By Chloe Baker, Senior Opinions Editor
One night this summer while enjoying dinner with a friend, the dreaded topic of the New York City mayoral election came up. Back in July, the race centered around Mayor Eric Adams and New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. As we traded thoughts on their policies and aired our frustrations, my friend made a startling admission: if he knew nothing else about Mamdani, he would vote for him simply based on his Instagram reels. We spent the rest of the night scrolling through both candidates’ Instagram accounts, Mamdani’s polished, colorful and relatable posts, and Mayor Adam’s almost comically outdated videos like his “morning routine.”
While Mayor Adams has since stepped up his social media game, using fun fonts, making reels and engaging in the creation of AI images, the contrast at the time was striking. By October, Adams had dropped out, and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s race as an independent was in full swing after his loss to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary. But my friend’s confession stuck with me, and the question it raised only became more urgent: Was Instagram really shaping the mayoral race?
My friend’s admission might sound frivolous, but it reflects a broader reality about how Americans — particularly young, progressive ones — engage with politics today. According to The Pew Research Center, Instagram users overwhelmingly see the platform as a place for entertainment and connection, not politics. Only 26% say they use it to keep up with political issues. Yet among those who do engage politically on Instagram, there are clear demographic patterns. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to find social media important for political involvement (47% vs. 37%). Perhaps more significantly, roughly six in ten Asian, Black and Hispanic users say these platforms are important for finding others who share their views, compared to just 45% of White users. For a progressive candidate like Mamdani trying to build a diverse coalition, Instagram isn’t just another platform; it has the potential to provide a direct line of engagement with his base.
The challenge for candidates is to meet voters where they are. Instagram users are craving connection and entertaining content, not political influence and propaganda. Candidates need to curate content that is attractive to users while still conveying political substance. It’s a balance that isn’t easy to achieve, and it requires a more modern approach than traditional campaigning.
Instagram Battle: Who Will Win?
While Cuomo’s Instagram account has just 200,000 followers, Mamdani has amassed a whopping 4.6 million followers. His feed is a curated mix of reels, slideshows, fun fonts, videos of his voters talking about him and other forms of engaging content such as an “NYC Mayoral Debate bingo card.” While Cuomo has tried to stand out with AI images and lots of orange and blue tones, his content just isn’t garnering the same amount of attention and engagement. Mamdani consistently grosses in tens of thousands of likes, but Cuomo’s posts are maxing out at the single digit thousands, with some not even reaching above the hundreds. While searching through both Cuomo’s and Mamdani’s respective accounts, it became apparent that Cuomo didn’t outright fail at curating content. But he could not imitate what Mamdani had succeeded at: campaigning for people who are not looking for politics.
Not So Simple
But how much power does social media really have? “Political science research suggests that social media’s direct persuasive impact is relatively limited,” Professor Mercedes Wilby, a professor of media and politics at Stern College for Women, told the YU Observer. Studies from The Pew Research Center found that in 2018, just 14% of the 4,594 U.S. adults surveyed said they had changed their views about a political or social issue in the past year due to something they saw on social media. In a similar Pew study in 2020, that number rose, but only to 23%.
Social media fails to change people’s views because they have ingrained cognitive biases like confirmation bias, and they tend to seek out and believe information that supports their pre-existing beliefs. But, as Professor Wilby explained, social media matters “indirectly.” “Its power appears to lie in its ability to set the agenda, mobilize supporters, and collect donations,” she added. Additionally, she said social media has the “potential to help democratize campaigning by lowering the cost of reaching voters and allowing candidates with smaller war chests or little establishment backing to get in the race.”
Compared to his opponents, Mamdani did not have the popularity and “street cred” that Cuomo and Adams both possessed. As such, Mamdani had to lean on the crutch that was Instagram to present himself to voters by “flooding social media consistently with positive, even humorous, content that showcased his personality and positions,” reported The BBC. This method ties in perfectly with what Instagram users crave: connection and entertainment. By doing this, Mamdani was able to effectively do what Wilby described as the best use of social media —“amplifying attention, not persuasion.”
What we are seeing today in the age of social media is not entirely new. “Every major communication shift brings the same adjustment,” Wilby said, referencing the inception and rise of televised news. Political scientist Richard Fenno coined the term “presentation of self” in the 1970s, and according to Wilby this concept has “shifted online.” The storytelling that used to occur at town halls or on television is “beginning to take place on digital platforms,” explained Wilby. Because of this shift, politicians who cannot adapt to the new demands of social media risk “seeming out of touch,” she added.
What Matters Most
“What matters most is conversion, not just exposure,” said Wilby. “The most effective political communication turns online engagement into offline behavior — donations, volunteering, turnout, or even local conversation,” explained Wilby. According to the BBC, Mamdani had nearly 50,000 volunteers help door knock for him, and he broke fundraising records with the help of small donors. Besides for just the numbers, he also has everyone talking about him — whether you love him or hate him, he’s undeniably the talk of the town.
While social media apps like Instagram might make engagement feel faster and more personal, the underlying dynamic is “the same” as any other communication mode, said Wilby. “Effective politicians use the dominant medium of their era to make ideas accessible and relatable. On television, that might have meant tone and body language; online, it’s authenticity and responsiveness.”
In Mamdani’s case, what has enabled him to succeed on social media, is, as Wilby describes “his more policy-anchored presence.” This has allowed him to connect with young voters where other recent Democrat candidates have failed. In the summer of 2024, in the leadup to the presidential election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ team tried to cling to relevance by rebranding Harris as “Brat” after popular singer Charli XCX posted on X “Kamala IS brat,” referencing her album “Brat” that sparked a cultural trend . Harris’ team embraced the neon green of the “Brat” album cover and incorporated the album’s visuals into Harris’ social media accounts. However, the vice president’s attempt at winning the young vote did not serve her well. The problem? She used social media with “all style and little substance,” said Wilby. It didn’t resonate with voters enough.
Mamdani, on the other hand, has been able to create “sustained engagement” in his more “policy-anchored” posts. His posts go beyond just slogans and lay out concrete plans to address issues that affect New Yorkers daily. For example, an October 20 reel about “shedding the sheds” details a multi-step policy for removing long-standing scaffolding across the city — from eliminating sidewalk sheds on city-owned properties to extending inspection timelines and incentivizing faster removal. Other posts connect social justice rhetoric to actionable policy, such as deploying lawyers to defend trans New Yorkers and expanding access to gender-affirming care. By framing these proposals in short, colorful and accessible reels, Mamdani turns policy talk into something both digestible and shareable.
While social media has changed the political landscape, it hasn’t “replaced substance with style,” said Wilby. Rather, “it’s forced politicians to translate substance into a new style.”
Cuomo struggled with this translation. His content tries to imitate the visual language of social media without fully adapting to its tone or pace. Mamdani’s posts, in contrast, show a clear understanding of what Instagram users respond to — not strictly policy persuasion, but a sense of connection and recognition. His short, colorful reels and policy-infused captions translate complex ideas into quick, visually engaging narratives. They aren’t designed to change followers’ beliefs so much as to affirm them, turning alignment into engagement.
Mamdani didn’t necessarily change minds, he just learned how to meet people where they are. And in today’s political landscape, that skill may hold just as much value as persuasion itself.
Photo Credit: Unsplash