Astead Herndon

Well, this is something he manifested.

Don't want to ask Dora, I'm Donnie the Run.

He really saw an opportunity to step in to a moment where he felt that his life had kind of built him to being able to bring together these different coalitions.

When I asked Mamdani how did he put kind of particularly his primary rise together, he says he started with three different groups.

He thinks about his association with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism.

He also talks about his association with the Muslim Democratic Club of America, that campaigns he's been a part of throughout that group had taught him about reaching out to Muslim and South Asian groups.

And that kind of growing coalition, that growing community in the city, he felt was an untapped political resource and a place that could really rally around him.

The third thing I think is important is what he calls the root of his political formation, which is his pro-Palestinian advocacy.

This is someone who started a chapter for Students for Justice in Palestine in college.

This is someone who has been part of those organizing efforts over the year and most recently was part of the Democratic movement to push back against Joe Biden in terms of voting uncommitted in New York.

Because he is an early advocate for a ceasefire, because he is an early critic of Democrats standing with Netanyahu, that drives people toward him in the early stages of that primary in the way that other folks really weren't able to do.

The other way that Mamdani stuck out, of course, is through his use of social media.

My team says I move my hands too much in these videos.

So for this one, they're staying in my pockets.

And I would say it's important to note that this was very intentional.

When I talked to people who were connecting with Zoran during his kind of early stages of the race, he was saying, I know I'm going to be outraised in terms of money.

I'm going to have to create a movement that also exists online.

He studied AOC and her digital communication.

This is someone who is the son of a filmmaker, was really interested in the ways of those early storytelling films.