New York Climate Activists Are a Key Part of Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign

NEW YORK—For 16 hours on primary election day in June, Michael Magazine, a Sunrise Movement climate activist, stood outside George Washington Carver Elementary School in Brooklyn, urging anyone he could to rank Zohran Mamdani as a choice for mayor in the Democratic primary. Between conversations with City Council District 41 voters, he checked his heat-index thermometer: The real-feel temperature had blown past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The absurdity of canvassing for 16 hours during an oppressive heat wave is a testament not only to the increasing impact of heat on elections or the need for swift climate action, but to many New York climate organizers’ dedication to the Mamdani campaign.

Mamdani, the headline-grabbing Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman who would go on to upset legacy politician Andrew Cuomo once all the votes were tabulated in the city’s ranked choice voting system, has been able to galvanize support from climate activists, young and old. 

Now, as the general election approaches, climate activists have taken to the streets of all five boroughs—determined to turn street-level organizing into a decisive show of political power.

Mamdani has not made climate change a central issue in his campaign, at least not by name. But his defining message, affordability, has resonated with climate activists across the city. 

“Affordability is so intertwined with the climate movement,” said Magazine, 20, Sunrise NYC’s lead of elective partnerships. It is tied to housing vulnerabilities during heat waves and flooding, and accessible public transportation, which is one of the city’s largest decarbonization assets, Magazine said. 

Fueled by hope for change and belief in Mamdani’s policies, Sunrise NYC has knocked on more than 20,000 doors since endorsing him in early spring. Some of their most dedicated volunteers have each surpassed 1,000 doors knocked, flyers in hand, determined to turn conversations into votes.

Sunrise NYC wasn’t alone—Mamdani has racked up a slate of endorsements from NYC’s most prominent climate groups. Four days before the primary election, 350 Action, the political action arm of the organization famed climate activist Bill McKibben co-founded, endorsed Mamdani as their top candidate. The New York City working group of Third Act, McKibben’s newer group for activists over 60, has also supported Mamdani’s campaign.

On July 16, the group officially endorsed Mamdani in the general election. 

Now, Third Act is gearing up to start its canvassing efforts, said Shannon Pollock, a member of Third Act since its inception and a coordinator for the NYC working group. “We are going to bring out the troops to campaign for Mamdani on the Upper West Side,” Pollock said. 

The group is targeting the Upper West Side since many of the more than 500 Third Act NYC members live in the area and it was one of the areas in Manhattan where Cuomo beat Mamdani. 

Third Act also has another clear line of attack: Flip their own generation’s vote. While Mamdani built historic levels of support among younger voters, Cuomo received many of his votes from older New Yorkers. Pollock suspects that older voters were drawn to Cuomo due to experience and name recognition. 

“A key component of our campaign is to get experienced Americans who are mostly retired, who have been through the wars, and who understand the critical importance of having a progressive NYC mayor out to the polls,” Pollock said. And, to get experienced voters, who may not be as receptive to progressive politics, to understand that climate disasters are coming and Mamdani is better equipped to handle them, he said. 

Another large climate group in the city, New York Communities for Change (NYCC), a grassroots organization fighting at the intersection of climate and housing justice in underserved Black and Latino communities, was a day-one endorsement for Mamdani. 

“We were inspired by Mamdani’s vision to fight for an NYC that our members can live in, and that includes climate change,” says Pete Sikora, a climate campaign strategist at NYCC. “There’s a huge difference between Andrew Cuomo, who is financed by the city’s top polluters, and Zohran Mamdani, who has a record of fighting for climate justice.” That record includes a winning campaign against a proposed natural gas plant in Astoria, Queens. 

For six weeks leading up to the primary, Sikora spent a few hours each day outside his apartment building, sitting behind a folding table draped with a banner that read, “Don’t Rank Cuomo.” As neighbors passed by, he stopped them to talk about Cuomo’s contentious record and to patiently explain Mamdani’s policies.

Backed by more than 20,000 members, NYCC has become a driving force behind Mamdani’s campaign, reaching 30,000 voters by phone and knocking on 7,500 doors. 

Mamdani has earned support from an unlikely climate group, too. Climate Defiance, a nonviolent direct action group that tends to avoid electoral politics, decided to endorse Mamdani in the primary and general elections. 

“Mamdani is the only candidate we have ever endorsed outside of a presidential race,” said Michael Greenberg, the founder and leader of Climate Defiance. 

Greenberg and Mamdani’s relationship predates the young politician’s rapid rise to the political main stage. 

“He stood with me and Climate Defiance before it was fashionable,” said Greenberg. In December of 2023, Mamdani attended one of Climate Defiance’s first major events, a fundraiser for former congresswoman Cori Bush and then-congressman Jamaal Bowman.  

