When Zohran Mamdani stunned New York City’s political establishment by defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and winning the mayoral election last week, much of the attention focused on his viral social Media presence and charismatic appeal to young voters. A strategic mind, Zara Rahim, a communications expert with over a decade of experience, was instrumental in reshaping the campaign's voter engagement behind the 34-year-old assemblyman's historic win. Where politics, culture, and digital strategy converge.
TL;DR
- Zara Rahim, 35, was instrumental in Zohran Mamdani's successful mayoral campaign.
- Rahim's strategy focused on genuine voter engagement and connecting with overlooked communities.
- Her background includes work on the Obama campaign, White House, Uber, and Vogue.
- The campaign combined grassroots organizing with digital strategy, mobilizing over 90,000 volunteers.
Serving as Mamdani's senior adviser since February, Rahim provided essential advice that shaped the campaign's strategy. As one adviser told the New York Times last summer, Rahim encouraged Mamdani to “forget the New York conjured by political strategists” and instead “make a campaign about the actual New York City.” This instruction formed the basis of a grassroots Operation that mobilized over 90,000 volunteers and connected with voters previously ignored by the city's political establishment.
Stacked CV
The 35-year-old strategist entered the mayoral contest with a distinctive background. Raised in South Florida as a first-generation Bangladeshi American, Rahim commenced her political journey as an intern during Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, where she was promoted to Florida Digital Content Director. Through that role, which included registering voters and informing them on significant matters via digital channels, she learned to utilize social media for political mobilization. She went on to work in the White House Office of Digital Strategy before joining Uber, where she helped craft legislation on ride-sharing.
Following his involvement with Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, Rahim transitioned into the fashion industry, holding the position of Communications Director at Vogue Magazine between 2017 and 2018. In that capacity, she collaborated with prominent individuals from the realms of fashion, art, politics, and entertainment, refining abilities that would subsequently prove beneficial in molding Mamdani's public persona. More recently, she has worked as an independent communications consultant for clients including A24, Mariah Carey, and Netflix.
Planning for Mamdani
Rahim's approach for Mamdani focused on genuine connection and direct engagement with voters, especially in groups that typical campaigns tend to overlook. She understood that the campaign’s social media success needed to be backed by genuine engagement on the ground. As she told the New York Times, there was an “intensive schedule” in which TikTok and Instagram videos were shot between in-person events, during which the mayor-elect would speak in languages like Spanish and Hindi to address working-class folks. These were “Bangladeshi uncles and West African aunties who had never voted in a primary for a mayor,” according to Rahim. “They see somebody showing up at their mosques and treating their neighborhoods like they mattered.” New York City is home to approximately one million Muslim residents.
The strategy extended to how the campaign responded to attacks. When Cuomo made controversial comments that Mamdani’s supporters characterized as Islamophobic, Rahim was quick to condemn the former governor’s tactics. “He has only tried to court Muslim people by saying look at this bad Muslim—that is a desperate tactic from a man who has nothing to say to Muslim people,” she told CNN.
Rahim worked alongside other key campaign figures, including Maya Handa, Tascha Van Auken, and Faiza Ali, all of whom played crucial roles in the victory. Van Auken, the field director, oversaw the unprecedented volunteer operation that knocked on doors 1.6 million times during the primary alone and led to 247,000 conversations with voters. By the general election, the volunteer count had swelled to more than 90,000 people. The campaign combined old-fashioned organizing with the same digital virality that epitomized Obama’s early political career. Mamdani’s videos garnered tens of millions of views online. Still, the campaign maintained what organizers described as “a culture of connection” rather than the “culture of extraction” typical of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts.
Following Mamdani’s victory on November 4, he announced an all-female transition team that included Rahim alongside former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, former Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, United Way President Grace Bonilla, and former Deputy Mayor Melanie Hartzog. The team will guide the administration as Mamdani prepares to take office on January 1, 2026, as the city’s first Muslim mayor, first South Asian mayor and youngest mayor in more than a century.
For this story, Coins2Day used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.