{"id":29200,"date":"2025-11-05T04:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/29200\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T04:44:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:44:23","slug":"five-reasons-behind-the-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/29200\/","title":{"rendered":"Five reasons behind the win"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0Zohran 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<\/a> cast ballots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just months ago, when Mamdani entered the race, he was polling in the single digits and few believed he could defeat Cuomo.<\/p>\n

In the end, Mamdani defeated him twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in a year when Democrats have largely been floundering, Mamdani electrified the party and managed to draw new voters to the polls too.<\/p>\n

So why did he win so decisively? \u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are five reasons:<\/p>\n

Affordability trumped all<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At campaign rallies, Mamdani frequently stood in front of signs reading, \u201cA City We Can Afford.\u201d A visit to his website also plainly states that Mamdani is \u201crunning for Mayor to lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers.\u201d His supporters also carried placards reading \u201cBuild Affordable Housing\u201d and \u201cChildcare for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morris Katz, who served as a strategist for the Mamdani campaign, told The Hill in an interview that the broader narrative for Mamdani\u2019s campaign was \u201cLife doesn\u2019t have to be this hard. New York can be more affordable and it\u2019s government\u2019s job to deliver that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His message was consistent<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of last year\u2019s elections, Democrats have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about messaging. One of the criticisms of Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign and Kamala Harris\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign was that voters couldn\u2019t figure out what each candidate stood for and what rationale they had for running.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani never had that problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have Trump voters supporting a democratic socialist, you are communicating something pretty clearly and consistently,\u201d said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watch Zohran\u2019s 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,\u201d Katz told The Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experience didn\u2019t matter<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in his final ad in the election, he underscored his executive experience while also highlighting Mamdani\u2019s inexperience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLife in New York is tough right now,\u201d Cuomo says in the campaign spot. \u201cCandidates who need on-the-job training can\u2019t fix it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in the end, it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani used his inexperience to his advantage. And in some ways, his campaign was the progressive version of President Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign, which revolved largely around a narrative of bucking the establishment and \u201cdraining the swamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

He flooded the zone<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who was relatively unknown months ago, was seemingly everywhere all at once \u2014 one of the key pillars of his strategy.<\/p>\n

And he didn\u2019t just rely on paid and earned media; he pushed the bounds of traditional campaigning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, for example, he held a press conference strictly for \u201ccreators\u201d and influencers, generating more than 31,000 livestreams and a combined reach in the tens of millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The democratic socialist even ran ads on Fox News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLove him or hate him, you couldn\u2019t get away from him,\u201d said one Democratic strategist. \u201cWhen we say we we need to reinvent the playbook, we need to follow this kind of playbook, not the one we\u2019ve run in years past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The energy on the left<\/p>\n

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.).\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the organizing machine surrounding Mamdani\u2019s campaign did not disappoint. Everyone from labor groups to small-dollar donors helped push the campaign from obscurity to prominence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even progressives acknowledge that Mamdani\u2019s campaign is specific to New York and couldn\u2019t be replicated elsewhere, especially in a swing state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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,\u201d the strategist said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Susan Del Percio, a New York-based political consultant, agreed. \u201cNo one should read that much into what his win would mean for the Democratic Party,\u201d Del Percio said. \u201cThis race happened in an insular world of New York politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0Zohran Mamdani defied the odds, defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18098,17325,18111,18099,2136,17322,18097,18018,18115,18109,18113,18101,18112,18114,153,13830,17323,18121,7496,17353,18117,18095,11859,17334,18108,18119,17326,17324,17320,17335,17328,17337,17321,17330,17332,17333,17327,17319,18107,11764,18105,9,24,17329,11,18019,10,18104,63,17331,18120,17342,7733,18017,5999,17340,6116,1093,18122,5148,17336,17341,18100,18106,18116,18110,18096,18103,18102,17338,17339,18118],"class_list":["post-29200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cnn-politics","tag-new-york-city-mayoral-polls","tag-u-s-elections","tag-abbott-tariff","tag-california","tag-cuomo-mamdani","tag-cuomo-mamdani-race","tag-cuomo-mamdani-sliwa","tag-democrats-comeback","tag-democrats-comeback-elections","tag-democrats-comeback-paths","tag-democrats-key-races","tag-democrats-momentum","tag-democrats-rebuilding","tag-donald-trump","tag-early-voting-data","tag-early-voting-nyc","tag-election-2025-results","tag-election-day","tag-election-day-2025","tag-election-day-2025-live-results","tag-election-day-news","tag-election-results","tag-election-results-timing","tag-hunterdon-county","tag-live-virginia-election-results","tag-mamdani-campaign-day","tag-mamdani-cuomo","tag-mamdani-cuomo-nyc","tag-mamdani-cuomo-nyc-mayor","tag-mamdani-cuomo-polls","tag-mamdani-cuomo-race","tag-mamdani-cuomo-sliwa","tag-mamdani-cuomo-sliwa-odds","tag-mamdani-cuomo-sliwa-pitches","tag-mamdani-cuomo-sliwa-polls","tag-mamdani-leads-polls","tag-mamdani-polls-nyc","tag-new-jersey-election","tag-new-jersey-governor","tag-new-jersey-voters","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-mayoral-results","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-mayoral-candidates","tag-new-york-news","tag-nj-election-results","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-early-voting","tag-nyc-election","tag-nyc-election-guide","tag-nyc-mayor","tag-nyc-mayor-candidates","tag-nyc-mayors-race","tag-nyc-mayoral-candidates","tag-nyc-mayoral-debate","tag-nyc-mayoral-election","tag-nyc-mayoral-election-results","tag-nyc-mayoral-race","tag-nyc-mayoral-results","tag-nyc-polling","tag-schumer-mamdani","tag-sherrill-ciattarelli","tag-todays-election-results","tag-trump-agenda","tag-trump-endorses-cuomo","tag-trump-governors","tag-trump-strength","tag-trump-voters","tag-voting-takeaways-nyc","tag-when-do-election-results-start-coming-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}