• by James Forr , Op-Ed Contributor, Yesterday

Democrats seem stunned: How did Zohran Mamdani—polling at just four percent in March—storm past former governor Andrew Cuomo to capture the party’s nomination for mayor of New York?

Most great politicians are marketers at heart, and Mamdani’s campaign was a marketing tour de force.

For too many Democrats, persuasion means pointing a megaphone at your own ear and shouting about how right you are. But Mamdani’s strategy was different and it offers Democrats four much-needed reminders about how to win.

Make an emotional appeal

Cuomo’s campaign launch video was….something.

In an era when attention spans are measured in zeptoseconds, the old lion bores on for 17 joyless minutes from a drab, empty room. And his ominous words match the dreary production. Take his introductory statement about the vibe of the city:

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  “You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person. Or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you're walking down into the subway. You see it in the empty store fronts, the graffiti…The city just feels threatening.” 

In short, New York sucks.

Mamdani’s message? New York is great!  He smiles and cracks jokes. He mingles with real voters in real places—a bodega here, a taxi cab there. In one video, he spends a day walking from one end of Manhattan to the other, gladhanding all the way.

But he makes the tension clear. While New York is the most vibrant city in the world, “the bigwigs” are making it unlivable for regular folks.  It is a classic “fight the bully” narrative that is in the American DNA and you can feel it through the metaphoric language in his launch video:

• “City Hall is engulfed in corruption.”

• “New Yorkers are being crushed by rent and childcare.”

• “The slowest buses in the nation are robbing us of our time and our sanity.”

• “Working people are being pushed out of the city they built”

• “These Eric Adams rent hikes are killing us.”

The city isn’t the bad guy in Mamdani’s tale. The bad guy is the establishment—embodied by Andrew Cuomo.

Talk like a real person

In contrast to the word salad that Democrats typically spew, Mamdani boiled down his key policy proposals into short mantras that fit on a campaign poster.

• “Freeze the rent”

• “Childcare for all”

• “Cheaper groceries”

• “Fast and free buses”

Even on issues that don’t directly affect the city, he speaks clearly and cogently.  Contrast his statement about the US bombing of Iran with that of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries:

Mamdani uses simple sentences, a conversational tone, emotional language. Jeffries’s sentences are labyrinths, his language legalistic, and his arguments better suited to a graduate school seminar.

It isn’t values or issues.  It’s values and issues

Democrats are in a tug-o’-war between those who want to focus on their most popular issues versus those who want to shout about their progressive values. It is a false choice.

Of course, it’s essential to talk about issues that voters care about. They are the proof points in a campaign, the equivalent of product attributes in consumer marketing. Mamdani’s platform encompasses proposals for public transportation, affordable housing, public safety, taxation, and cutting small business red tape that surely test well. 

But he bundles those policies inside a narrative about values. Democratic campaigns are too often a slapdash patchwork of issues with no clear unifying theme, but for Mamdani, the issues are separate threads in a single emotional narrative, that of the little guy standing up and saying, “No more.” 

Hire well

Democrats often recoil from anything or anyone who has been fouled by the business world, but Mamdani is different. His campaign videos were produced by Melted Solids, which is led by experts with deep experience in corporate brand communication. 

As one of the agency’s partners said, “The same skills you have that help sell toothpaste, fast food, or kitchen appliances can easily be applied to a political life.” 

Mamdani’s videos are designed to entertain as much as inform, with jump cuts, humor, high-end production value, first-person narration, and, most of all, a strong emotional appeal. 

They don’t look like political ads – from Mamdani doing the polar bear plunge to dramatize his proposed rent freezes to interviewing the operator of a Halal food truck to highlight “Halalflation.”  And every video contains little twists that take you by surprise and make you curious about the next one.

Policy is important, but you have to get people’s attention first, which any good marketer understands.

A blueprint for Democratic candidates

In the 1930s, a North Carolina mill worker explained his support for Franklin Roosevelt: “Roosevelt is the only man we ever had in the White House who understands that my boss is a son of a bitch.”

In a different way and in a different time, Mamdani gives voters the same feeling. It is a classic American morality play that was the heart of the Democratic pitch from the New Deal through Bill Clinton. 

While Mamdani’s charisma and comic timing make him a uniquely gifted storyteller, a candidate need not be a Hollywood star to follow this playbook. 

Pete Buttigieg isn’t flashy, but he emerged out of nowhere because he thinks on his feet and uses simple emotional language to build bridges with those who disagree with him. 

John Fetterman was no orator but his 2022 Senate campaign was a masterclass in how disciplined attention to words and visuals can reach voters across the socioeconomic spectrum. 

Bernie Sanders is old and ornery, but still the most popular national Democrat today because he tells the underdog, working class tale with enthusiasm and patriotic verve.

Mamdani won over both young people and working class non-white voters, two pieces of the traditional Democratic coalition that the party has alienated with its misplaced priorities and clueless communication. Babbling about “TACO Trump” and performative swearing won’t bring them back. What will is more candidates like Mamdani who understand messaging, persuasion, and core American values.