I remember where I was in 2008 when Barack Obama became the first Black President of the United States.
I was sitting in my college dorm, glued to the television screen, excited, and anxiously waiting for the results.
It was my first time voting in any election at the time. It was invigorating.
Fast forward to 2025. That same feeling is shared by many young New York voters who ushered in their new Mayor-Elect, Zohran Mamdani.
At just 34 years old, he became the youngest mayor-elect of New York City in more than a century, and the city’s first Muslim, first South Asian, and first African-born mayor.
He ran on kitchen table topics, sheltering against the housing crisis, legislating “good cause” eviction protections, freezing rent on stabilized units, improving local transit and public services. That vision transcended traditional political divisions on race, ideology, and even party labels.
National debates on foreign wars or culture wars might grab headlines, but in the neighborhoods where people live, Americans are asking, Can I afford my apartment? Or public transport? Do I have a shot at owning something, or at least not being priced out of my home?
His bid to legislate rent control, “good-cause” eviction protections, and transit fixes resonated across generational, racial, and ideological lines. Younger voters, renters, transit riders, and people who live paycheck to paycheck turned out.
We’ve seen youth power in national elections (2018, 2020) but rarely at this municipal magnitude.
Well, here it is.
To build a winning grassroots coalition, you must center your campaign on immediate economic pain points, not just identity or slogans.
In reliably Democratic strongholds, the old guard relied on established names, safe appeals, and moderate platitudes. Mamdani didn’t. His win is a signal that if you’re an entrenched incumbent who’s lost contact with the concrete struggles of your district, you’re vulnerable. Grassroots mobilization, especially led by young people, is a real threat.
I was thinking of working Texans facing housing affordability, childcare costs, food insecurity, many of the same issues that energized Mamdani’s base. Meanwhile, many Texas public officials appear to be locked into culture-war battles, race-baiting, and immigration mongering, while ignoring the issues that matter most to everyday people.
What if a campaign story in Houston mirrored Mamdani’s narrative of everyday struggle?
Mamdani’s surge included newly mobilized voters aged 18-29, a cohort that is often absent from local elections. His multilingual outreach, bold campaign materials, and door-to-door efforts across boroughs. He tapped a generation tired of waiting. That’s why it is necessary to engage young people and treat them not as an afterthought but as primary actors.
So yes, this historic moment in New York is a lesson plan. Texas politicians can learn from it. The progressive movement here doesn’t have to be national. It can be neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, transit route by transit route.
That’s the kind of coalition needed in Texas’s cities, where Black voices, brown voices, and working-class voices must be amplified in campaigns that step beyond talk and deliver
Power to the youth!!!!
