By the time I found Zohran Mamdani on Friday night, it was six hours since he had announced he was walking the entire length of Manhattan, beginning at Inwood Hill Park. He was sweaty, but energetic, with a tie still tightly fastened around the collar of his white dress shirt.
Shortly after midnight, he was leading a grizzled pack of two dozen hardcore supporters who were determined to get to Battery Park, even if the path they were taking was a bit meandering. (A left on University, a left on Bleecker, another right on Bowery, left on Rivington…)
"Fuck outta here Cuomo, rank Zohran!" a man yelled from a car near Washington Square Park, before realizing he was yelling that at Mamdani himself. "Oh shit, you're Zohran!"
That scene kept repeating through the southward jaunt. People reacting to the Zohran signs his supporters were holding up and then all of a sudden realizing that for whatever reason, at 1 a.m., there was the 33-year-old candidate who is making the former governor (and his super PAC donors) sweat.
"New York is so random, I love it!" one young woman in a black strapless dress shouted after getting a selfie with Mamdani.
Mamdani, even after seven hours of walking, appeared in high spirits.
"It's been a great walk, but I can't say walking the length of Manhattan has ever really been a dream of mine," he told me. The idea came from his political director. But this is what he says sets him apart from his main competitor in the race, Andrew Cuomo. "There's been a lot of New Yorkers I've met on this walk who tried to bet with me about how many blocks Cuomo would make it."
Cuomo, for his part, insists on driving around the interior of Manhattan, and has the dangerous driving record to prove it
"I'm the guy who gets death threats on my car, even though I don't own one," Mamdani told me, as yet another group of young people stopped him to shake his hand and take a selfie.
I asked him if this would be something he'd want to do as mayor.
"I think so, New Yorkers need to see their mayor, talk to their mayor, ask their mayor questions," he said. "They need to even yell at their mayor. They need to know the person who works for them is also out there in the world that they also belong to, and not just behind the gates."
During one of his few press gaggles on Sunday, Cuomo hit on Mamdani for just this type of campaigning—message instead of substance.
"You're not the messenger as the mayor. The mayor is the CEO. If you want to be the messenger, be the press person, be the head of communications," Cuomo said.
Counterpoint to Cuomo—New Yorkers (and the always-hungry media) love a long-ass walk.
Mamdani said he was feeling good about the early voting numbers, which show young people in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan showing out in force "We've wanted our local elections to look more like the city itself, and to see this influx of young people, who have been overlooked as a political constituency, is indicative of that desire coming to fruition."
As we got further into the Lower East Side bridge and tunnel night club zone, some people began shouting "Cuomo!" at Mamdani—which was quickly met with boos from the marching group.
From the back of the pack, came a consistent reply from Sunset Park's State Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, who had been walking with the group since Columbus Circle: "Cuomo sucks!"
Mitaynes said she had been trying to catch up on some rest after the end of the session in Albany this week, but now wasn't the time.
"You have to jump right back into this," Mitaynes said. "People are surprised to see him out and about and they get energized by it, they honk their horns. This type of campaigning isn't for everyone, I'm sure every other candidate is tucked in bed right now, but if this is what it takes, it's what it takes."
As the group reached the Financial District, people on the street began to thin. Outside of a Halal cart, taxi drivers were grouped together. "He's Muslim?" one young taxi driver asked another, in seeming disbelief that this could be the next mayor of New York City. "Yeah, he's Muslim! I know," said another, slapping the other's shoulder.
At 2:15 a.m., over eight hours and over twelve miles after he started walking, Mamdani and a crew of around 30 supporters finally reached the Battery. There, exhausted, he asked everyone to take a seat, introduce themselves and say where they had started walking from. He hung out for another half an hour. The next morning he'd be giving a speech at Al Sharpton's National Action Network, talking about his life trajectory, the affordability crisis, and why he's ready to be the next mayor.
"I'm exhausted but I'm living off the adrenaline of it," he told me. "We're right where we want to be."
