Zohran Mamdani’s Historic Candidacy, a campaign fluent in cultural outreach

In a city where diaspora voters are often treated as an afterthought, Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid proved that when identity-centric messaging moves beyond optics and becomes the core message, it can mobilize voters, raise money, and build lasting alliances.

His campaign announcement video featured him wearing a traditional white kurta, a nod to his South Asian roots, setting the tone for a campaign focussed on Indian voters as a priority and not a footnote. “From the Gurdwaras to the streets of Richmond Hill, this final Sunday was filled with energy and gratitude. I began this campaign visiting the Sikh Cultural Society and Baba Makhan Shah Lubana Sikh Center and I’m proud to end it alongside this community,” he tweeted as he closed out his campaign on election day.

[Speaking the cultural language of his base]

Rewriting the cultural outreach playbook, Mamdani’s campaign directly mobilized immigrant voters, especially those in the South Asian diaspora. He didn’t just translate mailers into Indian languages, he campaigned in them showcasing a deep understanding of cultural cues. In a viral campaign video filmed in Hindi, he began by addressing the audience as “Bhai aur behnon” [Brothers and sisters] set to a popular Bollywood soundtrack, and several Bollywood references appealing to older Indian voters. By speaking a familiar language, his campaign stood out as uniquely and authentically brown.

From the Sikh community to the Bengali community, Mamdani spoke to South Asian voters in the cultural language they understood, explaining civic systems like ranked-choice voting using Indian sweets in Hindi and Bengali. In one video, he promised his voters “roti, kapda, aur makaan” [food, clothes, and shelter], referencing the title of an iconic 1974 Bollywood film to assure the South Asian demographic of economic dignity.

[Cultural Identity: consistent, authentic and effective]

In his wedding photoshoot that went viral online, he was photographed with his now-wife wearing a kurta on the New York subway. Just by showing an underserved but powerful demographic that he understood their culture, he inspired action beyond the ballot to not just vote for him but to also canvas for him across the city.

Mamdani also made incredible use of the heavily South Asian population of his neighborhood, Astoria, to canvas across New York City. A popular video showed a Bengali imam affiliated with Zohran’s campaign advocating for him in Spanish in a Hispanic-heavy neighborhood, successfully turning out voters and raising donations. His campaign hit the $8 million fundraising cap early in the primaries, largely thanks to a high population of South Asian small donors.