Mamdani is the brain rot candidate.
The radical leftist, extremely online Zohran Mamdani has had a late surge in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary, according to an Emerson College Polling/Pix 11/Hill survey. Throughout the race, Mamdani has deployed a few tricks to set him apart from the competition, namely, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Besides using the city’s confusing ranked-choice voting system to his advantage, by which he’s entered into a couple of cross-endorsement arrangements with other Democratic candidates to prevent Cuomo from surpassing the 50 percent vote threshold, Mamdani has leaned heavily on his TikTok presence. There, he advocates for democratic socialism, or communism on training wheels, gaining many thousands of views. He wants to increase taxes on the wealthy, who already pay a disproportionate share of the city’s income taxes, send mental health teams to respond to 911 calls instead of hiring more cops, and impose rent control, which punishes landlords and tends to lead to buildings falling into disrepair.
Endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani has leveraged TikTok to access young New York City voters, who have rallied behind the 33-year-old Marxist. He’s done many man-on-the-street-style videos, including with Democratic Gen Z disruptor David Hogg, who has insisted the party double down on the toxic ideas that alienated the middle of the country in the November election.
“Never before, in modern times at least, has a New York City mayoral race known such a generation gap,” the Intelligencer writes.
In a June 15 video, NYC influencer Serena Kerrigan, who has over half a million followers on TikTok, gushed about her politically zealous former high school classmate Zohran Mamdani and called his mayoral journey “inspirational,” amassing almost 92,000 likes. NYC influencer Halley Kate urged the New York City residents in her TikTok audience of 1.5 million to rank Mamdani and to not rank Cuomo.
Halley Kate went viral in March 2024 for a teary TikTok recounting her getting randomly punched in the face on the streets of NYC. After the suspect’s arrest, the NYPD confirmed that he was “a criminal recidivist with an extensive criminal record,” and had been previously arrested and released. The incident marked “his third arrest in the past six months.” But instead of empowering police to crack down on lawlessness and prevent repeat offenders from wreaking havoc again, Mamdani has supported the use of “social workers” to counter urban violence as well as disastrous bail reform policies. Under Mamdani, Kate’s attacker and others like him would be given the keys to the city.
Kate says in a June TikTok video, “As someone who has literally been punched in the head on the street in Manhattan, I still think it’s the best city in the world . . . Zohran is talking about creating a whole new agency called the Department of Community Safety.”
Mamdani is the TikTok brain rot candidate. Hopefully, New York City Democrats of common sense see through the social media smoke and mirrors.