{"id":17316,"date":"2026-01-04T12:16:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/when-they-go-low-we-go-viral\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:16:47","slug":"when-they-go-low-we-go-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/when-they-go-low-we-go-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"When they go low, we go viral"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Zohran Mamdani rode the digital slipstream to success in New York. Now millennials and Gen Zers are banking on a similar wave to boost their political dreams.<\/p>\n

The mayor-elect energized New York City\u2019s youth vote, earning the support of nearly 70 percent of voters aged 18 to 44<\/u><\/a> in the general election. His publicity strategy \u2014 complete with shareable graphics, collaborations with content creators and local artists\u2019 animations \u2014 appealed to a new trove of young voters, people who primarily get their information in short-form TikTok videos and social media posts rather than legacy media.<\/p>\n

A wave of millennial and Gen Z Democratic hopefuls across the country are looking to follow that lead in shaking up an aging party \u2014 <\/b>from a 25-year-old political influencer in Arizona, to a 35-year-old congressional candidate in Idaho, to a 24-year-old mayoral candidate in Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme that we have seen this year, different from years past, is \u2018I’m done waiting around. I’m sick of being told it’s not my turn,\u2019\u201d said Amanda Litman, CEO of Run for Something, a candidate recruitment company focused on electing progressives under 40.<\/p>\n

The surge has rippled far beyond New York, touching races in red and purple states alike as younger Democrats test whether digital-first campaigns can compensate for limited funding, party support and name recognition.<\/p>\n

It also has reopened a debate inside the Democratic Party over what it takes to build a viable campaign \u2014 and whether traditional gatekeepers are misreading how younger voters engage with politics. While Gen Z and millennials span different age groups, both are entering politics with similar digital fluency \u2014 and similar distance from the party\u2019s traditional power structures.<\/p>\n

The effects are already visible in candidate recruitment. Run for Something reported a surge of 10,000 young Democrats across the country expressing interest in launching a campaign immediately after Mamdani\u2019s primary win. Another 1,616 potential candidates signed up within one day of the shutdown-ending deal<\/u><\/a> to reopen the government, the group said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a party of fighters, not folders,\u201d Litman posted on X<\/u><\/a> in November along with a graph of the sign-up splurge.<\/p>\n

The push for younger candidates comes as Democratic leadership skews older than the electorate it represents. The average age in the House and the Senate<\/u><\/a> is roughly 58 and 65, respectively, and the median school board member is 59, according to Pew Research Center. The median age in the United States is 39.<\/p>\n

More than 20 progressives under the age of 40 have announced a congressional campaign for this election cycle, nearly half of whom are looking to unseat a member of their own party. And with the Democratic Party having no clear leader,<\/u><\/a> the younger generation is looking to add new faces into the mix.<\/p>\n

For inexperienced candidates who don\u2019t have the money or institutional support to run a competitive campaign, social media offers a cost-free solution. The ease of building an online following has lowered the perceived barrier to running for office, even as the fundamentals of winning \u2014 fundraising, turnout and organization \u2014 remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

Take Sam Foster, a 24-year-old from Marietta, Georgia. He rode his bike to the first video shoot for his mayoral campaign against incumbent Steve Tumlin, who is 78. Social media, he said, isn\u2019t as much a strategy for Gen Z and millennial candidates as it is a native mode of communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate when people call it a social media campaign,\u201d Foster said. \u201cI went into [making content] with the intention of just showing people who I was. We built a strategy off of that, but it wasn\u2019t essentially the intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who polled at under 1 percent in February, soft-launched his campaign in July with videos asking New Yorkers why they voted for Trump. His later videos on \u201chalalflation<\/u><\/a>,\u201d a fully suited polar plunge to \u201cfreeze\u201d the rent<\/u><\/a> and a Valentine\u2019s Day voter registration proposal kept him prevalent on social feeds.<\/p>\n

And the more he posted, the more users \u2014 even those well outside of New York City \u2014 responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf done well, [social media] allows you to raise lots of small dollars from lots of different places,\u201d said Chris Coffey, a longtime political consultant and CEO of Tusk Strategies.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor-Elect<\/p>\n

