A strong field operation involving volunteers knocking on doors and talking to voters in their homes could tip the balance in a close election. But Zoran Mamdani and his aides say their intense campaign efforts played a decisive role in defeating Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and then preventing the former governor from returning in the general election for New York mayor last month. which Mamdani won by about 9 points.
Mamdani's field operation has taken a risk and deemphasized scripts in its direct voter contact strategy, eight campaign officials, volunteers and political observers said, offering a potential road map for Democratic canvassing efforts in the midterm elections and beyond.
Mamdani and his campaign focused their volunteers not only on increasing turnout in favorable areas along the East River in Brooklyn and Queens, but also convince voters in black-majority districts that were seen as more skeptical of his upstart, and by New Yorkers who backed Donald Trump in 2024 after backing Democrats in many cases previously.
And while canvassers were armed with scripts detailing how to conduct the conversation, the campaign advised volunteers that they should feel free to share with voters their personal stories about why they were willing to do voter outreach on behalf of Mamdani, a 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist.
In total, more than 100,000 people volunteered for Mamdani's campaign, knocking on more than 3.1 million doors, making 4.6 million calls and sending 2.7 million text messages to New Yorkers, his campaign said.
“When I was preparing to run for mayor, I heard from many people that races the size of mayoral races are not run through field programs,” Mamdani said in an interview. “And from the very beginning, we believed differently, that we could build a program on a scale the city had never seen before, and do it by focusing on the belief that our most effective ambassadors were New Yorkers themselves.”
Yasmin Raji, executive director of Swing Left, a Democratic voter outreach group, said Mamdani's team has made three strategic decisions that it believes should inform Democratic campaigns in the medium term: invest heavily in the ground operation, allow canvassers to go off-script and spend time reaching out to voters who may not be part of so-called target groups. She said Mamdani's campaign showed that “risk is the less risky option” when reaching voters.
Raja's group, which works with several Democratic campaigns, is implementing a project called “Basic truthThe goal of the project is to create a team that will knock on every door in war zones, not just targeted homes where limited resources are often concentrated.
“Our approach is that you have to knock on every door,” Raji said, adding that she believes Democrats tend to focus too much on specific groups, a pitfall that Mamdani's campaign avoided.
“They both went around, in the sense that they visited areas and parts of the city where people don't usually vote… and they visited areas and parts of the city where people didn't like Zoran and were very skeptical of Zoran,” she added. “And instead of shying away from tough conversations, they actually leaned in. And I think that's something that we, the Democratic Party as a whole, need to learn from.”
Democrats have long embraced this type of personal interaction with voters, a space where they have built-in benefits over Republicans who have similarly poured resources into campaigning. Democratic-leaning areas—more densely populated and urban neighborhoods—are easier to traverse in less time than more dispersed suburbs and rural areas. And whether it's college students or union members, Democrats can tap a broader base of volunteers to do some of the work.
However, Democrats' much broader direct outreach efforts failed in 2024. against the Trump campaign What priority narrow targeting low propensity voters. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign spent a total of $25.4 million on outreach via text messages, canvassing, phone calls and direct mail in the final weeks of the race. far ahead Trump team expenses.
“I think what we've seen in Democratic campaigns at all levels, from president to city council to school board, etc., the metrics we optimize for are the number of doors knocked down and the number of calls made,” Raji said. “What we're not optimizing for is the number of quality conversations we're having. And that just can't be measured.”
In an interview, Mamdani said he believes the campaign “personalizes” the campaign by highlighting such talk.
“What I often tell canvassers is that they will probably be the only person that many New Yorkers will talk to about this race, other than the people they already know in their lives,” he said. “They will be the ambassadors of this campaign, and the most compelling thing they can do is not memorize talking points or statistics, but rather tell the truth about why they climb six stories, building after building, why they walk through 10 people's houses in a row to still knock on that 11th door where they spend hours of their day talking to strangers about the city we all love. That's basically the most compelling thing.”
Mamdani's campaign said the impact of his field program on last month's elections could be seen in several ways. For starters, more than 150,000 voters registered since the 2024 election cast their ballots last month. His aides say the phenomenon was largely due to his candidacy and fueled by dogged volunteers who helped register new voters. They also point to efforts in black neighborhoods like Canarsie and East New Yorkwhere Mamdani won by 20-plus points last month after Cuomo pulled off significant victories in primary.
“Don't be afraid to talk to people,” Tunbosun Oyenuga, a Mamdani volunteer who interviewed black voters who were initially inclined to support Cuomo, told NBC News about the lessons Democrats can learn from this. “Just talk to them, especially the districts that you think are low-key. If you're willing to have town halls in Republican districts, why can't you talk to your constituents about the problems they have and do something about it?”
Oyenuga, who previously campaigned for former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., during his failed primary campaign against current Rep. George Latimer last year, Mamdani said, a left-leaning candidate supporting Bowman had several advantages that Bowman did not have, except a much more favorable electorate. Oyenuga said voters he spoke to were much more open to Mamdani's views on the Gaza war, which had reached its second year by Election Day, than they were to Bowman the year before.
And Mamdani's emphasis on accessibility was a campaign theme that could appeal to people across the ideological spectrum.
“It was easier,” Oyenuga said, “to be able to talk about other issues. Everyone is facing a cost of living crisis. Everyone is facing an affordability issue.”
Moreover, Mamdani and his team cited exit polls that showed that he won 1 in 10 Trump voters who turned out to vote in November, another sign that his efforts to reach skeptics were paying off.
Laura Kane, a Mamdani campaign volunteer who initially leaned toward supporting Cuomo, said Mamdani's message of accessibility, coupled with his willingness to engage with skeptics, set the tone for his efforts.
“From the very beginning, Mamdani’s intention was to go out and engage with people whose views were different from his,” she said, adding: “I guess I think Democrats have a lot to learn.”
Rich Azzopardi, a senior Cuomo aide, said Mamdani's campaign efforts were “a factor but not the whole story” of his victory, adding that the divisive race “inspired turnout on both sides.”
“In many ways, he was one of the weakest candidates in history,” Azzopardi said, adding: “Mamdani got just over 50%, meaning nearly half the voters took the time to vote against him. Now he needs to govern for all New Yorkers.”
NBC News spoke with five of Mamdani's volunteers, as well as Tasha Van Auken, the campaign's field director, who said the canvassing operation reinforced the importance of Mamdani's focus on accessibility, which was also an easy topic for volunteers to talk to voters on the spot.
“You just have to talk about what people are dealing with,” Van Auken said. “And definitely in New York, before this campaign, there really was a feeling that there weren't enough people, leaders, elected officials acknowledging what people are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. So I think that's a big part of it. And then it allows people to come and speak from their hearts… because they see it, they feel it.”
Van Auken said the field operation was able to provide the campaign with important feedback in the final weeks of the race, including that voters had repeatedly expressed concerns at the door about how Mamdani would handle Trump's increased focus on the city if he wins, expressing concerns about the possible deployment of the National Guard or new raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The campaign was also able to replenish its volunteer ranks with some new events, including a soccer tournament and a scavenger hunt, and distributed campaign merchandise that could only be earned through volunteer work and not purchased. Van Auken recalled the first time such a product appeared at a winter bluecap event.
“The number of subscribers has skyrocketed,” she said. “The excitement was just incredible. And it was really cool to have all these canvases flying around the city and everyone wearing these hats.”
