief rival, Andrew Cuomo, had all the veteran advantages: money, media clout, and a long list of establishment allies.
But that’s what a truly great, innovative campaign can do. It makes an unfair fight competitive. It levels the playing field. It rewrites the rules. And yesterday’s stunning result — Mamdani’s primary win, which catapulted him into the national spotlight as the latest rising star in the Democratic Party (not without controversy) — was proof of exactly that.
In politics, a good contrast is always useful. But at the right moment, it becomes essential. To capture the mood. To channel the frustration. To build the movement.
And only one candidate truly offered that contrast — in ideology, in energy, and in campaign style — and that was Mamdani.
As The New Yorker’s Eric Lach put it: “The race wasn’t just about old New York versus new New York; it was about the politics of the visible (tweeting, door-knocking, organizing) and the invisible (power, relationships, familiarity).”
But contrast alone is not enough. Mamdani’s campaign succeeded because of tactical brilliance that turned visibility into virality. That took his 12-hour street march from Inwood to Battery Park from just a photo-op to a social media event. That made his organic interactions with voters on the street not just feel-good moments but TikToks with millions of views.
Put another way: all the grassroots hustle in the world means nothing without a digital amplifier that converts such moments into views and clicks. And just as consequential: in today’s politics, invisibility equals irrelevance. If you’re not being seen and present on the platforms where the conversation is taking place and people are scrolling, you will stand zero chance.
Which brings us to the race’s most defining contrast: youth. At 33, Mamdani is less than half Cuomo’s age. And it showed. He used TikTok the way former U.S. president Barack Obama once used Facebook. There was an effortless savvy to his digital presence that cannot be faked. That was clearly led by people who actually use the platform. Not old-timers who think TikTok is the sound a clock makes.
In that sense, Mamdani’s campaign felt like a fresh, insurgent brand — and Cuomo’s felt like a rusted relic (with, not to mention, a pile full of skeletons in the closet).
Agree with his politics or not, this is a new, youthful expression of Democratic energy — and one the party badly needs. As Bernie Sanders recently told Politico, if Kamala Harris had deployed this more ground-style politics and “not listened to her consultants and done that, she would be president of the United States today.”
And if I’d bought Apple stock in 1984, I’d be a billionaire.
But here’s what matters: renewal is on the menu.
And that matters in a system where too many politicians refuse to leave the stage — even when scandal-scarred and long past their sell-by date. Voters were ready for something fresh. Mamdani’s campaign delivered a version of that freshness — and the results translated.
Translated into a staggering (according to his campaign) 50,000 volunteers and over a million doors knocked.
It translated into a movement.
Right on cue, the Republicans are already licking their chops. Trump tweeted that Mamdani is a “100% communist lunatic.” Fox News is on DEFCON 1. The right-wing manosphere will be podcasting about his “TikTok tyranny” by sundown.
But they should be careful what they wish for.
Because candidates who are dismissed by the establishment — but who speak directly to voters, offer real contrast, and ride momentum — have a tendency to outperform expectations.
Just ask the current president of the United States.
