"Zohran Mamdani is thirty-three years old-young enough that, despite not regularly working out, he has run the New York City Marathon twice in the past three years. In 2022, his second year in the New York State Assembly, he ran wearing a T-shirt that read "Eric Adams Raised My Rent!" and finished in six hours and four minutes. Few spectators paid him any mind."
"Last year, less than a month after launching his mayoral campaign, he trotted through the city at a 12:54-per-mile pace, wearing the same T-shirt, with "Zohran Will Freeze It!" added to the back. Again, he caught barely anyone's attention. This year, Marathon Sunday falls two days before the New York mayoral election. Polls have Mamdani fifteen points ahead of his nearest competitor, the former governor Andrew Cuomo."
"To walk through New York with Mamdani this spring and summer has been to watch a star being born, a process that is as spectacular and gaseous on earth as it is in Heaven. On the morning of the primary, in June, Mamdani crisscrossed the city as fast as his new security detail could drive him. Giddy commuters on a subway platform in Jackson Heights missed their trains just to show him their "I Voted" stickers."
Zohran Mamdani is thirty-three and has run the New York City Marathon twice while serving in the State Assembly. He ran marathons wearing protest T-shirts such as "Eric Adams Raised My Rent!" and later added "Zohran Will Freeze It!" to his campaign gear. Polls place Mamdani about fifteen points ahead of former governor Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race. He favors constant public movement and visible grassroots engagement, crisscrossing the city with a security detail, greeting commuters, accepting paan, and wearing a dark suit and tie as a political uniform. Even rival volunteers have stopped him for selfies. His rise occurs amid nativist fervor and concerns about cronyism.
Read at The New Yorker
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