Mamdani

1. 1

   Around 1%. That's where Zohran Mamdani stood in the polls when he launched his run for New York City mayor in October 2024.

2. 2

   56.4% and 50.78%. He won the June 2025 Democratic primary (final ranked-choice count) and the November election, on the highest turnout since 1993.

3. 3

   100,000+ volunteers, 3 million doors. Short videos led to a sign-up; the sign-up led to a volunteer-led door-knocking shift.

4. 4

   The loop closed at the doors: what canvassers heard went back into the message, always built around three cost-of-living promises.

5. 5

   Start your field program months ahead, develop leaders rather than just recruit, tie every video to a concrete action, and speak people's language.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

This playbook was built from what the organizers said in interviews, talks, podcasts and their own writing. Press coverage was used to confirm facts and figures.

• Tascha Van Auken

  The campaign's field director; later head of City Hall's Office of Mass Engagement

  Built from scratch, starting in December 2024, the leadership development model that grew to more than 700 field leads and 3 million doors.

  Sources

• NYC-DSA (Grace Mausser, Gustavo Gordillo, Álvaro López, Michael Carter)

  New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America

  Supplied the first field leads, the neighborhood structure and the working groups that met with the campaign every week.

  Sources

• Andrew Epstein

  Communications director, then creative director of the campaign

  Came up with the November 2024 video with Trump voters and led the communications that cast Mamdani as a guide to an affordable New York.

  Sources

• Melted Solids and the video team (Anthony DiMieri, Debbie Saslaw, Donald Borenstein, Olivia Becker)

  Brooklyn production company and the campaign's video team

  Shot and edited the organic videos (sometimes within 24 hours), handheld, with street sound and a 4:3 frame. Melted Solids had worked with Mamdani since 2020; the paid ads came from a different firm, Fight Agency.

  Sources

• Gabriella Zutrau

  The campaign's digital strategy consultant

  Set up the comment-to-DM chatbot on Instagram that turned comments into sign-ups, for $318.

  Sources

• Mohamed Alharbii

  Field manager for Muslim and South Asian constituencies

  Organized mosques, temples and cafés with volunteers matched by language and congregation, and described the method at the Progress 2026 conference.

  Sources

• Katie Riley

  Deputy campaign manager

  Designed the gathering strategy: house parties with host guides, rallies that felt like parties and the scavenger hunt.

  Sources

• Morris Katz

  The campaign's lead strategist and media strategist (Fight Agency)

  Made the paid TV and digital ads and argued for framing the cost of living around concrete promises and naming those responsible for the crisis.

  Sources

Short quotes in the original, or faithful paraphrases. Each one links to its source.

• “You can't just scale up overnight.” That's why the field program started in December, six months before the primary.

  Tascha Van Auken, field director, City & State NY, interview, Jul 1, 2025

• “All our canvassing work is led by volunteers.” That is how the campaign could launch about 60 canvasses in a single night.

  Tascha Van Auken, field director, POLITICO, report in the final days before the general election, 2025

• The 700 field leads proved that leadership “isn't about having all of the answers.”

  Tascha Van Auken, on stage on victory night, Election night speech, Nov 4–5, 2025 (transcript)

• “Every other aspect of the campaign exists to serve the field operation.” Communications, finance and compliance serve the field — the reverse of the usual hierarchy.

  Michael Carter, NYC-DSA, The Nation, Hadas Thier, Sep 12, 2025

In October 2024, Zohran Mamdani was a 33-year-old state assembly member from Queens, polling at around 1%. In March 2025 a former governor everybody knew entered the race, later backed by super PACs worth millions. The campaign decided the field program would be its backbone, and the videos would bring people into it.

