On a gloomy Sunday evening, 2,000 New Yorkers filled the auditorium at Brooklyn Steel with kinetic, hopeful energy, as a slew of lefty local and state politicians, leaders of progressive New York-based organizations, and a few celebrities gathered for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's first campaign rally.
Per the most recent polls, Mamdani is still a pretty distant second to the Democratic frontrunner, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who, despite scandals past and present, remains popular with New York City's most reliable voters: Democrats aged 45 years and older (although the latest numbers show that Mamdani is their second choice, too.)
But you wouldn't necessarily know the assemblymember is number two from the room, which filled up well before the rally's 6 p.m. start time. Most attendees trended young, but there were plenty of older New Yorkers, too, plus parents with young children, people using mobility aids, plus people in hijabs and dastārs and keffiyehs. Audience members waved signs with Mamdani's central campaign slogans on them: "Hold Bad Landlords Accountable," "Build Affordable Housing," "Fast & Free Buses," "Childcare for All." Many were sporting free, campaign-branded mustard bandanas handed out by volunteers—maybe a hint at how Mamdani is spending those record-breaking campaign funds he's raised since entering the race in October 2024.
"Zohran is the most exciting candidate in the race right now," Manvir Singh, an avid Mamdani supporter and former City employee, told Hell Gate. "I think it's the simple messaging around affordability—there's a lot of ways that people disagree, but the one thing that I think everyone uniformly agrees on is that it's too expensive to live in New York City, and none of the other candidates are really taking their concerns seriously."