A do-it-yourself merch night was held for Zohran Mamdani supporters at Farm to People, an eatery in Brooklyn.
In Bedford-Stuyvesant, a 29-year-old welcomed new canvassing friends to his birthday gathering. In Flatbush, a 27-year-old fresh off a breakup gained a whole new social group. And in the East Village, a 24-year-old landed a date with another democratic socialist.
Addicted to their screens, strapped for cash, spiritually unmoored and socially stunted by the pandemic, young New Yorkers needed a reason to get out of the house. They found it in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral run.
Volunteering for Mr. Mamdani’s campaign became a salve for members of a generation diagnosed by thought leaders with anxiety and by the surgeon general with loneliness, whose religious affiliation is often unaffiliated and who also apparently killed drinking and having sex.
“It’s honestly what I would prescribe for the loneliness epidemic,” said Tal Frieden, 28, at a rally in Sunset Park the Sunday before Election Day.
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign wasn’t just about mobilizing, but socializing. And the social buoyancy of his campaign wasn’t just for show. Young people turned up and voted. The city’s roughly two-week stretch of early voting, which ended on Sunday, saw more than 735,000 residents cast ballots.
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