When Zohran Mamdani announced his candidacy for the mayor of New York City, few political insiders gave it much thought. A Ugandan-born, democratic socialist state assemblyman, Mamdani entered a crowded race that included a former governor of New York and the sitting mayor. Yet, after cruising through Election Day, Mamdani has become the next mayor of one of the world’s most powerful and influential cities. How? He weaponized a tool lost on his older opponents, something that promises to revolutionize campaigns and reshape politics as we know it: social media.
Social media as a campaign tool traces its origins back to the 2008 presidential election, when the Obama campaign, led by former Facebook founder Chris Hughes, began a new-media initiative to take its message directly to the people. Under Hughes, the campaign used emerging online spaces such as MySpace and Facebook to mobilize hundreds of thousands of supporters before the primaries and raised more than $2 million in donations of less than $200 each. The program succeeded, with Obama outpacing McCain in online political activism from supporters en route to a 365-173 electoral victory. After 2008, social media’s presence in campaigns only increased, with platforms like X, Instagram, and Truth Social becoming the epicenter of discourse during the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential campaigns.
Social media opened the door for Mamdani. Thirty-three years old and serving his first term in government, Mamdani was far younger and less experienced than his opponents. Knowing he could not win the race with his wallet or name brand, he sought a different path to victory: virality. From day one, Mamdani took to social media to spread his message. Posting interviews, memes, and advertisements, he quickly gained a following inside and outside the city, going from a long-shot candidate polling at 1% in February to the Democratic nominee by June.
His strategy was unprecedented. While his competitors posted long, polished videos, Mamdani used unorthodox videos to grab voters’ attention. In one, Mamdani runs into the “freezing” Atlantic Ocean to advertise his plan to freeze rents. In another, he references the classic Bollywood film Deewar in a reel about wealth inequality. His videos were filmed in every corner of the city, often featuring community members, and included segments in Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, Bengali, and Arabic. His content choices were highly intentional: Unique, unexpected videos separated him from mainstream politicians, while the broad range of voices and topics sought to attract voters from a diverse range of backgrounds. Above all, his social media campaign highlighted his underlying platform as an anti-establishment candidate committed to improving the lives of ordinary New Yorkers.
Mamdani’s social media strategy was a major success, and he amassed ten times the following of his biggest competitor, Andrew Cuomo, on Instagram. Yet his campaign did more than capture the hearts of New Yorkers. Reaching every corner of the internet, Mamdani’s videos brought him national recognition, and his candidacy gained the support of major politicians, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Even former President Barack Obama offered Mamdani his assistance, calling his campaign “impressive to watch.” Some are calling the thirty-three-year-old the future of the national Democratic Party.
But Mamdani’s rise does not exist in a vacuum.
Across the country, other politicians are following his lead, using social media to circumvent mainstream news outlets and bring their message directly to voters. In Maine, veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner has taken to social media in his primary race for U.S. Senate against the mainstream candidate, Gov. Janet Mills. Meanwhile, in Texas, State Representative James Talarico has amassed over a million Instagram followers as he runs for the U.S. Senate. Both Platner and Talarico have taken a page out of Mamdani’s playbook, using unique storytelling strategies to captivate voters online. In one video, Platner used an oyster shucking tutorial to discuss inequalities in healthcare. In another, Talarico took a trip to the Texas State Fair to critique the Trump administration’s tariffs.
The results have been nearly as positive as they were for Mamdani. Platner has launched himself into Maine’s race and is neck and neck with Mills for the Democratic nomination. Talarico also finds himself squarely in the running, with the Democratic candidates polling strongly in potential general elections despite the Republicans’ firm grip on Texas. Combined with that of Mamdani, these campaigns demonstrate a major shift in American politics. Recognizing America’s growing unrest with the current state of government, this new wave of politicians has taken to social media to create a new catalog of potential policymakers.
While Mamdani, Platner, and Talarico vary in their policies and online personas, their platforms share an underlying principle: left-wing, anti-establishment populism. Unknowns in the political world, they use this as a positive, promising to the American people to combat the established political machine. Mamdani has centered his platform around working New Yorkers, while Platner calls himself a “foe of the oligarchy,” and Talarico is trying to “take power back for working people.”
While populist platforms are not uncommon in American politics, on both sides of the political aisle, social media presents the ability to make them the norm. With the ability to interact more directly with voters, candidates are incentivized to shift their platform toward the masses. This shift has already manifested in the political right, where Trump and the Republican Party have assumed a populist, domestic worker-focused platform. With Mamdani and other social media-born policymakers at the helm, an opposing form of populism could be on the horizon on the left.
Social media’s role in enabling the emergence of these populist platforms could have both positive and negative effects. By bringing candidates directly to voters, social media incentivizes politicians to focus on the issues salient to the public. At a time when many Americans feel overlooked by the government, social media shifts politicians’ incentives and brings a level of accountability to politics. Yet, at the same time, social media may only worsen America’s political polarization problem. While large news outlets may inhibit the prospects of smaller politicians, they also serve as a screening mechanism for extremist candidates. Allowing candidates to circumvent this mechanism, social media may make candidates on both extreme ends of the political spectrum politically viable, posing a threat to the stability of American democracy.
While much remains uncertain, the rise of Zohran Mamdani illustrates the central role social media now plays in political campaigns. Capable of turning political outsiders into policymakers, social media shifts politicians’ interests toward the masses. As social media reshapes the political campaign landscape, it brings populism alongside it, leaving a new political world in its wake.
