ZoA DJ’s job is to curate vibes. And at Zohran Mamdani’s election night party at the Brooklyn Paramount, his DJ knew the exact vibe he wanted to curate when local news channel NY1 announced that the Associated Press called the mayoral race for the 34-year-old democratic socialist at 9:37 P.M. After the screaming and the first pumping and the cheersing just began to ebb, he put on a song that would keep everything going: Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s 2004 banger “Lean Back.” In the crowd, which had reached moshpit-like levels at the front of the stage, a man wearing a Zohran beanie waved a New York City flag.
Toward the back of the room, And Just Like That actor and former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon smiled. “We’re going to wake up happy in Zohran’s New York,” she says.
Mamdani’s election night event at the Downtown Brooklyn venue was not billed as a victory party. But everyone in the crowd—a mix of his supporters, his campaign staff, and what felt like the country’s entire press corps—essentially viewed it as such.
At 9:03, three minutes after the doors opened to ticket holders, Decision Desk HQ called the election. While the Ts were crossed and Is were dotted, it was time to drink a Black Cherry White Claw or a Bronx Brewery IPA or a Liquid Death or any of the other canned beverages that the bartenders had carefully arranged, label forward, behind the bar. At a cocktail table, a woman in a floor length white sequin gown held lovingly onto a balloon with a cut-out of Mandami’s face taped on it.
Reporters and cameras swarmed Hasan Piker, a liberal commentator and online streamer, wearing a plaid jacket, a pearl necklace, and Adidas sneakers, like moths to a flame. He delivered soundbite after soundbite. To Vanity Fair specifically: “Maybe I was a little worried that the 9/11 stuff was sticking,” Piker says, alluding to the pro-Cuomo super PAC who ran an attack ad of Mandami in front of the Twin Towers along with footage from 2019 of Piker saying America “deserved” September 11. “No. I’m kidding. I didn’t care about that at all. I don’t think that was actually a serious or sincere line of attack. I think it was a failure that demonstrated how extremely online a lot of advisors to Andrew Cuomo were.”
Everyone checked out each other’s merch. And there was so much different merch: Zohran baseball caps. Zohran buttons. Zohran bandanas. Zohran berets. Zohran scarves. Someone even had on a Zohran pimple patch.
The power of memes, merch, and vibes did not work for Kamala Harris. They did, however, work for Zohran Mamdani. They worked when he called out Cuomo for mispronouncing his name during the mayoral debate—“My name is Mamdani, M-A-M-D-A-N-I”—which was remixed on TikTok with Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” (The track was later used as a trending song by none other than Gen Z queen Romy Mars for a video of her mother Sofia Coppola voting for the mayoral candidate. “#duh,” Romy wrote.) They worked when he hired a trendy graphic design co-op called Forge to create a hand-lettered logo in a mustard yellow color reminiscent of a Metrocard. They worked when Emily Ratajkowski posted herself wearing a “Hot Girls 4 Zohran” t-shirt to her 28.9 million Instagram followers.
And they worked when on November 2nd, somewhere around 1 a.m., when Mamdani rolled up at the queer and trans people of color art collective Papi Juice’s halloween party at Elsewhere nightclub in Bushwick. “Papi Juice, how we doing?” He said next to the D.J. booth. “Are you ready to win this race? Are you ready to beat Andrew Cuomo?” (It was one late night stop of many that night: “We went to six clubs in Brooklyn,” Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the mayor-elect says—a number that makes self described “party mayor” Eric Adams look like the middle aged leader of a temperance union. And yes, Mandami also got up to cheer New York City Marathon runners the next morning.)
The vibes were so strong, in fact, that nothing could stop them: not a celebrity endorsement for Cuomo from Amy Schumer, nor a million and a half dollars from Mike Bloomberg, nor Cool Girls for Capitalism—the Wario to Hot Girls 4 Zohran’s Mario. People heard his promises and latched tightly on: universal no cost childcare, free city buses, rent freezes for rent stabilized tenants and a promise to “stand up to bad landlords.” In fact, many could recite them verbatim during Mamdani’s victory speech: “Together, New York, we’re going to freeze the…” he said, pausing. “Rent!” The crowd said back.
In his victory speech, Mamdani talked to the crowd about “hope” just like former president Barack Obama did when he inspired young progressives in 2008 and called New York a “shining city” just like John Winthrop envisioned Boston as a city on a hill. He sent a message to President Donald Trump, who told 60 Minutes on Sunday that “I’m a much better looking person” than Mamdani and had threatened to withhold federal funding for the city should Mamdani win.
“Donald Trump, since I know you are watching: I have four words for you. Turn the volume up,” Mamdani said from the stage after his victory.
The crowd erupted into cheers, a sea of mustard yellow Zohran beanies bobbing up and down.
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