Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign set a new standard for how Democrats can communicate online.
It’s this digital savviness and authentic engagement with social media platforms to which pundits across the political spectrum have attributed to Mamdani’s triumphant and decisive win Tuesday night. From the start, his team outclassed his opponents online, publishing highly-produced videos that reached massive audiences.
But that’s only half of the story. Much of the content about Mamdani online isn’t just coming from his campaign, or the dozens of political influencers invited to cover it. It’s come from his fans.
For the last few months, feeds have been filled with fancams, fan art, and videos created not just with Mamdani, but for him. This form of participatory online fandom has traditionally been reserved for celebrities and musicians like Taylor Swift or K-pop idols. The young voters who came out in support of Mamdani in droves this week grew up engaging with their favs online in these ways, establishing something incredibly rare for the 34-year-old mayor-elect—a fandom.
“They are using their experiences from online fandom to do politics,” Dr. Ashley Hinck, an associate professor at Xavier University who teaches digital media and online communication. “Those are the skills to engage with culture and that means those are the skills we use to engage with politics.”
The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This fandom doesn’t look like average political organizing. Online, clips of Mamdani speaking at rallies and with influencers get remixed into tight video posts set to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” songs from the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” or Charli xcx’s “Brat.” Digital artists have posted videos of them drawing Mamdani in their own styles. Mamdani’s own campaign quips, like when he instructed opponent Andrew Cuomo on how to pronounce his last name, have been edited into campaign anthems.
Unlike many politicians online as of late, the Mamdani campaign’s official social media presence avoided AI-generated content and the focus on popular audio trends, becoming a rare source of substance in slop-filled feeds. While other Democratic officials post online to manufacture authenticity with voters, Mamdani, voters say, simply shows up. He uses social media with the same seriousness he brings to issues like housing and affordability. This approach provides his audience with something tangible that they can engage with online in their own language, creating a community around Mamdani that exists online as well as real life.
“He’s maintained utmost professionalism throughout the campaign, but he lets the fun swirl around him,” says Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the progressive Working Families Party which essentially endorsed Mamdani. “He encourages that culture around him, while he himself remains kind of laser focused on politics, on this campaign, and on the real issues that people are facing.”
