For Zohran Mamdani’s army of door-to-door canvassers, each shift brought new chances to connect with their fellow New Yorkers. Persuading voters to support their candidate was the goal. But for many the process also became its own reward as they go to know their community and their fellow volunteers.  “I thought it was something I should show up to do,” one canvasser told The Indypendent, “and I stayed because I actually just love talking to my neighbors.”

Izzy Sanchez

I live in Brooklyn, but I grew up in the Bronx. I felt a responsibility to my hometown and started leading shifts there. One Wednesday evening a few weeks before the election, we were going around in a circle introducing ourselves. There’s this middle-aged mom who is there with her daughter who is like 9 or 10, and they’re both wearing a lot of Zohran merch. And I’m like, “You brought your daughter” and she was like “Yeah, this is her second or third canvas.” They were at Zohran’s big rally in May at Brooklyn Steel and every time she talks to people about it, she says, “I really hope he wins.”

It was a big moment for me to see as a brown person, as a person who has been racialized, to see that the coalition has been built. It’s not just white kids. It’s not just transplants. It’s moms. It’s immigrants. It’s just people who want a slightly more affordable city. That really moved me. 

Coincidentally, at that same canvas, I met someone who had gone to the same college as one of my ex-girlfriends. Everything felt very full circle – that our opponents can throw all their money and negative ads at us, but we’re actually building something that can beat that. 

Amanda Vender

Something that made canvassing for Zohran special was the enthusiasm of youth. When I had to choose which buzzer to ring first to enter a building, I consulted the MiniVan app on my phone and always went with a voter under 35 because I knew they’d be a likely supporter and let me in. At one door in Sunnyside, two children around 6 and 8 years old answered the door. I introduced myself and asked for the parents. “Our parents aren’t home,” one said, “but we want our parents to vote for Zohran!” 

I also had many good conversations with people while canvassing and sometimes I was able to change some minds. For example, at a door in Woodside the day before the election, I talked with a young mom who told me, “I was just going to vote for Cuomo as I liked his briefings during the pandemic, but I’d like to hear what you have to say.” She listened to me talk about Zohran’s platform, his background, and why I trust him over Cuomo. I couldn’t get a final commitment from her, but in the end, I recorded her as a “Lean Zohran.” 

On election day after being up since 5:30am, I stood at the Jackson Heights subway at 8:10pm with my Zohran for NYC sign, wondering how much more my legs could take. But then a large family coming from a graduation walked by. “Yay Zohran!” the graduate said. And then she said, “Oh wait, we have to go vote!” They all turned and headed to the poll. 

Katie Wawro

I started in February or March, and initially I went every Thursday evening as a weekly activity and then intensified around the end of May. Our Thursday group kept growing and growing until the final Thursday we had over 60 people signed up that day. 

If you told me I was going to knock on my neighbors’ doors and talk to them about politics, that sounds like a nightmare, especially in New York. I don’t want people to knock on my door. It’s annoying. But what I found was that I loved my neighbors a lot more during and after this election, and it was because of all the conversations I had with folks here in Astoria who I had never talked to previously. 

It wasn’t necessarily big, deep political conversations. When I wore a Springsteen shirt, people would talk to me about how much the album The Rising meant to them after 9/11. Or, we would say “Zohran wants to expand childcare” and I can’t tell you how many grandparents were elated to show me photos of their grandkids who they don’t want to see leave the city because it’s unaffordable. And I was like “I want you to be able to, like, have your grandkids in the city too. I want your kids to be able to afford to raise a family here.” 

A lot of conversations I had were with folks who certainly are not radicals. You would not necessarily think they would be getting in the booth and voting for a man named Zohran Mandani, who is a Democratic socialist. They are the people who registered as Democrats probably 40 years ago and are actually, like, pretty conservative. They have kids and maybe own their homes, but recognize it’s hard to get by in the city. I started canvassing, because I thought it was something I should show up to do, and I stayed because I actually just love talking to my neighbors. 

Magdalena M.

I moved to Astoria last year, but I’m originally from Ridgewood, Queens and still have family ties there. When Zohran told me last year he was running on fast and free buses, I was entirely on board. Ridgewood is a transit desert. The M train sucks. The Q39 sucks. It barely runs. I love the bus. It’s obviously the only way to get to a lot of parts of Queens. It’s something that working class people rely on. So fast and free buses, I think would be life changing for my aunt and life changing for me.

