“When people say buses can never be free,” says socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, smiling, “don’t ask them to take a hike. Ask them to take the ferry.”

The video, with beautiful footage of New York Harbor from the Staten Island Ferry — “the best way to see the Statue of Liberty,” says the assemblyman who recently described himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare” — and the throng of New Yorkers from all walks of life boarding the ferry, quickly reveals its point: the iconic and heavily trafficked commuter boat is free and has been since 1997. The video offered an inviting and aesthetic defense of one of Mamdani’s key campaign promises, fast and free buses — as well as, almost in passing, an introduction to Mamdani himself and his worldview.

Socialist senator Bernie Sanders is often credited with changing American political culture by running for president in 2016 and 2020, convincing many that we need and can achieve democratic socialism. But a less-discussed aspect of Sanders’s legacy is his media strategy, which he sees as a crucial way to spread his pro-worker message and advance his political program.

In 2018, New York magazine wrote about Sanders’s “mini media empire.” By then, the senator was already using his high profile to make “Bernie TV,” media that could counter “establishment” media by hosting an interview show, occasionally turning down media requests in favor of posting his own video commentary (on, for example, Trump’s first address to Congress), and streaming town-hall style programs to Facebook Live. His live media events drew bigger audiences than CNN.

Mamdani’s paean to the Staten Island Ferry is a beautiful and uplifting video — as well as informative, with archival photos of the ferry when it cost five cents. It’s also just one example of how Mamdani’s campaign has clearly learned from and been inspired by Sanders’s example on media production. The Mamdani campaign releases videos constantly, on issues from free buses to rent stabilization to changing your voter registration. He also makes videos speaking the languages of New York’s many communities, including Spanish and Bengali.

He goes where people want to be. During the Knicks playoffs, he interviewed New Yorkers in front of Madison Square Garden, about the cost of living. Candidly admitting that he could not deliver everything people wanted — the mayor, for example, does not unfortunately have the power to bring down Knicks playoff ticket prices — he talked about freezing the rent with young men who admitted they were struggling to afford their own place, people who love the city but felt the cost of living “sucks.”

At times, like Bernie TV, the Mamdani campaign goes beyond campaigning to provide the kind of information and even reporting that is lacking in the mainstream media. Last November, just after Trump won his election, there was much Democratic consternation about the working-class neighborhoods that had swung red that year. But few journalists actually went to such places and asked people why they voted for Trump.

Mamdani did that. He went to Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Avenue in the Bronx, two areas that saw some of the biggest shifts away from the Democrats. It’s a powerful and informative video, featuring a diverse group of New Yorkers of all ages who look nothing like the dominant stereotype of a Trump voter. Many did so in despair over the war in Gaza.

One man said, “Either side will send bombs from here to kill my brothers and sisters.” Another agreed, “A lot of people are dying.” Others had had it with inflation, saying they were struggling to afford food, gas, rent, and other necessities.

What would the Bernie Sanders media empire look like if the socialist senator was young, a world citizen and polyglot with a handsome face and a sense of fun? One answer is Mamdani’s YouTube.

His videos draw tens of thousands of views. The Knicks video was seen by more than 600,000 people on X/Twitter alone. A video this winter in which he plunged into the water at Coney Island to dramatize that he was “freezing . . . the rent,” then talked about his affordable housing policies, attracted more than 800,000 views across platforms at a time when no one was paying any attention to any local elections.

I’m freezing… your rent as the next mayor of New York City.

Let’s plunge into the details. pic.twitter.com/KM0TAU4dde

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) January 2, 2025

Even Mamdani’s enemies grudgingly acknowledge his game in this area. State senator Jessica Ramos, one of his rivals in the mayoral primary who has run as a progressive but recently endorsed disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo, said bitterly in a recent Democratic mayoral candidates’ debate that she didn’t run in 2022 but, taking a jab at Mamdani, said, “I thought I needed more experience. But turns out you just need to make good videos.” Cuomo sang a similarly bitter tune in the most recent mayoral debate: “Mr Mamdani is very good on Twitter, with videos,” he grumbled before going on to denigrate his rival’s supposedly short list of legislative achievements. This is the kind of public whining that two public figures who know they’re getting beaten on a certain front tend to engage in.

Finding ways to circumvent traditional media and bring information directly to the public becomes even more important when in office. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes frequent Instagram Live videos, with an intimacy that is different from Mamdani’ or Sanders. She invites constituents, virtually, to make macaroni and cheese with her while she talks about Shirley Chisholm, or to get updates on student loan policy. She processes emotional national issues like climate doomerism, the January 6 riot, or Joe Biden’s age — or weighs in on matters of urgent political strategy, like “what you can do to save Medicaid.”

Like Mamdani, AOC has the looks and charisma for this platform, and also the right instincts, chatting about her plant as people log on, greeting arrivals warmly as if they’ve come over to her house. Also like Mamdani, AOC is not always of interest to a mainstream media that doesn’t share her politics, but she’s found a way to welcome people aboard while controlling the narrative.

Another good model is Mexican leftist president Claudia Sheinbaum, who faces a hostile media ecosystem despite her massive popularity. She holds a press conference every day, first thing in the morning, allowing her version of events to dominate the news cycle and refute false stories. This practice results in constant press coverage, with her point of view — whether on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the United States, the Los Angeles protests, Trump’s tariffs, the assassination last month of two of her staff members, the “Gulf of America,” or Mexico’s declining homicide rate — prominently reported.

Mamdani has also acknowledged learning from Chi Ossé, a New York City councilman who is also a skilled communicator who has drawn attention from New York magazine. He made, among many others, a series of videos called “Why Shit Not Working,” covering the city’s lack of public bathrooms, how to address the infestation of rats, and much more. These mini-documentaries draw tens of thousands of views (the bathroom video surpassed 100,000 on TikTok alone), extraordinary numbers for a city councilman who is not running for any higher office.

There’s been a lot of liberal hand-wringing on how to break through to people given the right-wing media ecosystem, “disinformation,” and the capture of social media. Of particular concern are young men, a group that has been moving to the right, thanks in part to the right-wing influencers in what’s known as the “manosphere.” Democrats have been having some cringe conversations on this topic. But while the mainstream Democrats remain mired in misandry and alienation from this group, their problem is being solved capably by some on the Left.

Sanders enjoyed so much support among young men that “Bernie Bro” became a term of derision. Mamdani and AOC also have support among this group. A recent Data for Progress poll found that Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Zohran Mamdani all enjoyed “very favorable” impressions among men, actually more than among women (AOC’s is a ten-point advantage). In one poll, men favored Mamdani by 53 percent, young voters favored him by 61 percent, and young men by even more. And he dominates the mayoral race among the notoriously Trump-pilled young white male demographic.

Obviously, the dynamics of age and gender are complicated. But it seems clear that young people, especially men, are heavily influenced by what information and conversations they find online, making online media especially important in reaching this group.

Of course, there’s more to winning elections and rebuilding the Left than media. If Mamdani wins, his personality, platform, and field operations will have played an even bigger role than his videos — and he’ll need much more than all of those things to govern effectively and transformatively. But as Bernie Sanders told New York magazine in 2018, speaking of his own media operation, this sort of media reach is something that everyone left of center should be watching.

At the time, he was “a bit incredulous” that more people weren’t emulating it. “I would think any serious political person would be thinking about this,” he said, “Why would you not?” It seems clear that Zohran Mamdani is.