Supporters try to convince voters Mamdani is man for the moment

New York City - "Focus, focus, focus on affordability".

It is a simple message, but one that Robert Wood, a 47-year-old writer and a lead volunteer for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, believes is the key to turning out voters in the final stretch of New York City's closely watched race.

Mamdani's surprise victory in the June Democratic primary - and his commanding lead in the polls ahead of the November 4 election day - has achieved a symbolism that has resonated far beyond the borders of the city's five boroughs.

To many, it has represented a rebuke to the wealthy donor-dominated Democratic establishment: A path forward for liberal politics lost in the woods in the age of US President Donald Trump.

But for a movement that has reverberated across the country - and indeed the globe - to fully actualise, Mamdani supporters know he must actually make it into City Hall. That begins and ends with door-knocking: lots and lots of door-knocking.

In a row of townhouses in the neighbourhood of Crown Heights, an area that split between Mamdani and top opponent Andrew Cuomo in the primaries, a door opened to reveal Nadia on a windswept October day. She said she's already all in for Mamdani.

"Regardless of what the polls say, we need to make sure our friends and families get out and vote," Wood urged, noting a resounding mandate would help to energise Mamdani's ambitious plans: rent freezes on stabilised apartments, free buses, and universal childcare, paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers.

Execution will require hard-fought buy-in from state lawmakers and the governor.

At a nearby, pre-war rent-stabilised apartment building, another man said he was unsure. Wood pointed to Mamdani's vow to freeze rents in buildings like his, which make up about a quarter of the city's housing stock.

The man is gracious, but unwilling to make a final decision: "Thank you, I'm still deciding".

Down the street, climbing a steep concrete stoop, Wood met Onika Saul, a 45-year-old property manager. In Mamdani's pledges, she worried, "realism is kind of skewed".

"Anyone can say anything, but action always speaks louder than words," she said.

"So I think for me personally, being disappointed so many times by so many politicians and so many promises, I want to see more action than words."

But Wood dug in. He detailed Mamdani's activism as a state assemblyman, which included joining a taxi worker hunger strike; he had been arrested in front of US Senator Chuck Schumer's home during a protest against US funding for the war in Gaza; Mamdani, he noted, has relied on small donations, unlike the sums provided by billionaire business and real estate leaders who have fuelled Cuomo's campaign.

He also pointed to an issue that has been one of the most decisive in the race: Mamdani, he noted, has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, a rarity in mainstream US politics.

"Zohran is certainly the only politician in the race who will call what's happening [in Gaza], what it is: a genocide," Wood said.

Saul agreed: "It is a genocide".

By the end, Saul still had her reservations. After all, Mamdani's top pledges —rent freezes and universal childcare for children under five — would not directly apply to her. But she said she's willing to give his vision a shot—and her vote.

"I feel better about him," she said. "But it’s still the whole seeing is believing thing."

'Do not underestimate our opponents'

Mamdani has been trying to bridge that chasm in belief in the final stretch of the election contest. Polls have tightened, with opponent Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York State, making explicit appeals to conservatives and independents to back him or face the degradation of the city as they know it.

Cuomo, who left office in 2021 amid sexual misconduct allegations, has derided Mamdani as an out-of-touch ideologue promising the impossible. The attacks have included increasingly caustic messaging, leaning into Islamophobic and xenophobic tropes: Mamdani would be the first Muslim, first person born in Africa (Uganda), and the first person of South Asian descent to lead the city.

For Mamdani, the challenge has been seeing through a mission statement he elucidated after his come-from-behind win in primary elections in June. The 34-year-old state assemblyman was expected to have his mayoral ambitions dashed against the realities of the city's notoriously hard-nosed electoral politics.

Instead, his victory was resounding. He took 56.4 percent of the primary vote when adjusted for the ranked-choice system, compared to Cuomo's 43.6 percent. Cuomo soon after re-entered the race as an independent.

"We wanted to rebuild a coalition that had frayed over years of disappointment and neglect, to win people back to a Democratic Party that puts working people first," Mamdani said after the win, in one of the ubiquitous direct-to-camera social media videos he has used to appeal to a chronically online generation of voters.

He pointed to areas in New York City that swung towards US President Donald Trump in 2024, only to support him in the primary. It was evidence, he said, that a combination of progressive policies and a clear message on affordability could rally the disaffected.

"The headline is clear: we can win back voters many have written off if we give them something to vote for, not just tell them what to be against," he said.

In the months since, Mamdani has more fully embraced his role as a progressive standard-bearer, twice holding rallies with stalwart US Senator Bernie Sanders, whose surprise surge in the 2016 presidential election offered to many a glimpse of a different political path.

But the real test is yet to come. Unlike the closed Democratic primary, the general election is open to all, including the approximately 20 percent of the 4.7 million registered voters unaffiliated with a party, as well as the 11 percent registered Republicans. The variables are vast, and electoral math is subject to unseen shifts.

Early voting, which began on October 25, has already seen record turnouts, particularly in older demographics that favour Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

"Please, please, do not underestimate our opponents," Sanders said at a rally kicking off the final sprint of the race.

Why Mamdani, why now?

It is a question that has hung in the air since June: Why is Mamdani the man for this political moment?

At a bohemian beer garden in Astoria, Queens, where the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) held a watch party during the first of two general election debates, Susan Kang attempted to unpack the query.

Of course, Mamdani's success comes in the wake of a punishing 2024 election season for Democrats, who lost the US presidency, the House and the Senate to Republicans.

