Memes win elections
Zohran Mamdani, social media and the pursuit of political power
Earlier this year, I attend an event and was seated next to a young person. To protect his identity, let’s call him “Orion.”
Orion was a very earnest and eager young man. He had big ideas and big dreams. He had strong opinions and was armed with statistics accumulated from various online sources. He was very attuned to politics and current events, both in the U.S. and around the world.
What I remember most about Orion, though, was his insistence that the biggest problem facing the United States was that older people in positions of power were not listening to younger people. He believed that older generations in positions of influence only cared about themselves and only acted in their own interests, whether it be in government, corporate America or elsewhere. None of us old people (myself included) understood the youth experience, which included a feeling that their generation was far more disadvantaged than others before them due to a lack of good jobs and home ownership being so far out of reach. If only young people had more power, things would improve.
I’ve thought about Orion in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s recent mayoral primary win in New York City. For readers not attuned to local politics, Mamdani is a politician from Queens, New York, who most recently served in the New York State Assembly. In four years in the state legislature, he passed three bills. He also helped launch a pilot program to make five NYC buses free (other cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C. had previously experimented with free buses). Perhaps most notably, he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and now, at 33-years-old, is the Democratic candidate for mayor in a city where 2/3 of the electorate are registered Democrats. This makes him the favorite to win the mayorship and govern America’s largest city with its trillion-dollar economy.
America’s punditry class has devoted a significant amount of column space to dissecting how Mamdani won and what his victory “means” for American politics. This is a particular feature of American political news coverage that has become quite predictable: pundits take the results of local politics and extrapolate their alleged significance to national politics. The reality is that no one knows if Mamdani’s primary victory is transformative or circumstantial, if it reflects conditions specific to New York or to the broader electorate, or if Mamdani will actually win in November (he still has to face the incumbent, Eric Adams, who is running as an independent).
But Mamdani clearly connected with younger, college-educated voters such as Orion. Orion was not a New Yorker; however, voters of similar age, education and profile confessed to voting for Mamdani precisely because they wanted someone younger who understood their concerns and rejected the old guard of American politics. Henry from the Bronx said he was, “tired of the same old politicians,” and Regina from Queens said, “Tired of corruption and politicians who are bullies… sick of the political environment as it is.” Christian from Manhattan added, “The Democratic Party needs to be forced to turn over.” [1]
How did Mamdani accumulate power and support among young people in such a short period of time? (Four months ago, Mamdani was polling in the single-digits.) Part of the answer does, in fact, reveal a truism about our national politics, as well as our international politics: the power of memes. The political candidate with the best memes on social media is often the candidate who consolidates power the fastest, particularly among young people.
To attribute Mamdani’s success solely to social media would be to devalue his organized and shrewd campaign, as well as his policy positions. The latter definitely resonated with younger voters suffering under inflation. Mamdani has repeatedly called for free buses, free childcare, a rent freeze and a $30 minimum wage—all of which sound appealing in a city where 50% of households are rent-burdened [2], childcare costs are the highest in the U.S. [3], and public transit is the slowest in the nation.[4]
But to get the message on through (to paraphrase the Doobie Brothers), Mamdani and his team leveraged social media expertly. Three months before his victory, Mamdani appeared on local NY1 television. When asked how he was reaching young people, he said plainly, “at their homes, on subway platforms and through social media.” He added that social media had helped young New Yorkers “see themselves” in him.[5]
Part of his social media success stemmed from his visually-arresting brand. As I explained in my book chapter on the visual past, on a platform such as Instagram, visually-arresting imagery is critical to making users pause their scrolling and engage with a piece of content. Dull, predictable imagery will not be visually-arresting enough to captivate users. Mamdani’s creative team—who were actually based in Philadelphia—opted for a bold, fresh color pallet that included a yellow that matched a New York City taxi cab and a blue that invoked the New York Knicks basketball team, who at the same time were advancing through the NBA playoffs and igniting city-wide pride. “His entire brand is a design love letter to [New York] city itself,” noted a fellow creative director.[6] Inspired by Bollywood, the overall aesthetic was purposefully bright and colorful; optimistic for New Yorkers and eye-catching online.
Another tried-and-true tactic for getting people to engage with content on social media is to have very attractive people sporting your brand. As I documented in the same chapter on the visual past, Instagram has become a destination for young attractive people to admire the lifestyles of other young attractive people (fashion models, celebrities, adult film stars, etc.). This was another tactic Mamdani’s campaign benefited from through an Instagram account called “hotgirls4zohran,” which delivered exactly what it promised. In addition to attractive young people in slick Mamdani merchandise, the account ran a series of promotions that gave away free Mamdani clothing in exchange for signing up for a mailing list, becoming a volunteer, or sharing a post on social media. Having been a budget-conscious young person myself once (as opposed to the budget-conscious old person I am now), I completely understand the allure of free clothing.