104,000

volunteers over the course of the campaigncampaign figure

3M

doors knocked; the 3 millionth on election daycampaign figure

4.4M

calls made by volunteerscampaign figure

50.78%

in the general election on Nov 4, 2025 (1.11 million votes)official

Thirteen months

1. Oct 2024Mamdani launches his candidacy. NYC-DSA endorses him the same month.
2. Nov 2024A few days after Trump's win, he films on avenues in Queens and the Bronx asking Trump voters why they didn't vote for Democrats. The video comes out five days later and sets the theme: the cost of living.
3. Dec 2024A DSA meeting of more than 300 people trains the first field leads; two weeks later, 400 volunteers turn out for the first day of door-knocking, at about eight sites across the city.
4. Jan 2025The “Halalflation” video on the price of a halal cart plate; regular volunteer training begins.
5. Mar 24, 2025With about 18,000 donors, the campaign hits the $8 million primary cap (including public funds) and shifts its focus to mobilizing voters.
6. Jun 13, 2025On the eve of early voting, Mamdani and Brad Lander announce a ranked-choice cross-endorsement.
7. Jun 20–21, 2025He walks more than 19 km (12 miles), from Inwood to the Battery, overnight on the last Friday before the primary.
8. Jun 24, 2025He wins the primary: 43.8% in the first round of the count and 56.4% in the final round. About a quarter of voters had talked to a volunteer at the door.
9. Aug 24, 2025A citywide scavenger hunt, announced the night before: 500 cards are gone in 15 minutes and the campaign reports more than 4,000 participants.
10. Nov 4, 2025He wins with 50.78% to Cuomo's 41.32%; 2.2 million people vote. Around noon, the campaign knocks its 3 millionth door.

Three layers

The video was the visible part. Underneath was a conversion machine and a field network that predated the campaign.

• AttentionShort, organic videos in several languages, content creators, ethnic media, podcasts and events that became content.
• ConversionA call to action at the end of every video, a DM chatbot, a sign-up page, a CRM with automatic confirmations and reminders, a broadcast channel and email.
• FieldVolunteer-led shift launches, pairs with the voter file app, organizing by community and language, calls and texts to volunteers' own contacts.

New York rules and habits that shaped the method. Some of these pieces don't exist elsewhere.

Platforms

Instagram (Reels, DMs, broadcast channel)

The priority platform. Reels delivered reach, automated DMs converted and the broadcast channel gathered the warmest audience: 66,000 members during the primary, more than 180,000 afterward.

TikTok, YouTube, X and Bluesky

They got the same videos. The scavenger hunt was announced on Bluesky, and people heard about it through Instagram and TikTok.

Facebook

Not a priority, but simply reposting the videos there grew engagement, according to Gabriella Zutrau.

WhatsApp

Groups to coordinate each shift in real time. In immigrant communities, messages of support circulated in Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Hindi and dozens of other languages.

MiniVAN

A door-knocking app tied to the US voter file, which is public and includes name, age and party registration, grouped by building.

Ethnic and in-language media

South Asian TV, a Pakistani channel, Punjabi TV and Bengali newspapers. A simple message about rent and buses translated well into any language.

Content creators and podcasts

More than 70 creators, mostly in culture and lifestyle, were invited to headquarters for open, unscripted Q&As.

TV ads

The campaign also bought television: its first broadcast TV ad, against Cuomo, aired on April 24, 2025. According to AdImpact, it spent $6.3 million on ads in the primary and $5.8 million in the general, made by Fight Agency. Organic video came before paid media, not instead of it.

Local conditions

• Ranked-choice voting in the Democratic primary: voters rank up to five names. Being someone's second choice is worth votes.
• A closed primary: only registered Democrats can vote, with a registration deadline. The campaign made videos just to remind people of that deadline.
• Public financing: the city pays $8 for every dollar donated by New York City residents, on the first $250 of each donation, with an $8 million spending cap in the primary.
• Super PACs with no limits on the other side: the Fix the City committee spent nearly $23 million for Cuomo in the primary alone.
• A dense city of apartment buildings and public transit: you can knock dozens of doors an hour and reach any neighborhood by subway.
• More than 800 languages spoken and about 35% of residents born outside the US.
• A DSA chapter with almost a decade of electoral machinery, about 5,900 members in October 2024 and battle-tested leaders.
• Hostile mainstream press and tabloids, attacks over religion and origin, and a Democratic establishment slow to endorse.
• In the 2024 election, immigrant neighborhoods had swung right (like Jamaica Hills, in Queens, by almost 25 points) or left the presidential ballot blank (Pakistani and Bengali neighborhoods in Brooklyn).

DSA's Michael Carter summed up the golden rule: everything in the campaign exists to serve the field. Video fills the funnel; the field converts and develops leaders; what's heard at the door flows back into the message.

Three fronts

One message, three promises

The cost of living, always said the same way: freeze the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, fast and free buses, universal childcare. Concrete promises, with those responsible for the crisis named.

Video that invites

The candidate as the guide to a city he loves: on the street, listening first, with humor and in each neighborhood's language. Every video ends with an invitation to act.

A field program that develops leaders

Start early, put volunteers in charge of shifts and always promote whoever wants to do more. People who arrive as canvassers leave as field leads.

The cycle of a volunteer

The path from someone watching a video to leading a shift, repeated at scale over a year.

