As the 2026 election cycle gets underway, advisers to a new crop of candidates are drawing lessons from Zohran Mamdani on how to activate young voters and potentially change the electorate.

A Gothamist analysis of turnout data shows voters between ages 30 and 39 made up the largest share of a record-setting 2 million voters. Turnout among 18- to 29-year-old voters nearly tripled compared to four years ago, the largest increase of any age group.

Mamdani has said he persuaded those groups by not patronizing them. But now advisers are wrestling with whether Mamdani’s success getting young people to the polls represents a paradigm shift or a moment that can’t be recreated.

“I don’t think this is a Mamdani-specific moment,” said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist and partner at Slingshot S

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