That exposed "the weaknesses of a conventional Democratic message", particularly on economic issues and affordability, explained Kang, an associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan who is also affiliated with the DSA.

Cuomo, to many young voters who buoyed Mamdani's success, is emblematic of the same tired Democratic Party of old.

Then there is the continued knock-on of the so-called "Bernie Sanders effect", which helped bring Democratic Socialist policies to the fore. While Democratic Socialism is a distinct, if amorphous, ideology, the term "socialist" has for decades been a political slur in the post-Cold War US.

But for Kang, the strength that has carried Mamdani is more personal in provenance.

While Cuomo's approach says, "I'm gonna whip this city into shape", Kang said, Mamdani shows a warmth and familiarity with the tapestry of personalities that make up the wildly diverse metropolis. One of his most popular videos highlighted common issues facing halal workers. Others have featured deli workers, subway commuters and cab drivers.

"I think Zohran has really shown that he loves New York City," Kang said.  "He wants to make this a city that works for everybody."

'Something that we've never seen before'

In a second-floor office in South Richmond Hill, Queens, Sherry Padilla believes Mamdani is uniquely positioned to rally immigrant working-class communities who feel left behind by establishment politics.

Mamdani's ground game in the run-up to the primary relied heavily not just on the DSA's sprawling volunteer infrastructure, but also on community groups like DRUM Beats, a political committee affiliated with the Queens-headquartered Desis Rising Up and Resisting.

He has been leveraging that same support as the general election approaches, continuing to tour mosques, Hindu and Jewish temples, and Christian churches across the five boroughs.

Hosting a phone-banking event for DRUM Beats, Padilla said she is hoping to convince voters to see in Mamdani what she sees. Her outreach specifically targets the South Richmond Hill area, home to a large Guyanese and South Asian population.

"We've had politicians who come into our community, say two or three words in our language and eat one of our favourite foods, and then it's like, 'OK, see you next election season,'" Padilla said.

"Zohran's constantly been in our communities and has been by our working class, our Black or brown residents and supported our struggles and fought with us," she said. "That's something that we've never seen before in a politician."

'We aren't what everybody says we are'

In New York City, nearly 40 percent of the population is foreign-born. Working-class immigrants have had a front-row seat to yawning inequality in the city, which is home to more billionaires than any other city in the world.

Studies have shown that inequality has become more entrenched since the COVID-19 pandemic ended in 2021. Prices have risen, but only the wealthiest have seen their incomes significantly increase.

A recent report by the Fiscal Policy Institute found one percent of the city's population currently receives 44 percent of the city's income. The share is nearly four times higher than 30 years ago.

At a pro-Mamdani rally in Midtown, Manhattan, Salim Drammeh, who leads Africans for Zohran, said the overlap of Mamdani's identity and the policies he spearheads has the potential to invigorate dormant voting blocks.

"In my district, there is a lot of food insecurity, there's a huge need for childcare," he said. "So when Zohran speaks about affordability, it speaks straight to our communities."

"At the same time, voter turnout in the community is really low," he said, noting he helped organise a roundtable with West African imams in the community and Mamdani. "So I've really been working to increase those numbers".

At the same time, the vitriol that Mamdani has received, particularly related to his religion, race and immigration history, has crescendoed in the final days of the race.

In the final week of campaigning, two House Republicans, Randy Fine and Andy Ogles, have continued to push the US Department of Justice to investigate Mamdani's immigration status and potentially strip his citizenship.

But Latifa Emery, a 44-year-old from the Morrisania neighbourhood of the Bronx, said those attacks could backfire, instead energising communities long accustomed to being demonised.

"If he wins, a lot of people will start to realise that we aren't what everybody says we are," said Emery, who is Muslim. "We're not terrorists, we're not bad people. It's time for people to see that".

In the nearby Tremont neighbourhood, Masoud Eleshin, a 78-year-old originally from Ghana, took issue with Cuomo's attempts to connect Mamdani to anti-LGBTQ policies in the country where he was born, Uganda.

That has included attacking Mamdani for taking a photo with Rebecca Kadaga, a proponent of anti-gay laws. Mamdani has flatly condemned Kadaga's position, saying he was not aware of her views at the time the photo was taken.

"That shouldn't be happening," Eleshin said. "I've been in this country for 40 years; you can't blame me for where I'm from".

The final push

Back on the canvassing grind in Crown Heights, both the pitfalls and potential of reaching new voters were on full display.

The event was just a slice of the campaign's efforts. Wood's canvassing group included at least 50 participants. All told, the campaign has said about 90,000 volunteers have taken part across the city throughout the election season.

At one townhouse, a man answered the door and quickly became irate.

"You're wasting your time in this neighbourhood," the man said. "[Mamdani] is an antisemite, he wants me dead".

Wood attempted to calm the situation, seeking to dispel a claim pushed by both Cuomo and Sliwa. A range of Jewish New Yorkers have backed Mamdani, who has repeatedly vowed to be a Mayor for all city residents.

One of two major ultra-orthodox Satmar sects in the city has also recently rejected claims that Mamdani is antisemitic as "false and dangerous".

But unable to bring the temperature down, Wood moved on.

In a nearby apartment building, 70-year-old Hedrina James said she had not been following the race, her attention instead consumed wth the daily demands of life.

But after a quick talk with Wood, she was swiftly taken by two of Mamdani's top pledges: A rent freeze, which would theoretically apply to her apartment, and universal childcare.

“I’ve learned a lot," she told Al Jazeera. "This would benefit so many of us."