1. Listen At the door and on the street, ask what's worrying people. The conversation script is revised with feedback from those knocking doors.
2. Film Turn what you heard into a short, fast video with a concrete problem and an invitation at the end.
3. Capture Anyone who comments a keyword gets the sign-up link by DM; name, email and ZIP code go into the database. In practice: ManyChat on Instagram and Facebook, with tags so nobody gets the same message twice and the email asked for inside the chat.
4. Confirm The CRM sends an email, a text and a calendar invite. Fewer no-shows, and leaders are freed up for in-person work. In the campaign, that was Solidarity Tech, linked to the shift page with its map.
5. Launch At a meeting point, a field lead welcomes the volunteers, forms pairs (newcomer with veteran) and hands out the turf. The shift is coordinated in a WhatsApp group.
6. Talk and rate Every conversation is logged on a 1-to-5 scale, adapted for ranked-choice voting (2A and 2B). In the final stretch, only 1s and 2s are recontacted. Persuasion targets undecided voters who turn out; mobilization targets supporters who might stay home. It is logged in MiniVAN, and that data decides who is recontacted.
7. Promote Leads flag the people who keep coming back and want to do more. They become field leads and the cycle grows.
8. Feed back What works at the doors goes back into the message and the videos. The campaign learns fast what resonates.

And again.

Who you need, which tools to use and how to film and write, within the rules on this page.

Part of the method works anywhere. Another part depended on New York's laws and habits. Here's what to swap out.

Choose your country

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

1. Street video that ends in an invitation

   Short, organic videos on a real street, where people speak first, about a concrete problem, with an invitation to act at the end. In New York, the video with Trump voters on avenues in Queens and the Bronx set the cost-of-living theme, and every video ended with an ask that led to a sign-up.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   When there is a simple message about everyday life and someone willing to go out and listen, with humor and in each neighborhood's language.

   Don't use when

   When the video is the whole plan: the video team itself says videos alone didn't win the primary. Without a field operation to welcome people, the attention fades.

   1. Week −32 Pick a few promises and always phrase them with the same words
   2. Week −30 Film on a real corner, bus or food stall and let people speak first
   3. Week −30 End every video with one action: comment a keyword or join a shift
   4. Week −28 Film or subtitle in the language of the neighborhood you want to reach
   5. Week −20 Publish fast: film today, post tomorrow, keep the street sound
   6. Week −12 Show the volunteers in the video, not just the candidate
   7. Week −2 In the final stretch, use the videos to get people voting and on a last shift

   Team

   • Creative direction: idea, filming and editing, sometimes within 24 hours
   • Candidate or spokesperson: asks, listens and makes the invitation
   • Field feedback: brings what's heard at the doors into the video agenda

   What to measure: Shift sign-ups coming from each video, measured by its keyword or its own link, not views; if a widely seen video brings no sign-ups, change the ask.

   Risks to watch: No fake profiles or fabricated comments to inflate a video, and no paid influencers where the law forbids it: give access and information, no script, and label anything made with AI.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. From keyword to automatic confirmation

   Anyone who comments a keyword gets the sign-up link by direct message; the CRM sends a confirmation, a text and a calendar invite, freeing leaders for in-person work. In New York, the chatbot pilot cost $318 and brought in about 10,000 contacts in two months.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   When the videos already bring in more interested people than the team can answer by hand.

   Don't use when

   When the idea is to message people who didn't ask: the campaign's chatbot only replied to people who wrote first. Bought lists and mass blasts, never.

   1. Week −30 Pick one keyword per topic, each with its own sign-up link
   2. Week −30 Build the page with a map of shifts and a short form with consent
   3. Week −29 Set the auto-reply to answer only people who commented or wrote first
   4. Week −28 Connect sign-ups to the CRM: confirmation, text and calendar invite
   5. Week −24 Open a broadcast channel and an email list for people who want to follow closely
   6. Week −20 Review the automated messages so they don't sound robotic

   Team

   • Digital strategy: keywords, chatbot and broadcast channel
   • Data: CRM, consent and restricted access to the list
   • Events: keeps the shift map up to date

   What to measure: Sign-ups who actually show up to the shift they booked, as a share of sign-ups; if many don't turn up, strengthen reminders and personal confirmation, not the number of posts.

