How voters in Trump districts helped Mamdani win the Democratic primary

A week after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was on Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx — microphone in hand — searching for working-class New Yorkers who voted for Trump, despite normally voting for Democrats.

Affordability was a driving factor in their decision, according to a video the then-nascent mayoral candidate posted of his visit to the neighborhood.

“Rent is expensive. Foods are going up. Utility bills are up,” one person Mamdani interviewed said.

Those voters became a key part of a strategy that led to his stunning victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in this week’s Democratic primary. Eight months after Trump made significant gains among New York City’s working-class and immigrant communities, the city’s Democrats have chosen a self-described democratic socialist as their presumptive nominee. And Mamdani said his strategy of wooing Trump voters on affordability will continue into November’s general election.




https://gothamist.com/news/how-voters-in-trump-districts-helped-mamdani-win-the-democratic-primary