Long before Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s 112th mayor, he understood that if you want to reach young voters, you need to meet them online.
Now, in classic Mamdani style, the mayor has taken that strategy even further. On Thursday, Polygon exclusively revealed that Mamdani is launching a recurring livestream series on Twitch titled “Talk to people“, which will premiere on Thursday, May 21 at 4:10 pm ET, where he will answer questions directly from viewers via Twitch chat. It will also be simulcast on YouTube, tiktok, instagram, Facebook, unknownand blue sky.
More than 10,000 people tuned in to the initial broadcast as Mamdani answered viewers’ questions live via Twitch chat, creating a rare direct line between a politician and an online audience. A surprise addition to the broadcast was an influencer. Moosewho joked around with Mamdani and helped him navigate Twitch culture, even teaching him how to address viewers like “chat.”
Whether Twitch is the right platform for serious political conversations is still up for debate, but it created a relaxed environment where Mamdani connected with viewers because they wanted a Knicks win and debated the best tacos in New York, with shout-outs to Los Tacos No. 1 and Taqueria Ramírez. There were also some serious discussions, such as raising taxes on the rich and his push for free, faster public buses, including plans focused on speeding up routes by six minutes.
Overall, it was a good first introduction to Mamdani’s Twitch career and says a lot about the changing relationship between politics and the internet. Younger audiences are increasingly consuming political information through creators, streamers, podcasts and online personalities rather than traditional media.
In particular, Twitch has evolved far beyond gaming in recent years, becoming a surprisingly influential political platform where audiences watch discussions about current events in real time, as influencers like Hasan Piker. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez He became famous for embracing the platform in 2020 when he joined Among Us livestreams aimed at encouraging young people to vote.
In a statement to Polygon, Mamdani said: “By launching the country’s first recurring multi-platform stream hosted by an elected official, where I will answer questions from New Yorkers live on Twitch, we are opening a direct line of conversation between our government and the people, especially the younger generations who have been ignored for too long.”
Yesterday, Mamdani advanced the advance instagram with the legend: “05/21/26. 4:10 pm Live.” Moving on to the next image gave fans a bigger clue with an image of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous fireside chats, the radio broadcasts FDR used to speak directly to Americans in their homes.
The comparison seems deliberate. Just as Roosevelt embraced radio as the defining communications technology of his era, Mamdani seems determined to bridge the gap between government and the public by showing up where people now spend much of their time online.
The new livestream series is a trademark of Mamdani, whose political rise has been closely tied to social media from the beginning. Before becoming mayor, he earned a reputation in New York politics as a chronically online elected official. As a member of the New York State Assembly representing Astoria, Mamdani became known for informal videos that explained housing policy, traffic issues and affordability in plain language. His clips regularly went viral among younger voters who would normally overlook traditional political messages.
Over time, Mamdani has built one of the strongest social media followings in American urban politics, amassing more than 15 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and X.
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