New York City – “Focus, focus, focus on affordability”.It is a simple message, but one that Robert Wood, a 47-year-old writer and a lead volunteer for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, believes is the key to turning out voters in the final stretch of New York City’s closely watched race.
Mamdani’s surprise victory in the June Democratic primary – and his commanding lead in the polls ahead of the November 4 election day – has achieved a symbolism that has resonated far beyond the borders of the city’s five boroughs.
To many, it has represented a rebuke to the wealthy donor-dominated Democratic establishment: A path forward for liberal politics lost in the woods in the age of US President Donald Trump.
But for a movement that has reverberated across the country – and indeed the globe – to fully actualise, Mamdani supporters know he must actually make it into City Hall. That begins and ends with door-knocking: lots and lots of door-knocking.
In a row of townhouses in the neighbourhood of Crown Heights, an area that split between Mamdani and top opponent Andrew Cuomo in the primaries, a door opened to reveal Nadia on a windswept October day. She said she’s already all in for Mamdani.
“Regardless of what the polls say, we need to make sure our friends and families get out and vote,” Wood urged, noting a resounding mandate would help to energise Mamdani’s ambitious plans: rent freezes on stabilised apartments, free buses, and uni …
