Electing the Image: Mamdani and the Mimetic Turn in Democracy | The American Spectator

As Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent mayoral campaign in New York City came to a dramatic close, René Girard’s mimetic theory offers a revealing lens through which to interpret the emotional and symbolic forces that shaped voter behavior. What began as a fringe candidacy with barely 1 percent support rapidly evolved into a political phenomenon. Within weeks, Mamdani surged ahead of the field by double digits — his momentum driven not merely by policy proposals, but by a contagious sense of identity and aspiration.

While critics have pointed to a wave of campaign donations from questionable sources as the reason for the surge, Mamdani’s rise cannot be explained solely by his war chest or his progressive platform, which included wealth taxes, free public transit, universal daycare, rent freezes, and police defunding. His true political strength lay in his ability to generate mimetic desire. Voters were not simply endorsing policies; they were invited to adopt a political identity that felt youthful, inclusive, and emotionally resonant. (RELATED: Mamdani’s Smoke and Mirrors)

This is precisely what makes Mamdani’s success so unsettling for the future of American politics. Envy has long played a role in populist appeals, but Mamdani’s campaign marked a shift: envy was elevated into mimetic aspiration. Supporters weren’t just aligning with a candidate; they were emulating a persona, transforming political allegiance into identity imitation. (RELATED: Mamdani Markets Envy to Sell a Marxist Utopia)

Mamdani’s campaign turned mimetic desire into a political art form. By appealing to working-class and marginalized communities and shaming elite privilege, he targeted rivals such as former Governor Andrew Cuomo, President Trump, and a long list of those he described as “corporate-backed” politicians. Through this dynamic, Mamdani became a master manipulator of voter emotion — encouraging people to desire the power and dignity they saw others enjoying. (RELATED: The Madman Cometh — And There’s Apparently No Stopping Him)

Girard’s mimetic theory suggests that desire is not autonomous but imitative. We want what others want, and this imitation breeds rivalry, envy, and even scapegoating. In the Mamdani campaign, voters began to desire the power and dignity they saw others enjoying, and envy became a mobilizing emotion. His savvy use of TikTok, multilingual outreach, and pop-culture aesthetics created a model of political engagement that was cool, inclusive, and emotionally resonant. (RELATED: New Yorkers Will Pay the Price for Mamdani’s Hubris)

One of his most successful campaign strategies was to choose to be videotaped eating chicken biryani or rice-based dishes with his hands. As one who is of South Asian and Ugandan descent, Mamdani used the act of eating to signal cultural rootedness and reject assimilationist expectations often imposed on immigrants. By doing so publicly, Mamdani challenged the idea that political legitimacy required conforming to Western norms. The act became a deliberate political statement and a successful strategic move that went viral, generating millions of views on social media as a deliberate political statement. In Girardian terms, Mamdani’s refusal to use a fork invited voters to imitate not just his policies but also his persona as someone who is unafraid to be different, to challenge norms, and to embrace cultural authenticity. The act of eating the rice dish became a symbol of resistance and emotional identification, especially among marginalized communities who often feel invisible in mainstream political discourse.

To maximize what was already an effective strategy, Mamdani made himself into a victim of elites by referencing those Republicans who mocked the way he ate. In an effective form of rage-baiting, Mamdani seemed to welcome the criticisms of his rivals in an effort to galvanize support among younger, progressive immigrant voters who saw the criticism as racist — and began to identify with Mamdani’s plight. In a speech outside a Bronx mosque on October 24, 2025, Mamdani referenced how political opponents mocked his eating style, saying that “Every day, Super PAC ads imply that I am a terrorist or mock the way I eat.” And in Girardian fashion, he connected this mockery to Islamophobic and xenophobic attacks, emphasizing how such indignities are part of the lived experience of many New Yorkers, especially Muslims and immigrants. (RELATED: Zohran Has Two Daddies)

Mamdani’s ability to dominate the digital discourse has infuriated and frustrated his opponents, who simply could not compete with his ability to connect with young voters. Even moderate Democrats see his popularity as a threat to their own status and legitimacy. Calling him dangerous, his unapologetic embrace of Muslim identity and multilingualism challenges dominant norms, inviting voters to imitate a new model of leadership.

It is clear that many voters support Mamdani not just because they agree with his policies but because they want to share in the symbolic power his campaign represents. In this way, it is a reversal of exclusion and a reclaiming of the space by those who were historically sidelined. In elevating mimetic desire into a political strategy, Mamdani did more than run a campaign — he crafted a cultural moment. His rise signals a new era in American politics, where emotional resonance, symbolic defiance, and identity imitation may prove more powerful than policy itself.

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