Susana Mendoza, the Illinois state comptroller and a candidate for mayor of Chicago, was not going to let the crummy weather get in her way. She had videos to shoot.
Sheltered on a drizzly recent afternoon under the overhang of a building along the Chicago River, Ms. Mendoza, in a black suit, high heels and her signature updo, faced a cellphone held aloft by a staffer — then flubbed her line.
“I’m the only candidate for mayor with the financial management experience and backbone to manage this crisis,” she said confidently, pointing at the camera as she walked.
Tackle the crisis, an aide corrected. Ms. Mendoza clapped her hands, then jogged in reverse to try the shot once more.
“This is how it works,” she said cheerfully.
And this is how mayors and mayoral hopefuls are talking to constituents these days: with snappy, walk-and-talk, make-policy-personal videos that reach potential voters on TikTok or Instagram.
The videos’ growing popularity can be traced to New York City and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a digital native who is widely seen as a master of the art. His campaign relied on viral social media posts to get his message out and help propel him to victory last year.
But not all candidates are as skilled on camera. Some videos are charming, real-life glimpses into the day of a mayor trying to solve problems. Others come across as stilted, overproduced or even awkward. Most candidates are learning as they go.
“They can be effective, but the person has to be genuinely likable or it doesn’t work,” said Aviva Bowen, a political strategist in Chicago. “They’re supposed to be raw and gritty and a peek behind the curtain.”
Last month, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago publicized his re-election bid with a video of himself dancing, albeit stiffly, on a rooftop. Mayor Daniel Lurie of San Francisco took to video to warn residents that a mountain lion was spotted at the corner of 44th Avenue and Ulloa Street. Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, recently showed off his between-the-legs dribble — and a few bricked jump shots — while telling residents about a basketball tournament returning to the city.
Good or bad, the videos are increasingly a staple in the day of an American mayor — or an aspiring one.
Campaign strategists say that the videos — which are also being adopted by governors, members of Congress and other elected officials — can be deceptively tricky to pull off. They are most compelling, the consensus goes, when they are candid, honest and shorter than 30 seconds. Success is measured in shares, views, likes and comments.
The videos can also help push an obscure candidate into the spotlight. In Seattle, Katie Wilson was running for mayor last year as a nearly unknown community organizer and socialist when she released a video of herself standing on a sidewalk holding an $8 slice of pizza and explaining how the cost was connected to the city’s housing crisis. Her campaign took off, and months later she was elected, unseating the incumbent, who had led Seattle since 2022.
Ms. Wilson’s videos worked because they leaned into her image as an awkward policy nerd who isn’t natural on camera, said Sandeep Kaushik, a Democratic political strategist in Seattle who was not involved with her campaign.
“They come across as really honest and authentic,” Mr. Kaushik said. “And they showed you who she is as a person. They weren’t formal or antiseptic or cerebral in the way most campaign communications are.”
Annie Gabillet, the deputy communications director who oversees digital work for Mayor Lurie in San Francisco, said that his videos are an outgrowth of the early days of his campaign. Mr. Lurie had never run for office before and was fighting for name recognition. So he began making candid, in-the-moment videos, sometimes dropping in on small businesses or art galleries, places around the city that he loved.
“He didn’t set out to become an influencer, so as he’s filmed more videos himself, it’s become more natural, as if he’s just talking to San Franciscans,” she said.
Mr. Lurie’s Instagram audience is largely San Francisco-based, and he relies on Instagram reels to get his messages out. Some of his highest-performing videos this year have been snapshots of life in the city: a new Jollibee opening on Market Street, a how-to on cleaning storm drains, a scene of Mr. Lurie stopping by a salsa dancing event in Union Square.
But mayors have to be careful to exude not just authenticity, but competence, as Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles learned the hard way.
After Mr. Mamdani touted his administration’s pothole-filling prowess, a Los Angeles resident posted a video asking Ms. Bass to fill a hole on her street. Ms. Bass responded with her own video — explaining why the pothole could not be addressed right away.
Social media mockery ensued. Ms. Bass followed up the next day with a video showing the fixed pothole.
“Sometimes content lands differently than you intended,” said Leslie Gamboni, senior director of digital communications for Ms. Bass, adding that the reaction didn’t necessarily make the video a failure. “We did see that the video reached a lot of people, and hopefully people came away understanding more about 311 and how to report an issue.”
As next year’s mayoral election in Chicago begins to heat up, mayoral hopefuls are elbowing each other for attention in real life — and on Instagram reels.
Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois secretary of state and a mayoral candidate, has been making the rounds of block parties, concerts and food festivals and posting videos of his interactions with voters online.
Last month, Mr. Giannoulias shared videos of himself jumping into the Chicago River, speaking at an event celebrating Chinese heritage and downing tequila at the city’s Mexican Independence Day parade.
“Alexi believes it’s important to communicate directly to voters where they are, whether that’s knocking doors or short-form video on social media,” said Jordan Abudayyeh, a campaign spokeswoman.
Mayor Johnson, who is running for re-election, has hired social media influencers to make posts promoting his campaign, circumventing traditional media. “We hope to showcase the mayor in his element,” said Christian Perry, a campaign spokesman.
Ms. Mendoza is not on the air with television ads yet, but she drops new social videos regularly, sometimes filming several at once.
In September, as rain continued to threaten her shoot, Ms. Mendoza said that she sees the videos — which she said she had been posting long before Mr. Mamdani’s rise — as crucial to her nascent mayoral campaign, less than five months from the February election.
“When I bump into people in real life, more and more and more, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love your videos,’” she said. “They feel like they already know me. Then I get to seal the deal with them.”
Cynthia Silva contributed video research and editing.
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