Mamdani also received powerful endorsements from important social media influencers. The world-famous fashion model Emily Ratajkowski came out in support of Mamdani on Instagram, where she has 29 million followers, and TikTok, where she has more than 2 million followers. Her endorsement generated valuable press coverage and widespread visibility. Mamdani also received online endorsements from, arguably, the two most important influencers in Democratic politics: Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. All three are connected politically through the Democratic Socialists of America, and Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani both represent Queens, New York. Aahil from Queens admitted that he voted for Mamdani because he was “endorsed by AOC and Bernie.”[7]
Mamdani’s team also skillfully produced short videos for Instagram, TikTok and X that featured quick cuts, sophisticated editing, comedic interludes (such as being interrupted by a street vendor asking if he was going to buy any food) and Bollywood references. One of Mamdani’s videos, which has millions of online views, included a cutaway to Amitabh Bachchan, a legendary Bollywood actor. One young New Yorker of South Asian heritage commented that the Bollywood references got Mamdani’s TikTok videos circulating through all her mom’s WhatsApp groups.[8] Mamdani’s mother, herself, is a distinguished filmmaker, and one social media account commented how Mamdani’s videos used professional filters to lend them a soft and warm aesthetic that contributed to his overall vibe.[9]
Then there were the memes. Back in 2021, I wrote about how the #ConstitutionDAO movement put the culture world on notice with its use of memes. The Trump campaign in 2024 masterfully used memes on social media to amplify and spread the President’s message, and political memes have been effectively used in the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as elections in Europe such as the presidential election in Romania. It has become a truism of political life that the candidate or movement with the best memes can use social media to accumulate electoral power.
In Mamdani’s case, one could argue his entire campaign was a meme, a virally transmitted image or text that uses cultural symbols to convey a social commentary. Mamdani’s campaign, was in essence, a running Internet commentary on the current state of American political life: exorbitantly expensive, out of touch with everyday people, and dominated by an old-guard billionaire class. (Many of Mamdani’s videos and social media posts blasted his competitor Andrew Cuomo for representing the interests of the wealthy elite, echoing the talking points of Bernie and AOC’s “Fighting the Oligarchy” tour). Mamdani and his supporters were not afraid to lean into the irony, snark and humor that make memes successful. There was no single meme that tipped the scales; rather it was the embrace of memes—and Internet culture more broadly—that allowed his policy positions to spread virally through online networks.
Though he won the Democratic primary, it should be noted that Mamdani’s vote total was well below 50%. In a city of 8 million people, Mamdani earned slightly over 432,000 votes. Mamdani also generated strong opposition from those who view his policies as unrealistic; similar to AOC and Bernie, his plan for funding free grocery stores, free public transportation and free childcare is to increase taxes on New York’s wealthiest residents, which may or may not occur. New York has also been a hotbed of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment over the past several years, and Mamdani has embraced these activities as opposed to condemning them. And for all his working-class rhetoric, Mamdani did not perform well in New York’s working-class areas. In both the Bronx and Staten Island, Cuomo won by double-digits.
So, why did Mamdani’s campaign become such a cause célèbre? In large measure because it tapped into a broader debate among Democrats about the future of the party. After resounding losses in November 2024, one faction of Democrats has argued that the party needs to move to the center in order to win back voters. An opposing faction has argued that the party will only win elections if it moves further to the left. The true audience for the Bernie-AOC nationwide tour are Democrat powerbrokers in Washington; the rallies are intended to signal to the party’s leadership that the energy and path to victory are on the left, as opposed to in the middle. The Mamdani campaign was a window into which vision for the Democratic Party’s future has more viability.
That said, having grown up in the New York area and traveled across the U.S. as an adult, I can confidently say that New York City does not equate to the rest of America. To draw conclusions about the nation’s political map from this specific, local election would be fallacious. New York is exorbitantly expensive, exceedingly complicated, extraordinarily diverse and, to quote Taylor Lorenz, extremely online. Bollywood-style TikTok videos complemented with free Knicks-inspired merch may excite 20-somethings in Brooklyn and Queens, but it’s an open question as to whether that will be effective among older voters in Lincoln, Nebraska; Minneapolis, Minnesota; or Houston, Texas.
What has been proven to be effective, however, has been understanding Internet culture and leveraging that as part of a political campaign, particularly one that seeks to activate young voters who wish to see themselves—and people like them—in positions of influence. A campaign that features:
An eye-catching brand;
Attractive influencers;
Short, well-produced videos;
Campaigns with clear calls-to-action;
Endorsements from individuals with large followings;
Cultural references and callbacks;
A stream of fresh content across multiple platforms; and, of course
MEMES
Stands a good chance of success. In our current age, social media offers a pathway to political power. If you meme it, they will click.
Have a meme-ing-ful week,
-JS
Notes:
[1] Post by Ride the News on Instagram, June 26, 2025.
[2] “Spotlight: New York City’s Rental Housing Market,” website of the New York City Comptroller, January 17, 2024, https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/spotlight-new-york-citys-rental-housing-market/#:~:text=In%20the%20ACS%2C%20median%20gross%20rent%20in,StreetEasy%20for%20on%2Dline%20available%20listings%20in%202022.
[3] Karen Yi, “Why child care is so expensive in NYC that it’s become a crisis,” Gothamist, April 15, 2024, https://gothamist.com/news/why-child-care-is-so-expensive-in-nyc-that-its-become-a-crisis.
[4] Ben Brachfield, “NYC buses running at slowest speeds since 2019,” AMNY, November 26, 2023, https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/nyc-buses-running-slowest-speeds-since-2019/.
[5] Erica Brosnan, “Mamdani makes case for generational change in NYC mayoral race,” website of Spectrum News NY1, March 8, 2025, https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/mornings-on-1/2025/03/28/zohran-mandani-pitches-mayoral-campaign.
[6] Emily Bloch, “Zohran Mamdani’s branding went viral for standing out—two Philly creatives responsible,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2025, https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/fashion/zohran-mamdani-s-branding-went-viral-for-standing-out-two-philly-creatives-are-responsible/ar-AA1HtMkf.
[7] Post by Ride the News on Instagram, June 26, 2025.
[8] Post by @signull on X, June 25, 2025.
[9] Post by @mansizzzzle on X, June 25, 2025.
Illuminating (and amusing). Thanks, Jason.