\Despite withholding his endorsement from Mamdani for months following the latter’s successful primary race, Jeffries was quick to adopt the now mayor’s language, releasing a video the day after the NYC mayoral primary declaring affordability a central Democratic issue. “The cost of living is way too high,” he posted on X on June 25, 2025. “It’s time to build an affordable economy where everyday Americans can live the good life. Not just a dream. A reality.”

The California governor and Democratic presidential hopeful has taken all the wrong pages from Mamdani’s playbook, including a sudden laser focus on streamers as the gatekeepers of the youth vote. No doubt inspired by Mamdani’s 31 podcast appearances and viral interviews with streamers like Hasan Piker, the 58-year-old Newsom visited the TwitchCon partner lounge in October 2025 to hold “meetings with Twitch streamers about how to reach young voters.” Newsom has also been hosting his own podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, which opened with a conversation with Charlie Kirk and has gone on to feature interviews with everyone from Bill Clinton to Steve Bannon.

The 25-year-old cofounder of the Invisible Hands nonprofit announced his plans to run for the House seat Jerry Nadler will vacate this fall with a two-minute, Zohran-esque video of himself walking the streets of NYC and riding its subways with a handheld microphone. But Elkind, whose campaign bio leads with his time as a Rhodes Scholar, is not exactly a man of the people. A liberal Zionist who openly ranked Mamdani at the bottom of his ranked-choice ballot, Elkind pays lip service to affordability in his platform while otherwise highlighting his only meaningful difference from Nadler: 53 years of age.