One Mamdani video asked supporters to donate to his transition team. The comment section was flooded with promises of donations from people as far away as Europe \u2014 with in-country support from Texas, California and Florida as well. From July to the election in November, Mamdani raised over $750,000 from over 8,500 contributors outside of New York City, according to data from the Campaign Finance Board.\u00a0<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Coffey drew a comparison to Andrew Yang, who also had a strong social media presence and made history by raising $750,000 in just one day<\/u><\/a> for his 2020 presidential campaign, with an average donation of $41.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Yang and Mamdani were able to use their social media and digital media platforms to get lots and lots and lots of small donors, which then powered their campaign, de-emphasized big dollars and allowed them to play on a level playing field with all these other candidates that were going after bigger dollars,\u201d said Coffey, who helped manage Yang\u2019s 2021 bid for New York City mayor.<\/p>\n

Mamdani’s messaging inspired more than 100,000 volunteers<\/u><\/a> to be visible daily on New York streets throughout the mayoral race.<\/p>\n

His messaging also maintained an appearance of authenticity, focusing on issues that disproportionately affect young and working class New Yorkers, like housing, childcare, and affordability.<\/p>\n

For young voters, authenticity is a major problem in the Democratic Party. And younger candidates are proving adept at conveying a message \u201cfrom the heart,\u201d according to Deja Foxx, a grassroots organizer and digital strategist who previously ran for Arizona\u2019s 7th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have a different expectation of how they should be engaging with public figures [than they did 10 years ago],\u201d Foxx said. \u201cWe are consuming so much on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where videos from our Congress person are mixed in with life updates from our best friend from middle school. It demands a different level of vulnerability that frankly a lot of our older electives aren\u2019t comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The embrace of online-first campaigning has also blurred the line between political organizing and performance. Jack Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John F. Kennedy who\u2019s running for Rep. Jerry Nadler\u2019s congressional seat, is a provocative social media personality, sometimes offering raunchy and offensive political commentary to his 860,000 followers.<\/p>\n

Schlossberg shares random, quotidian tidbits, like being called an \u201cincel Frankenstein looking mother\u2014\u201d by a random passerby. He impersonated Melania Trump \u2014 wig and all \u2014 as he read a letter of support to Vladimir Putin, trolled his uncle Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s health policies \u2014 insinuating his uncle\u2019s claims of autism being linked to circumcision came from personal experience \u2014 and gave crass explanations of political news like the release of the Epstein files, New York Attorney General Letitia James\u2019 indictment (since tossed) and the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

While his videos drive an audience, and have certainly got voters talking, they lack what other candidates are hinging on \u2014 promises and policies.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t Kennedys \u2014 like Kaylee Peterson, a 35-year-old Idaho candidate in the historically Republican 1st District \u2014 social media is their pathway into the otherwise pay-to-play world of campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media is the only real affordable tool we have to reach disenfranchised Gen Z and millennial voters,\u201d said Peterson. \u201cSeeing [Mamdani] be successful and the massive national support he received gave us hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many other progressive candidates in rural republican areas, Peterson said, she did not receive support \u2014 or even a call back \u2014 from the Democratic National Committee. Instead, she found her support, strategists and community on social media groups where other young candidates virtually congregated \u2014 like TikTok Live, Instagram and messaging apps.<\/p>\n

Peterson ran a losing campaign against Republican incumbent Rep. Russell Mark Fulcher in 2022 with only $70,000. She focused on getting her message out and mobilizing progressives in her district. In her third campaign cycle, though still unsuccessful at claiming the seat, she raised just under $250,000.<\/p>\n

Mamdani may ultimately prove to be the exception rather than the rule. His online success amplified preexisting strengths and allowed his reach to go beyond the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media is an important part of [the campaign],\u201d Coffey said. \u201cBut so is the messaging, and so is the staff, and so was their press apparatus, and so was their candidate’s ability to do really hard and tedious work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Zohran Mamdani rode the digital slipstream to success in New York. Now millennials and Gen Zers are banking on a similar wave to boost their political dreams. The mayor-elect energized New York City\u2019s youth vote, earning the support of nearly 70 percent of voters aged 18 to 44 in the general election. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}