New York, Nov 1 (EFE). Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani are vying for New York City's mayoralty with opposing strategies in the final stretch of their campaigns: while Cuomo has opted for videos created with artificial intelligence (AI), Mamdani is betting on nostalgia and ground-level work, before the November 4 election.
As a millennial politician, 34-year-old Mamdani is a digital native and is at ease on social networks, whether being interviewed by influencers in the New York subway or showing how he learns a Spanish speech word by word to get his message across to the Latino community of the Big Apple.
His main goal was to make himself known, a purpose he achieved after winning the primaries, and in this final stretch he has focused more on a door-to-door campaign with an army of volunteers to promote his progressive political program.
While all New Yorkers know who Cuomo is—son of Mario Matthew Cuomo, who was Governor of New York from 1983 to 1994; brother of a former CNN anchor; and Governor of New York for a decade, including the COVID-19 pandemic period, a position he was forced to resign from by the Democratic Party after receiving several sexual harassment accusations.
**Cuomo: An Undefined Strategy**
According to Isra Ali, a professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, who spoke with EFE, Cuomo's campaign, 67, had a «very slow start» as he assumed he would win the primaries easily and then defeat the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, in the general election.
«I don't think they had a very defined strategy, and their last-minute strategy has been quite negative, in stark contrast to Mamdani's,» notes the expert.
Ali says that despite Mamdani being younger, the thirtysomething has bet on an aesthetic that evokes nostalgia by using «certain types of typography and colors in his campaign's design that evoke references to Bollywood, but also a 70s aesthetic that connects with the social media audience that adores nostalgia and everything that evokes the past».
**Mamdani: A Street-Level Campaign**
The expert also notes that Mamdani's social media shows «a reflection» of the ground campaign organized by his 90,000 volunteers who go door-to-door.
«Because he is always seen on the street, talking to people, interacting with them, conversing, having relaxed conversations,» points out Ali.
Cheryl Payer, 85, who has lived in Greenwich Village since 1978, told EFE that this year was the first time a group of volunteers for a political candidate walked up four flights of stairs to talk about a candidate's political proposals, in this case, Mamdani's.
What surprised her most was that after opening the door and talking with them for a few minutes, they asked if she would like to campaign with them, an offer she declined by explaining she didn't feel like «climbing stairs all day».
Geo Peck, a young Canadian living in New York, told EFE that she has two friends, 25 and 30 years old, who did go door-to-door to present Mamdani's campaign.
«It's the first time they've done it, and they told me they got all their group of friends to do it with them,» notes Peck, who says they are doing it because Mamdani «could really change something and people have certain hopes pinned on him».
During the pandemic crisis, New Yorkers had pinned their hopes on Cuomo: his daily press conferences had thousands of followers, and people flooded social media with favorable content about the then-governor.
«(During that period) he spoke with people in a very direct way. It's notably different now, and I think it's noticeable in his social media presence that he no longer has that ability to connect, and I think he is genuinely confused, because before he could, but everything changed after the sexual harassment accusations against him,» notes Ali.
**The Double-Edged Sword of Using AI**
The expert also finds it interesting to see how Cuomo's campaign has used AI, a technology seen in marketing «as a sign of laziness».
The former governor has shared various videos on social media using this technology, including a clip generated by AI in which he is shown doing all kinds of jobs, such as driving a subway or cleaning a skyscraper.
However, the most controversial was the video in which, thanks to AI, he portrayed Mamdani's followers as criminals by showing a Black man with a keffiyeh stealing in a store, a white man abusing a woman, a mulatto pimp, and a white elderly woman drinking and driving, among other characters.
The video was deleted 20 minutes after it was posted, and according to Cuomo's campaign, the content «was posted by mistake».
