I woke up to the news last week that 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani had beaten Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary race for New York City mayor.
Charismatic, handsome, and social-media savvy, Mamdani amassed an enormous following of young New Yorkers and spurred more than 50,000 volunteers to get out and canvass for him. His promise of free bus rides, free childcare, and government-run grocery stores—and his vow to tax the rich—reminded me of another young, good-looking, charismatic Democrat who upset a heavily favored party macher nearly a decade ago: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Back then, I was one of AOC’s biggest supporters. In fact, it’s not too much to say that I helped her win.
In the fall of 2017, when I was a video producer at the left-wing millennial news company NowThis, I found myself at a small meet-and-greet event hosted by Arena, a political action committee dedicated to backing new Democratic candidates. The speakers that night were unknown candidates hoping to help take back the House.
One of the candidates was Elissa Slotkin, who has since become Michigan’s junior U.S. senator. And there was AOC, then an unknown bartender turned volunteer for Bernie Sanders. After each candidate gave a short talk and the event started to wrap up, I stayed behind to get the candidates’ contact information. I was thinking about making a video about a few of them for work.