I started canvassing in January and became the field lead for the Thursday night canvassing shift in Astoria. My favorite canvassing partner joined us because Zohran had helped her mom from getting evicted from her home during COVID. Now, she wanted to help him. She was super nervous when she started but ended up loving canvassing. She was a natural and when she shared her story about Zohran at the door, people paid attention to that. She liked learning about the policies, and loved talking about the rent freeze and government-run grocery stores that could offer low-cost groceries in places that are currently food deserts. 

The people I got to meet, the people I got to train up to be leaders that were developed through this campaign, the amount of people who canvassed for the first time ever and then became regulars or have already been texting me about canvassing again, has been amazing. I want to canvass places we haven’t canvassed before. But first, I would love to take a summer break.

Jose Sanchez

I am a gay Afro-Puerto Rican man. My first protest was Occupy Wall Street when I was a senior in high school and I would come over from New Jersey. New York City DSA has been my political home since after Bernie’s first presidential run. I canvassed for Zohran in Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and Williamsburg. I started canvassing in February. It was so cold I was wearing a pea coat and gloves. At first, I was like “there’s no way he’s going to win.” It was around that time we were canvassing in a NYCHA building and we helped carry an elderly Black woman up the stairs in her wheelchair after the elevator got stuck. 

As we got closer to primary day, we were getting 80% positive responses from the people we canvassed. It seemed too good to be true. The older people were more pro-Cuomo, but the newer buildings that were full of transplants were for Zohran. One young voter mentioned Israel explicitly. He was like, “I don’t like that. We’re spending so much money for Israel, and we’re not getting anything, and that’s why I’m voting for Zohran.”

On primary day, I was doing pollsite visibility and sweat was just dripping down my face. It seemed like almost everyone was for Zohran. This one person was like “I voted already. Do you want my water?” and she poured the water from her container into mine. 

Dylan Halper

I canvassed for the first time last year after high school graduation when DSA ran Claire Valdez for a state assembly seat in Queens. When I came back from college in May, I started canvassing for Zohran. When I realized he really could win, I stepped it up. I participated in 28 canvasses as either a canvasser or as a field lead, whose job is to coordinate a canvass and make sure everyone has the supplies and support they need. 

My favorite part was seeing the slow progression from early May, when people at the doors were like, “Oh, I don’t know who that is” to the end, when they were like, “I’ve seen him on TV” and were ready to engage. I canvassed in a bunch of different neighborhoods, including Bed-Stuy, Sunnyside, Astoria and the East Village, and Zohran’s message resonated for people everywhere across race and class.  

I really like canvassing in the East Village. It has a mix of every type of building. You have doorman buildings. You have big buildings with buzzers. You have six-story walk-ups and also some multi-family units. It was easy to talk to younger folks who were more tapped in already.  A lot of older residents in the East Village live in rent-stabilized apartments and might be the only ones in their buildings who are rent-stabilized. The rent freeze really spoke to them.

Pete Sikora

I’m a busy dad to two. It’s not easy for me to make it to canvas shifts. Instead, I painted “Don’t Vote for Cuomo” and “Mamdani for Mayor” signs and set up a table in front of my building. I work mostly from home for New York Communities for Change, so I could just come down and set the table up and talk to everyone who went by while sitting on my stoop for an hour or three. I did that 3 or 4 days a week for about 6 weeks.

I live in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, an affluent liberal and anti-Cuomo area. My aim was to increase turnout, drive down Cuomo’s marginal support, and push Mamdani, especially to potentially skeptical liberals. 

I know I directly persuaded people by talking to them. Also, being a 50 year old dad-looking guy just sitting on his stoop chatting to everyone passing by helped create a local vibe – and moved votes.

I could tell that we were in a position to potentially win because under-50 year olds were psyched, where usually younger or young-ish voters are only a little checked in. After the election, it was really fun. Just the day after I probably had like 15 people – most of whom I don’t know – tell me congratulations or fist pump from across the street or something. Someone even left a thank you note on our building’s door. I also met a lot of neighbors. People really appreciated the effort. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise: one-to-one contact works!

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