In just a few months, Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist, has gone from a long-shot fringe candidate to a national figure — securing an upset win in the June primary, where voters 18-29 had the highest turnout of any age group.
Now, on the cusp of Election Day — where polls show him the clear frontrunner over his closest rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — Mamdani is counting on that youth coalition to show up again. But his pledge to address rising costs appears to be resonating with young people far outside of the five boroughs. It’s a message that many Gen Z and millennials say speaks to their most pressing concerns at a time when many feel hopeless about their leaders and yearn for new voices willing to break with political norms.
“When a candidate is able to speak to the concerns of the populace and validate those concerns … I think that that has a big impact, especially when it comes to young people,” said Ruby Belle Booth, who studies young voters for the nonpartisan research organization CIRCLE.
I remember when I was in college and people were clamoring on the Ron Paul bandwagon, entirely because he was a high profile politician from a bright red state that wasn’t rabidly pro-war. Like, the demand for something that wasn’t (Republican: KILL’EM ALL!) or (Democrat: Let’s only kill as many people as is fiscally sensible) was so overwhelming that Paul’s dogshit economic and social politics failed to register for millions of people who probably should have known better (myself included).
Over twenty years later, I feel like we’re getting something of the reverse. A guy whose politics would normally rub GenZ / GenA liberals the wrong way and whose faith/tan would enrage young conservatives is getting a Katamari-like following across the political spectrum entirely because he’s outside the increasingly narrow R/D divide.