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YOUTH VOTE SURGED IN NYC. WAS IT A PARADIGM SHIFT?  
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Brigid Bergin and Joe Hong
November 20, 2025
Gothamist
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_ A Gothamist analysis of turnout data shows voters between ages 30
and 39 made up the largest share of a record-setting 2 million voters.
Turnout among 18- to 29-year-old voters nearly tripled. Does
Mamdani’s success represent a paradigm shift? _

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As the 2026 election cycle gets underway, advisers to a new crop of
candidates are drawing lessons from Zohran Mamdani on how to activate
young voters and potentially change the electorate.

A Gothamist analysis of turnout data shows voters between ages 30 and
39 made up the largest share of a record-setting 2 million voters.
Turnout among 18- to 29-year-old voters nearly tripled compared to
four years ago, the largest increase of any age group.

Mamdani has said he persuaded those groups by not patronizing them.
But now advisers are wrestling with whether Mamdani’s success
getting young people to the polls represents a paradigm shift or a
moment that can’t be recreated.

 

“I don’t think this is a Mamdani-specific moment,” said Alyssa
Cass, a Democratic strategist and partner at Slingshot Strategies.

"I think what you're seeing in New York City is the emergence of what
I like to call the 'Precarity Coalition,'" Cass said. “If you are
under 40 here in New York City, it's not working for you anymore.”

Chart: Joe HongSource: NYC Board of Elections Get the data
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with Datawrapper [[link removed]]
Cass said young voters are facing daily challenges that make the city
sometimes feel unworkable, including the cost of living and childcare.
She is currently advising Alex Bores, a state assemblymember
representing Manhattan’s East Side who is one of the nearly dozen
candidates vying for U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler’s congressional seat.

“Increasingly, the idea of having a good life is out of reach, and
that is for people who are poor, working class, middle class and even
upper middle class,” she said.

Other experts say drawing conclusions about local, state legislative
or congressional district battles from a citywide race is risky.

“I do think that people need to take a beat because a district race
is very different than a mayoral,” said Lupe Todd-Medina, a
Democratic political consultant at Effective Media Strategies and the
former spokesperson for City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ mayoral
campaign.

Still, the response to Mamdani’s affordability message and the spike
in turnout among younger voters, Cass says, is reconstituting the
city’s electorate and should change how candidates campaign going
forward.

Traditionally in New York City, candidates often begin their outreach
by appealing to insiders, activating Democratic political clubs and
interest groups. “I don’t think that does that job anymore,”
Cass said.

She said candidates need to meet voters where they are, in person or
online, with a consistent message that taps into voters' gut feelings
about life in the city.

But Todd-Medina noted that the candidates and their ability to appeal
to voters vary at the local level.

She considered Councilmember Chi Ossé's potential Democratic primary
bid
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against Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who
represents the 8th Congressional District in Brooklyn. Ossé's Council
district overlaps with a portion of Jeffries' congressional district.

“Ossé represents a sliver of the 8th Congressional District. So
maybe he plays better in brownstone Brooklyn,” said Todd-Medina,
citing a left-leaning portion of the district. “But how is he going
to play in Seagate? How does he play in Coney Island?” she added,
referring to more conservative neighborhoods.

Todd-Medina is currently advising Marlon Rice, who is challenging
state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a democratic socialist.

She credited Mamdani for running a hopeful campaign that expanded the
electorate. Mamdani, she said, effectively contrasted with what she
described as Andrew Cuomo’s “spastic reign of terror” that
painted a grim picture of New York City that did not align with most
New Yorkers’ day-to-day lives.

But she was reluctant to say the shifts in the electorate were a sign
of permanent changes.

“Mamdani might just be the outlier case,” said Todd-Medina. “We
don’t know yet because we’re about to start the next electoral
cycle.”

Brigid Bergin [[link removed]] is an
award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is
fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and
support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in
politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide
to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first
coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke
the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s
presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal
investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All
Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY
Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or
Signal 917-723-4719.

Joe Hong [[link removed]] is the investigative
data reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. He previously covered K-12
education for several newsrooms across California. His reporting has
led to local reforms in juvenile justice system as well as a state law
requiring universal screening for dyslexia. Got a tip? Email
[email protected]

_Gothamist_ [[link removed]]_ is a website about New York City
news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public
Radio. __Donate._
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* New York City
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* elections
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* youth vote
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* Zohran Mamdani
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