Zohran Mamdani’s decisive Democratic primary win in New York City reinvigorated the progressive movement and put a magnifying glass on the young, online-savvy candidates running to be the next generation of Democrats.
As national Democrats look to regain power in Washington and grapple with how to reach voters through nontraditional media, Mamdani’s primary success has raised an age-old question in politics: Are these kinds of victories replicable?
Young, progressive candidates across the country say yes — and they’re actively seeking comparisons to Mamdani.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old content creator with over 200,000 followers on TikTok who is running for Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s seat in Illinois, is “trying to capture similar momentum that Zohran had,” her campaign spokesperson Sam Weinberg said.
“A big part of my campaign is making it as on the ground as possible, as in person as possible, trying to connect with as many voters as possible, and I saw that a lot with Zohran’s campaign. It gave me a lot of hope with ours of that strategy working,” Abughazaleh said herself.
But they’re also trying to figure out how to apply a very New York City-specific test case nationally.
“Obviously, New York City isn’t the same as Las Vegas. We all have our differences in our communities, but I think a lot of people are fed up in my city, and I know that … what happened in New York City gives a lot of people hope that young progressives can take the mantle and that they can hopefully tackle the change in their own communities,” said Alex Pereszlenyi, a political newcomer from Las Vegas who this month launched a primary campaign against Democratic Rep. Dina Titus.
Democrats across the ideological spectrum have conceded there’s something to learn from Mamdani’s campaign, which catapulted the state assemblyman from the single digits in the polls into a buzzy candidate who attracted tens of thousands of new voters to the ballot box. Mamdani grew his popularity with unique, eye-catching content — much of it featuring flashy stunts like polar plunging and walking the length of Manhattan.
Even centrist Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has balked at Mamdani’s platform and message, said in a statement to NOTUS last week that he’s open to learning how the New York City Democrat reached so many people. Gottheimer attended a breakfast meeting with Mamdani in Washington, D.C., hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week that focused on potential takeaways from Mamdani’s campaign.
Those aligned with Mamdani ideologically, however, say it’s not all style. Mamdani had concise, easily repeatable campaign goals: “freeze the rent,” “fast and fare free buses” and so on.
“If just having good ads, or slick ads, and being young won you elections, then you’d have a bunch of 33-year-old mayors all over America,” Rep. Greg Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told NOTUS. “Mamdani won because he had a bold, anti-establishment, clear message and he was able to communicate it very effectively online and authentically.”
Arizona-based progressive social media influencer Deja Foxx’s failed bid to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva was an early example that online buzz — and being young — doesn’t necessarily translate to electoral success, Adam Kinsey, a Democratic strategist in the state, told NOTUS.
Foxx, a 25-year-old with nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok, wanted to position herself as the Mamdani of Arizona, looking to build her appeal by making the case that she wasn’t connected to career politicians.
Kinsey said Foxx lost to Adelita Grijalva, the late congressman’s 54-year-old daughter who has held various local political positions in the district, partly because she focused too much on her age, painting herself as an agent of change without talking enough about issues.
Grijalva isn’t an establishment candidate, either — and not an equivalent to Andrew Cuomo, strategists, elected officials and candidates told NOTUS. She received the support of key progressives on Capitol Hill: the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Ocasio-Cortez.
“Adelita has communicated, over the course of many years, a bold, anti-establishment and progressive message that voters trust,” Casar said.
Even as some senior Democrats have privately expressed concern that Mamdani’s campaign suggests that younger challengers automatically have a leg up, Casar and Ocasio-Cortez said that reducing the New York and Arizona races to them being about young people who understand the digital media landscape was wrong.
“The same movements that support me and Zohran Mamdani also support Bernie Sanders and Adelita Grijalva,” Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS. “The idea that whenever the youngest person in a race loses, irrespective of their substance, that that’s somehow contrary to any sort of movement, I think is false.”
Progressive candidates still in the running say they’re trying to find the right balance to break through.
Voters “feel like [Democratic] candidates are fake, and we’re trying too hard, and it’s inauthentic. They want people who come from the community, who know their community, who know what it’s like to struggle,” said Elijah Manley, a 26-year-old progressive candidate and substitute teacher who is running against Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
Ahead of the 2026 election, the progressive group Justice Democrats is endorsing Donavan McKinney, a young Michigan state lawmaker who has also been endorsed by Sanders, in a primary challenge against Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar, who has routinely irritated some in the party. Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi said McKinney’s age is a benefit in the race, but so is his life experience and focus on cost-of-living issues and removing corporate influence from politics.
“I don’t think we should flatten what voters are looking for,” Andrabi told NOTUS. “[Mamdani] did not win this just because he was a young, fresh face. He also won this because of what he was standing up for and who he was standing up against and what he was unwilling to compromise on.”
Joel Payne, former senior aide for Hillary Clinton and chief communications officer at MoveOn, a progressive policy organization, told NOTUS that Foxx losing and Mamdani winning do not “run in conflict.”
“I think they all point in a general direction that, you know, political convention is going to be flipped on its side,” Payne added. “You’re going to have these candidates all over the country. I think that says something to you a little bit about … the people who are starting to make themselves a part of the political process and also where the grassroots energy is pointing in the broader Democratic Party.”