Zohran Mamdani is, quite literally, everywhere.
The 34-year-old New York state assemblyman, who in recent months has ascended from relative political anonymity to become the presumptive winner of New York City’s November mayoral race, has already graced the covers of Time, New York, Vanity Fair, and The Nation, among other publications. He’s sparred with newscasters on CNN and Fox News, riffed with Stephen Colbert, and bantered like his life depended on it with the hosts of The View.
Mamdani’s ubiquity didn’t start with print pages or broadcast interviews. Much of that conventional media exposure, and Mamdani’s growing celebrity, is a collective byproduct of one single element of his mayoral campaign: a really, really good social strategy. One of Mamdani’s first viral videos, a 2024 supercut of short conversations between the assemblyman and New York–based Trump voters, laid the groundwork for a subsequent mayoral campaign built on clever, conversational clips. See: Very Cold Mamdani, emerging from a polar plunge in the Atlantic Ocean with a vow to freeze rent on rent-stabilized apartments. See also: Sneakers Mamdani, walking the length of Manhattan to advocate for accessible politicians; Citi Bike Mamdani, responding to a bystander’s howl of “Communist” before pedaling off as cameras roll; or Red Rose Mamdani, spoofing The Bachelor while wooing New Yorkers with promises of an equitable future. Yes, the #ZaddyZohran TikTok hashtag is nearly as prolific as the candidate who inspires it.
But as Mamdani acknowledged during a recent sit-down at his campaign’s spartan Manhattan headquarters, his outsized ubiquity also has its downsides: There’s the ire of President Trump, who has denounced Mamdani as “a 100% Communist lunatic,” threatened to arrest him, and, should the front-runner topple Andrew Cuomo in November, deploy the National Guard to New York City. Then there’s the risk of violence against Mamdani or his campaign staff; it’s a concern that increased markedly following the recent assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, and, for Mamdani, means “I’m never alone now.”
But for someone as everywhere as Mamdani, hunkering down in the secure confines of an office can only last so long. Forty-five minutes, to be exact, before our interview concludes and Mamdani (security detail in tow) gamely joins WIRED’s photographers on a bustling Manhattan street, posing inside a yellow cab and walking to and fro on the sidewalk. It would be an understatement to say that passersby took note. They did take selfies—at least five in fewer than 10 minutes. They also took campaign materials, seemingly so inspired by a mere glimpse of Zaddy Zohran that they were compelled to join his 80,000-strong army of volunteers. And, in typical New York fashion, they did all of this with no semblance of personal shame, screaming Mamdani’s name from the open windows of office towers and cars; hooting at him from across the street and down the block.
It remains to be seen whether Mamdani as mayor can satisfy these starstruck locals, along with his thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of presumed voters—not to mention the many millions more following along online. For now, Mamdani is embracing the life of a newly minted internet darling. After one last wave has been proffered, to a particularly loud fan shouting from a window across the street, the candidate and his team duck back inside their nondescript office building. Up the elevators and, presumably, on to the next interview.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photograph: Ike Edeani