   Risks to watch: A list is personal data and, combined with political opinion, sensitive data: explicit consent, restricted access, an opt-out in every message and a deadline for deletion.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Volunteer-led shifts, in pairs

   At a meeting point, a volunteer field lead welcomes people, forms pairs (newcomer with veteran), hands out the turf and logs every conversation on a 1-to-5 scale. In New York there were more than 5,700 shifts in 243 neighborhoods, and about a quarter of primary voters had talked to a volunteer at the door.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   When the vote is months away and there is a base that can go out regularly.

   Don't use when

   When you copy the US voter file: the EU and Brazil have no party voter lists. Use streets and polling districts, your own consented lists and minimal records.

   1. Week −28 Set meeting points by neighborhood and a field lead for each shift
   2. Week −28 Write the script: first ask what worries people, then the promises
   3. Week −26 At the meeting point, pair newcomers with veterans and hand out the turf
   4. Week −26 Log every conversation on the 1-to-5 scale, plus what you heard
   5. Week −20 Revise the script with feedback from those who knocked on doors
   6. Week −2 In the final stretch, recontact only 1s and 2s and confirm their plan to vote
   7. D-day week On the day, get-out-the-vote shifts until the polls close

   Team

   • Field lead: opens the shift, forms pairs and solves problems on the street
   • Canvassers: knock doors in pairs and log the conversations
   • Field coordination: schedules, materials and turf maps by area

   What to measure: Conversations logged per pair and per shift and, in the final stretch, recontacted people who confirm a plan to vote; a door knocked without a conversation doesn't count as progress.

   Risks to watch: A recorded political opinion is sensitive data: a legal basis, restricted access and a deletion deadline; at the door, no arguing or pushing, and respect people who don't want to talk.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Leadership ladder: those who return, lead

   Leads point out who keeps coming back and wants to do more; those people get trained and start running their own shifts. In New York, the field team started with a single person in December 2024 and grew to more than 700 volunteer field leads; by the end of the primary, about 80% no longer came from the DSA.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   When the network grows faster than the paid staff and needs people who can run shifts without them.

   Don't use when

   When you only count sign-ups: without training leaders, shifts depend on a handful of people and the network vanishes after the election.

   1. Week −30 Start early: a training meeting for the first field leads
   2. Week −28 Hold the first door-knocking day at several points across the city
   3. Week −26 Flag in the shift log who comes back and who wants to do more
   4. Week −24 Invite those people to field lead training
   5. Week −22 Give each new lead their own shift, with a coordinator for support
   6. Week −8 Place leads in every community and language the network covers
   7. Week −4 Decide before the vote what the network does afterwards: governance and goals

   Team

   • Field director: designs the ladder and targets and protects volunteers' time
   • Field coordinators: support new leads by area
   • Field leads: spot who to promote and train newcomers

   What to measure: New leads who have run at least one shift on their own, counted monthly; if the number stalls, the network is burning through volunteers instead of growing them.

   Risks to watch: Burnout and dependence on a single organization: protect volunteers' time, open the ladder to outsiders and plan the network for afterwards. In New York, the group that inherited the list lost almost all its staff in April 2026.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. Organize by community and by language

   People in charge of specific communities match volunteers with congregations, neighborhoods and languages, with translated materials and repeated presence in the same places. In New York, the campaign printed materials in eight languages, hired 40 to 50 multilingual canvassers for hard-to-reach neighborhoods and gave volunteers a conduct guide for mosques.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   When your base includes migrant communities or speakers of other languages that mainstream media doesn't reach.

   Don't use when

   When it's a flying visit or a translated leaflet with no one from the community: recruit speakers of the language before translating.

   1. Week −26 Map the languages and communities in your base, neighborhood by neighborhood
   2. Week −24 Name a lead for each community and recruit volunteers who speak the language
   3. Week −22 Translate materials and the script with those volunteers, not just translators
   4. Week −20 Write a one-page conduct guide for places of worship and community spaces
   5. Week −16 Create groups by community and keep returning to the same places
   6. Week −8 Cover with paid speakers the neighborhoods and languages volunteers can't reach
   7. Week −1 Bring the reminder to vote in every language, in the same spaces

   Team

   • Community organizing: matches volunteers with congregations and languages
   • Multilingual volunteers: talk at the doors and adapt the script
   • Ethnic media: takes the message to each community's TV, radio and papers

   What to measure: Conversations held in each language by volunteers from that community, logged per shift; if a language in your base has no conversations, you need to recruit, not translate.

   Risks to watch: Treating communities as targets rather than partners drives people away: follow each space's rules, avoid arguments, and don't record religion or origin without a legal basis.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

The campaign's sequence, from October 2024 to November 2025, laid out as a checklist. Shorten the phases if you have less time, but don't skip the first one. Your progress is saved in this browser.

