Mandani Won by Centering the Needs of New Yorkers

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s campaign captured young voters' attention in a mayoral election in ways that haven’t been seen in a long time. Voters under 30 turned out early, and 73% of all young voters polled planed to voted for him. This resulted in over 1 million voters casting a ballot for Mamdani as mayor, the biggest turnout in years.

Much of the media has attributed this engagement to his age (34), his use of social media, and his perceived accessibility. While this is a good assessment, it misses the core of what makes him effective, and that is his use of public-health community engagement strategies. He is talking to the people without an agenda and then using his platform to help fulfill their needs.

As a community health scientist by training and the associate director of the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships at University of Illinois, Chicago-University of Illinois Health, I’ve spent the last 17 years working to improve the lives of the historically redlined and disinvested communities to which I belong. The key principal for community engagement is centering the needs of the community and engaging a diverse, representative group of people to wrestle with information from a variety of viewpoints all to the end of making better decisions.

Mamdani’s victory was predicated, in large part, on this very approach.

He engaged the city of New York, and they supported him back.

An excellent example of this is his video on halalflation (Halal Inflation). In this video, Mamdani interviews several food truck owners and examines what is driving the cost. Unanimously, they describe paying nearly $20,000 a year to rent a permit from someone who pays only $400 to the city. A $19,600 profit for someone who had the fortune of owning something with an arbitrarily limited supply.

Mamdani then shares four proposed bills that would address this issue and allow more permits for food truck owners. An elegant solution to a real problem that has the potential to reduce the cost of running a food truck, potentially making the meal more affordable. It is a brilliantly simple video, but it speaks volumes about the type of politician he claims to be. It is not common to see a politician dig into the core issues that affect people's lives and offer real, palatable solutions. Bringing down the cost of food is a relevant issue.

The cost of groceries is of paramount concern to people.

President Donald Trump said, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods” (including groceries) at a rally in Bozeman, Montana. Yet Trump was visibly flustered in an interview last week with Norah O’Donnell and "60 Minutes" when pressed on the increase in grocery prices, which haven’t decreased.

One of Mamdani’s more unconventional proposals has been his idea of a network of city-owned grocery stores—without rent or property taxes, the hope is they will pass the savings onto the customer.

His opponent, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, tried to suggest that this idea is laughable and naively idealistic. Neither of these statements is accurate; there are many municipalities that are engaging in the same idea of trying to make life better for residents. In St. Paul, Kansas, the city opened a grocery store in response to a demand from the community.

Not all municipalities will arrive at a city=owned grocery store, but a city-supported food enterprise is not as outlandish as it is presented. Consider the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia—it’s a public market, or the Milwaukee Public Market, a quasi-government run market. In my hometown, Chicago, I am a part of the Food Equity Council and was a part of a listening session that explored a city-owned grocery store. The group settled on exploring a Public Market, similar to the Milwaukee market.

The common thread here is a political administration that is trying to improve the lives of its residents.

Mamdani has embraced these principles. He engaged the city of New York, and they supported him back. It’s not about the fast, free buses or the city-owned grocery stores or the funny videos; it’s that Mamdani has offered more than the typical Democratic Party talking points. Mamdani is not responding to Republican threats or fighting Republicans.

Mamdani has taken a page out of the Community Health Scientists’ playbook and has developed a plan by the people and for the people.

Many Democrats will tout the great social media campaign, but they should take away the elegance of engaging the community where they are and developing a sound plan that puts the people front and center.