Early voting appears to be biased toward older voters, and Andrew Cuomo’s lead in New York’s mayoral race has increased, making young turnout key for Mamdani.
New York mayoral candidates face off in final debate
Andrew Cuomo, Zoran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa clashed over President Trump, housing, crime and sexual harassment allegations.
NEW YORK – Zoran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, knows young people are what helped him rise to the top in the polls, he told USA TODAY on Oct. 31.
“Young voters are in many ways the heart of this campaign and where we are right now,” Mamdani said by phone. “They’re not just voters who came out to vote for us at unprecedented levels. They’re also the very New Yorkers who have been knocking on our doors across the five boroughs.”
With early voting numbers looking lopsided heading into the Nov. 4 election, Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist state lawmaker, needs Gen Z and Millennial New Yorkers to maintain his lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who narrowed his lead by double digits in the final stages of the campaign.
Mr. Mamdani’s June primary victory over the 67-year-old Mr. Cuomo was an upset, reflecting the strong enthusiasm of young people who shared Mr. Mamdani’s focus on affordability policies in the nation’s largest city. Older voters lean more toward Mr. Cuomo, and older voters are more likely to vote in elections held outside of this year.
But Mamdani is turning to his younger supporters, who have brought their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles into the campaign.
“I heard this over and over again from older New Yorkers,” he says. “It was young family members who came to them and were the first to say why it’s time for change. And I’m really grateful to these young voters, because they showed us that while they’ve been talked to in a very condescending way in our politics, they can actually be at the center of a new kind of politics that puts workers at the centre.”
Mamdani urged voters not to become complacent, but said he was excited to see an increase in overall turnout.
“We are always a stronger democracy when more people participate,” Mamdani said. “What we tried to show is that the strength of a democracy can also be measured by its ability to actually meet the material needs of working people.”
Mr. Cuomo’s campaign did not respond to an email requesting comment about his outreach to young voters.
appeal to young Muslim voters
Mamdani’s comments about young voters particularly resonate in immigrant enclaves, especially fast-growing Muslim and South Asian communities. According to a recent analysis by the City Audit Bureau, the number of immigrants, mainly young people, is increasing due to the rising cost of living.
“He went through everything we go through,” Yusra Irfan, 36, an adult day care worker, said of Mamdani outside Friday’s Juma mass prayer attended by candidates at the Muslim American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn. “He went through the same hardships that we go through.”
Irfan and others handed out campaign materials in English and Arabic to the crowds of people leaving the mosque. The campaign’s efforts to engage Muslim New Yorkers resulted in campaigns targeting 210 of the city’s approximately 300 mosques, a spokesperson said.
Irrfan started volunteering for the campaign after seeing Mamdani on TikTok. It was his first time voting in a mayoral election since he immigrated from India 10 years ago, and he was excited to be the first Muslim mayor and the first Indian mayor. But as a single mother, Irfan praised Mamdani’s policies to address costs in the city, especially her promise of universal child care.
Asad Dandia, a New York urban historian and member of Mamdani’s unofficial “Kitchen Cabinet,” said many young voters have only known President Donald Trump, who has frequently attacked Muslims and non-white immigrant communities, including with his ban on Muslims. Dandia, 32, said that’s especially true for the city’s South Asian community.
But Zoran’s campaign, he said, “allows them to be a part of something that speaks to them, someone who represents them. Someone who could be their cousin or their big brother.”
Mamdani’s camp had an early campaign in Muslim and South Asian enclaves, but also on left-leaning university campuses in the city.
Young voters support Mamdani near Columbia University
“Zoran is a symbol of hope and a symbol of what this country can become and how democracy can actually be restored,” said Marisol Bonifaz, a 19-year-old Barnard College freshman, at a polling place at Columbia University’s satellite campus in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood on the morning of Nov. 1, when she voted in her first municipal election.
Bonifaz, from Massachusetts, volunteered to register about 50 other students on Columbia University’s campus to vote. She says students are excited, but they need a plan to vote.
“He’s the person I want to bring about change in politics,” said Gabriela Gavazzi, 25, a recent graduate of the doctoral program in physical therapy at Columbia University. She changed her registration from her home state of Pennsylvania to vote for Mamdani in the general election. “Our politics are really in a quagmire right now.”
One man, who declined to give his name but identified himself as 75, said he voted for Mr. Cuomo because he thought Mr. Mamdani was anti-Semitic and would destroy the city. The man said Cuomo saved the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jody Kobler, 57, a Jewish Upper West Side resident, said she voted for Mamdani to make it a better city “for everyone, for everyone.”
Her two children, both young Manhattan residents, are also voting for Mamdani because they think Manhattan gives them the best chance of staying in their city, she said, adding that the city is “for all young people.”
Mamdani said the focus on affordability is especially important for young voters.
“Young people are often denied the legitimacy that they are afforded in other constituencies,” Mamdani told USA TODAY. “And it’s made to look as if their struggles are indicative of who they are, whereas our cities, our state, our country are failing them and we are making life increasingly difficult for these young people.”
He said it was becoming increasingly difficult for young people to pursue their dreams and ambitions. “What they want is what every New Yorker wants. A city where New Yorkers can do more than just struggle to call home. A city where they can actually pursue what brought them here in the first place,” he added.
Kobler hasn’t remembered young people being this interested in politics in a while. The last candidate to motivate young people is Barack Obama, she said.
As for whether he dresses up for Halloween, Mamdani said he dresses like “just a tired politician.”
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Contact us via email (emcuevas1@usatoday.com) or Signal (emcuevas.01).
