How Mamdani built an ‘unstoppable force’ that won over New York

The mayor-elect built the greatest field operation by any political campaign in the city's history - by getting New Yorkers to talk to eachother. Can Democrats learn from his success?

A week before Zohran Mamdani astounded the world by his out-of-nowhere, odds-defying, convention-shattering victory in the New York City mayoral election, members of his vast army of youthful volunteers were amply aware of what was at stake.

A group of 16 had assembled in the Bohemian Hispanic neighborhood of Bushwick in Brooklyn for one last push to heave the Democratic candidate over the line.