Zohran Mamdani could be New York's next mayor. His path has been part Barack Obama, part Donald Trump

By Americas editor John Lyons, in New York

Photo: ANDRES KUDACKI / Getty Images via AFP

The battle for generational change in the United States is on and it's taking place in New York City.

When 7.30 visits Harlem on a cold autumn evening 22-year-old Durga Sreenivasan is standing on a footpath in the chill wind fighting for every vote she can for Zohran Mamdani, a man who may be about to deliver the country a political earthquake.

Sreenivasan is a campaign organiser for Mamdani, who, if the polls prove correct, is set to make history by becoming the first Muslim Mayor of New York City, at 34 years of age.

He is also the son of immigrants and a Democratic socialist - but more importantly, he is making an impact.

Rarely has any election in the US outside a presidential campaign held as much interest around the world as this one. Foreign media crews are crawling all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, trying to work out what it is about this man that has the whole country talking.

Mamdani has also captured the imagination of those from the more traditional side of the Democrats such as Karine Jean-Pierre, for three years the spokesperson for president Joe Biden.

Jean-Pierre is adamant that any risk Mamdani represents due to a lack of experience in managing anything, let alone a city, may be worth taking.

"I think sometimes you have to go unconventional in order to make change," Jean-Pierre says.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

For her the spectre of change brings up a positive memory.

"I worked on the Barack Obama presidential election in 2008. That was hope and change. And he excited young people.