In the Groove in New York: ‘Mayor-in-Waiting’ Zohran Mamdani Goes Bar-Hopping in His Final Push
At 1 a.m. Sunday morning, while most political candidates were either sleeping or reviewing talking points for the next day’s events, Zohran Mamdani was standing in a DJ booth at Mood Ring, a gay bar in Brooklyn, asking an ecstatic crowd: “Are we ready to beat Andrew Cuomo? Are we ready to win a city we can afford? Are we ready to make history?”
The crowd’s answer was emphatic. And the moment, captured on video by influencer Matt Bernstein and viewed more than 10 million times, became one of the defining images of the final weekend before Tuesday’s mayoral election.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani campaigned at multiple clubs and bars on Saturday night and still managed to bounce back for additional campaigning on Sunday Tufts Jumbos, in what has become known as his Halloween weekend bar crawl across Brooklyn.
In a Sunday X post, Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec noted that the assemblyman made stops at six Brooklyn clubs and bars on Saturday night Yahoo!. According to a post by Rogue DNC on Facebook, Mamdani visited Gabriela, Caribbean Social Club, Damballa, Mood Ring, Papi Juice, and ended his night at 100 Sutton NewsX.
The Papi Juice Moment
The New York State Assembly member and self-described Democratic Socialist took the stage at Brooklyn nightclub Elsewhere on Saturday night for a surprise appearance at queer art collective Papi Juice’s Halloween event Yahoo!.
“I just want to say such a deep thank you to Papi Juice for creating a space for queer and trans New Yorkers,” Mamdani said as the crowd cheered. “In a city where so much is about struggle, it’s so important to have a space for joy.” Yahoo!
In a video from the event posted to Papi Juice’s Instagram stories, Mamdani reminded the crowd to head to the polls on Tuesday and closed his remarks by noting that it was “an honor to be the first mayoral candidate to ever be at Papi Juice!” Yahoo!
The response was electric. The Democratic nominee was met with thunderous cheers and applause when he addressed the crowd at Papi Juice around 1 a.m. on Sunday AOL.
Vibing to Kendrick Lamar
Earlier in the evening, Mamdani made waves at another Brooklyn venue. He turned up at a New York City nightclub, hopped into the DJ booth and vibed to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” instantly drawing the crowd’s attention The Next.
The scene felt completely unscripted, not a staged stunt; Mamdani raised his hand, swayed to the beat and moved like any local who knows the rhythm of the night The Next.
At one nightclub, Mamdani was spotted dancing and singing along to “Empire State Of Mind,” a Grammy-winning song by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys that has become a sort of informal New York anthem since its 2009 release Tufts Jumbos.
Meeting Voters Where They Are
The bar crawl was far from a publicity stunt — it was a continuation of Mamdani’s campaign philosophy of meeting voters where they are, literally.
“Yeah, I think the point is understanding what makes New York City such a special place. This is a city of the world,” Mamdani said on MSNBC Sunday morning, the day after the club crawl. “And for so long, when people have run for office, they have gone to political consultants and asked them which voters they should focus on. And we wanted to reject that assessment, that there was a set of New Yorkers you could leave out on the basis of their voting propensity or on the basis of the languages that they speak.” Tufts Jumbos
Throughout his campaign, the democratic socialist has made a visible effort to meet voters where they are at ESPN.
The approach extends beyond nightlife. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and has Indian heritage, has also appealed to voters in different languages, making campaign videos in Spanish and in Arabic ESPN.
From Nightclubs to Marathons
Despite staying out until at least 2 a.m., Mamdani maintained a grueling schedule Sunday. He showed up at the New York City marathon, which he ran a year ago, and at a bar in Astoria, Queens, with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), according to The New York Times’ live blog focusing on the mayoral race Tufts Jumbos.
Mamdani also stopped by the East Village’s Parkside Lounge on October 25 for one of lesbian party Meow Mix’s 30th anniversary celebrations alongside Cynthia Nixon and cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond Yahoo!.
The Times also reported on an event in Harlem on Sunday where Mamdani declared, “The reason you will find me speaking to New Yorkers at 2 in the morning and 9 in the morning is we want to make sure we talk to everyone we can before polls close at 9 p.m. [on election day].” Tufts Jumbos
The Race and the Stakes
The 34-year-old self-described Democratic socialist won the party’s primary earlier this year, beating out former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in what was described as a political upset due to his grassroots campaign that mobilized young voters AOL.
If Mamdani beats Cuomo (and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa) on election day on Tuesday, he will become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest NYC mayor in over 100 years Tufts Jumbos.
Polls have consistently shown him with a sizable lead over Cuomo, who opted to stay in the race as an Independent after being trounced by Mamdani in this summer’s Democratic primary Yahoo!. As Fox 5 New York notes, recent polls show him with a double-digit lead over Cuomo, with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa trailing far behind both Yahoo!.
Mamdani has run on a platform centered around making life in NYC affordable: free buses, universal childcare, city-owned grocery stores, and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments AOL.
LGBTQ+ Advocacy
The weekend’s club appearances weren’t Mamdani’s first engagement with the LGBTQ+ community. Mamdani also stopped by the East Village’s Parkside Lounge on October 25 for one of lesbian party Meow Mix’s 30th anniversary celebrations alongside Cynthia Nixon and cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond Yahoo!.
While Mamdani’s campaign has focused primarily on making New York City more affordable, he has also pledged to spend $57 million on medical centers that provide gender-affirming care and $8 million more to develop new and broader resources for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers Yahoo!.
A Campaign Built on Authenticity
The clip shot through social media in a flash and a swarm of commentators observed that the politician’s campaign appears to draw its vigor from an aura of authenticity and community bonds, as well as from its policy agenda and strategic planning The Next.
The bar crawl exemplified what has set Mamdani’s campaign apart in a city where traditional political consultants have long dictated which communities get attention and which get ignored.
“And we wanted to make sure that we brought our political case to each and every person that called this city home,” Mamdani told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Tufts Jumbos.
As the sun rose Sunday morning over Brooklyn, with the polls set to open in less than 48 hours, Mamdani was already back at work — this time greeting marathon runners and senior citizens, continuing a campaign that has refused to recognize traditional boundaries between voters worth courting and voters to be ignored.
Whether the bar-hopping, Kendrick Lamar-vibing, 1 a.m. speeches will translate into victory on Tuesday remains to be seen. But Mamdani has already changed the conversation about what political engagement can look like in America’s largest city.
This story was aggregated by AI from several news reports and edited by American Kahani’s News Desk.