The method rests on people talking to people. Shortcuts that fake this, or use data without permission, destroy trust and hand your opponent weapons.

Real people only

No fake accounts, bots, bought accounts or fabricated comments to inflate a video. Coordinating real people to say what they think is allowed; what platforms punish is organizing likes, follows or hashtags to game the algorithm. X, for example, bans trading engagement and using a trending hashtag to manipulate the conversation.

Consent for messages

Only message people who asked. The campaign's chatbot only replied to people who had written first; no bought lists, no mass blasts.

Relational messages are personal

Each volunteer talks to their own contacts, in their own words, and stops when the person asks.

Political opinion is sensitive data

The 1-to-5 scale records political opinions. In the European Union (GDPR) and Brazil (LGPD) that requires a legal basis, security, restricted access and a deletion deadline.

Money in the open

Respect spending caps and donation limits, disclose everything and don't coordinate with outside committees where the law prohibits it.

Transparency with creators

Don't pay influencers where the law prohibits it. Where it's allowed, paid partnerships must be disclosed.

Archive official communications

Once you're in government, you have to follow records rules. Groups with disappearing messages became a problem for City Hall in 2026.

Respect at the door and in places of worship

No arguments, no pushing, and follow each space's rules. The campaign gave volunteers a one-page guide on conduct in mosques.

Label AI

AI-generated content is labeled as such. Deepfakes, never.

Safety for door knockers

Volunteers and candidates from religious minorities or immigrant backgrounds are targets of harassment and threats: work in pairs, with a contact person, an incident protocol and a log of every case.

Local law

Every country has its own rules on door-knocking, data, donations and advertising. In the European Union, since October 2025 Meta has not accepted political, electoral or social-issue ads, and Google has stopped serving political ads as the regulation defines them. Regulation (EU) 2024/900, which also covers local elections, requires labels and transparency notices on paid political ads and allows targeting only with explicit consent and without sensitive data. Check with a lawyer before you start. See the “Law and platforms in the European Union” section in Fundamentals.

It isn't built in six months

The campaign started from an organization with almost a decade of electoral experience. Without that base, start earlier and with smaller targets.

Video alone doesn't win

The video team itself says the videos didn't win the primary on their own. Zutrau puts it simply: social media only worked so well because the field was so good.

It depends heavily on the candidate

Charisma, several languages, willingness to walk the whole city and trust in the creative team.

Attention is unstable

Algorithms change and reward drama. Governing and mobilizing over the long term require other rhythms, and the traditional media, which the campaign still needed.

Keeping the network is harder than building it

The organization that inherited the volunteer list lost almost all its staff in April 2026, and a rally in Albany drew far fewer people than expected.

Automation has a cost

Chatbots can sound robotic and wear people out. And events with limited spots, like the scavenger hunt, left people out.

In government, the risk of opacity

As mayor, his relationship with more than 1,200 creators, through Signal groups and with payments via city agencies, was criticized for a lack of transparency. What's legitimate in a campaign needs different rules in power.

The campaign's own numbers

Volunteers, doors and views are internal figures that vary by source and were never audited.

Organic did not replace paid

The phone-video story leaves out that most of the money went to ads: $6.3 million in the primary, which had an $8 million cap (AdImpact). Outside the campaign, an independent committee spent $1.7 million on TV and digital for Mamdani, and the law bars coordinating with it. Organic alone is half the model.

Five questions, each explained after you answer.

Free materials from organizations that train organizers, linked to this case.

• Public Narrative

  Course · Resistance School · EN

  Marshall Ganz's 15 video lessons on public narrative (story of self, us and now), with a worked example and coaching techniques. Use it to train spokespeople and volunteers.

• Steps in a One-on-One Organizing Conversation

  Guide · Training for Change · EN

  Step-by-step outline of the one-on-one organizing conversation: inviting someone in, uncovering motivations and making a concrete ask. Use it to train volunteers.

• Doorstep meets digital — how Mamdani’s campaign ticked all the boxes for success

  Case study · European Center for Digital Action · 2026-01 · EN

  How Zohran Mamdani's New York campaign combined mass door-knocking with organic video. A case study for anyone integrating street and social.

Library

This playbook was built from interviews, talks and writing by the people who organized the campaign, published between July 2025 and September 2026, checked against news reports and election data. Pages accessed on October 26, 2026. Some interviews are behind a paywall; in those cases, only the open portion was used.

Updated 26 October 2026