In the heat of his primary campaign, Mamdani gave the keynote address at Climate Defiance’s Earth Day dinner this past April. 

“It was a great honor that he was willing to come,” said Greenberg. 

“He stood with me and Climate Defiance before it was fashionable.”

— Michael Greenberg, Climate Defiance

The goal of the night was to build community and to raise funds since Climate Defiance is funded through grassroots support. During his speech, Mamdani discussed the connections between class justice and the climate movement. 

Although Mamdani won broad climate activists support, the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) gave Cuomo his sole environmental endorsement. In its May endorsement statement, the league co-endorsed Cuomo and Comptroller Brad Lander, citing Cuomo’s instrumental role in passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. NYLCV has not updated its endorsements since the primary. 

Climate Policy: Mamdani’s Trojan Horse 

Despite Mamdani winning the Democratic primary, mobilizing 50,000 volunteers and maxing out campaign fundraising by March, high-ranking Democratic Party officials have refused to endorse the assemblyman. 

Top New York State Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul are among the holdouts. Both New York senators endorsed one of Mamdani’s competitors, sitting Mayor Eric Adams, in 2021. Adams is running in November’s general election as an independent, as is Cuomo.

Climate activists like Greenberg and Magazine see this unwillingness to endorse Mamdani as indicative of a Democratic Party deeply divided between progressives and centrists, young voters and older, established elected officials. 

“Top-level Democratic elites, by not embracing Mamdani after the primaries, have shown the disconnect between the party and their base,” said Magazine. “They are a party beholden to a lot of the same corporate elite as the Republicans.” 

Democratic leadership’s ambivalence toward Mamdani is especially infuriating to these activists, as they believe that focusing on affordability and equity is both a winning campaign strategy and a climate justice strategy. 

According to national polls, in the top 20 campaign issues of the 2024 presidential election, climate change was nowhere to be found. 

“This doesn’t mean that people are not concerned about climate change,” said Pollock. “There are a lot of issues pertaining to the climate crisis that everyday people and even climate activists struggle to understand including carbon offsets, coal bonds and divestment. But people understand public transit, electrified buildings and safe schools.” 

Mamdani may have shown party leadership that climate policies can be slipped into popular social programs and affordability initiatives—like a Trojan horse filled with renewable energy and climate resiliency. 

“Democratic leaders need to get with the program, and that program right now is, we’re not going to let working-class families suffer,” said Magazine. And that program extends beyond affordability and climate resiliency. According to Magazine, it includes taking a stronger stance on deportations and Gaza—which have their own significant environmental impacts.

The Closing Stretch

A Wick poll released on July 22 shows Mamdani has maintained his lead despite the Democratic leadership holdout and Cuomo’s decision to reenter the campaign as an Independent. In the current four-way race, Mamdani sits at 39 percent, Cuomo 21 percent, Republican Curtis Sliwa 19 percent and incumbent Mayor Adams at 9 percent. But in a theoretical two-way race, Mamdani and Cuomo are statistically tied.

After a two-week break of rest and “time in the sun,” Magazine and the Sunrise Movement NYC Hub are gearing up for their general election efforts. Magazine sees their role as two-fold, continuing their grassroots campaign and fighting growing pushback against Mamdani from Republicans, Cuomo and the media.

In addition to personal attacks, Mamdani has received critiques from all angles regarding the feasibility of his climate and affordability plans—but activists are not concerned. 

Many of Mamdani’s key policies, including freezing rent, cracking down on and enforcing Local Law 97—the city act requiring the decarbonization of buildings—and creating a Department of Community Safety, are all achievable at the city level. But other promises, like tax hikes for the rich and free buses, require action in the state capital. 

“The point of a campaign like Mamdani’s is to generate enough of a movement to get things passed,” Magazine said. “There needs to be a follow-through of a movement [if Mamdani wins] where we don’t just stop at getting someone elected, but actually hold them accountable for the following four years.” 

This follow-through movement, he said, would involve placing pressure on the New York State Assembly and Senate and Hochul, to make Mamdani’s promises become policies. 

While fears of climate policy reversal at the federal level have been realized, and compounding global crises weigh heavily on these activists, Mamdani’s campaign has been a source of hope, joy and community. 

“It truly is a trying time for us all,” Magazine said. “I’m so proud to be a part of a diverse movement that actually cares for the people of New York City.”

As New York City barrels toward election day, Mamdani’s campaign has become more than a bid for City Hall.

For the climate activists knocking doors in the heat, it is a test of whether a city battered by rising temperatures can choose a future shaped by urgent climate action and guided by justice. In Mamdani, they see a generational talent capable of sparking a broader fight to entwine resilience and equity into the fabric of the city’s future.