Mamdani Memes Remind Us Good Things Can Still Happen
With a little help from a band of New York City “hot girls,” a grassroots campaign carried Democratic Socialist and State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani to victory in Tuesday’s mayoral primary race. Eleven candidates vied for the Democratic nomination for mayor; however, the race was largely considered a two-person contest when disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo entered in March.
Cuomo held a close lead over Mamdani, according to polls in the weeks before the election, making last night’ win even more of an “upset” to establishment politicians. As with any shift in power, my brain-rotten, chronically celibate generation has once again taken to the feeds to celebrate with an assortment of dark humor.
Final results in the key primary race were not initially expected to come on election night; however, Cuomo paved the way for an all-but-definitive Mamdani win when he conceded the race before midnight, just hours after polls closed on Tuesday.
For months, Mamdani courted young New Yorkers with promises of a more affordable city, including free buses, city-run grocery stores, and rent freezes. The 33-year-old has amassed over a million followers on Instagram and appears to understand how to leverage his reach, appealing to voters through well-edited vertical campaign videos and entertaining a mass of attractive women wearing T-shirts that read “Hot girls for Zohran” canvassing through the boroughs.
Everything Mamdani does seems to be a strategic move for virality. In an eleventh-hour push to get young people to the polls on a dangerously hot day, model Emily Ratajkowski appeared next to Mamdani in an Instagram video wearing her campaign merch. In the weeks before the election, a music video Mamdani appeared in under the rapper name “Young Cardamom” resurfaced, and on election day, Cosmopolitan ran a story claiming the candidate met his wife, artist Rama Duwaji, on the hellscape of a dating app that goes by the name Hinge. Mamdani’s donor base, comprised mostly of individuals, seemed to reflect his broad relatability.
Cuomo, in contrast, was backed by the largest super political action committee (PAC) ever established to fund a New York City mayoral campaign. Cuomo’s PAC received major funds from former mayor Michael Bloomberg, DoorDash, and billionaire Trump supporter Bill Ackman. Mamdani accused the PAC of racism and Islamophobia after it altered a photo of the candidate on a campaign flyer to have a thicker, darker beard.
An undercurrent of Islamophobia and racism has indeed run among the opposition to Mamdani, who would become the first Muslim mayor of New York City if he wins against incumbent Eric Adams in November. On X, right-wing “memes” unfoundedly complained that Mamdani was a “jihadist” and published images of the 9/11 attacks, absurdly insinuating that the candidate and the events were somehow connected.
Some savory memes humorously subverted these profoundly racist claims.
More lighthearted memes zoomed in on maps of New York neighborhoods that voted for Mamdani, highlighting the irony that Manhattan’s Financial District majorly voted for the Democratic Socialist in the primary. A few took jabs at Adams, who circumvented the primary by running as an independent after corruption allegations.
Find below an assortment of Mamdani win reactions that remind us Good Things Can Still Happen.
