If you think you had a wild year, just imagine how New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani must feel.
In October 2025, weeks before his historic election win, WIRED sat down with Mamdani for an interview at his campaign office. I remember, vividly, the energy that he carried into the room. This was a man, after all, who’d just pulled off a stunning political feat, rising from being an unknown to becoming the mayoral front-runner in a matter of months. In part, that was because of his message, which focused squarely on affordability and the working class. But much of Mamdani’s campaign success can be attributed to how that message was delivered, namely through a mastery of social media that made every other politician in America look like they were still figuring out how to open Instagram.
Mamdani, then just about to turn 34, radiated in our first conversation with what I can best describe as a supernatural electricity. It lit up the room, and in a subsequent photo shoot on a bustling Manhattan street, drew passersby as if by magic. New Yorkers hooted and hollered at the candidate who, seemingly overnight, had made the mundanity of local politics feel like a cultural revolution.
Fast-forward one year, and the Mamdani electricity is still there—it just might be a little bit more tired. The daily grind of governing, after all, doesn’t offer quite the same excitement as a rocket-ship campaign. Not to mention that Mamdani, particularly given his massive reach online, has now become a lightning rod for polarizing conversations, from Israel to the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as a beacon of political hope for millions across the country and even around the world.
Mamdani’s approval rating among Big Apple voters sits at a stunning 69 percent, and he’s become among the most influential figures on the American left; he’s also been described, by his harshest critics, as a dangerous radical whose politics threaten the very city he’s been elected to lead. No pressure.
During a sit-down interview at New York’s City Hall, the mayor and I spoke about what he’s learned during his 10 months on the job, how he uses social media as a tool for governance, and where he stands on some of the most pressing issues facing Americans in today’s midterm elections. Mamdani might be tired—he divulged, hoarsely, that it had been “a long day”—but the internet’s Mayor also seems newly liberated, and certainly empowered to speak his mind. Winning power and wielding it, after all, are two very different things. And right now, the power is squarely in Zohran Mamdani’s corner.
KATIE DRUMMOND: It was almost exactly this time last year that I interviewed you in your campaign office. I remember that for two reasons. One, it was just before the election, but two, you were just about to have a birthday. I was remembering that this weekend, because I was in Sunset Park on Saturday. Sunset Park, for those who don't know, is the best park in Brooklyn, and actually all of New York. I'm sure you agree.
While I was there, I saw you being serenaded with “Happy Birthday.” I did not join. I kept walking. I was like, “I’m gonna see this guy.”
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I was wondering, like, “Who’s that woman who’s not singing along?”
Yes, the one with the really excited 9-year-old, and her mom was like, “No, we’re gonna keep going.” That was me.
Do you feel a year older? How has the last year of your life been?
It’s been a pretty incredible year. It has also been probably the most transformative year that I’ve lived in my life in terms of what my life was versus what it is now. Much of that year has been having the privilege of having the greatest job in the world. To lead this city and now to be 35.
I think 35. It’s a funny thing because in the world of my friends, this is an age that has a lot of existential questions that come with it. In the work that I do, most people are significantly older than me, and so the meaning of the age, it doesn’t really live in a professional setting.
Do you ever feel like your age is a barrier in politics?
No. When I met [Brazilian President Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] during the UN General Assembly, he was very excited by the fact that I was young. [ Laughs ] He kept coming back, “So young!” I don’t think it’s a barrier. It’s been one that has also illuminated both the promises and the betrayals of politics.
To be 35 means you grew up through the housing crisis. You grew up through the Iraq War. You grew up through so much of what has shaped our country’s politics over the last few decades. These have been formative moments in my and so many other people’s lives. That too often politics is shaped by those for whom these are issues that just affect other people, not ones that have been all-consuming.