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?

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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.

Juuli, the field lead of the group who was coordinating that night’s canvassing on behalf of the Mamdani campaign, was running through the key messages to be delivered to voters on the doorstep. Emphasise the candidate’s policy platform promising to make New York a more affordable city, she said.