“As-salamu alaykum,” Zohran Mamdani, 28, a socialist candidate for New York State Assembly, says at almost every door. It’s an Arabic salutation meaning “Peace be upon you.” It strikes me as an extremely reassuring way to begin a conversation with a stranger, especially when you’ve just interrupted them at home. Even when people don’t want to talk with us about politics, they tend to respond pleasantly.

That particular February night, we were seeking out Muslims who were registered voters but had not registered as Democrats, as it was the last week for such voters to change their registration and be eligible to vote in New York’s Democratic primaries, whether for Bernie Sanders in April or for Mamdani in June.

While arguing to all the district’s voters that they need a zealous affordable housing advocate to represent them in the state assembly, Mamdani, who has been endorsed by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), has also been making the case to Astoria’s Muslim and South Asian communities that they are underrepresented. It’s not a hard case to make: while close to a million Muslims live in New York City, there are hardly any in elected office. Mamdani would be the second Muslim elected to the state assembly. And New York has never had a South Asian elected official; Mamdani, if elected, will be the first.