"Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. It's a crisp fall evening in Woodside, Queens, a few weeks before the New York City mayoral election. The sun has just started to set and I'm standing with two canvassers on the front porch of a home with worn white paint and bright red steps, waiting for someone to come out and talk to us about Zohran Mamdani."
"Woodside, a mostly working-class neighborhood with large Asian and Hispanic populations, swung 12 points toward Donald Trump in the 2024 election, earning him 39 percent of its overall vote. (For comparison, the city as a whole shifted 7 points toward Trump.) I wanted to tag along here with some canvassers for Mamdani-who Trump paints as an unhinged radical leftist, dubbing him "my little communist"-to see what people here made of him."
"Tonight, I'm shadowing Elly Mui, who's been with the campaign since January-first as a paid canvasser in the run-up to the primary, which Mamdani won in a surprise upset, and as a volunteer ever since. Mamdani's attempts to engage with Trump voters are one of the first things that impressed her about him. It spoke to her, she said, that he was asking people why they voted for Trump and seemed to be earnestly trying to understand their reasons and respond with solutions."
A canvass team visits a Woodside, Queens home on a crisp fall evening weeks before the New York City mayoral election. Woodside is mostly working-class with large Asian and Hispanic populations and swung 12 points toward Donald Trump in 2024, giving him 39 percent of the vote. Zohran Mamdani faces portrayals as a radical leftist from Trump while his campaign seeks to engage across political divides. Elly Mui, a long-time campaign canvasser, emphasizes Mamdani's effort to ask Trump voters why they voted and to respond with concrete solutions. Multilingual flyers and targeted outreach aim to connect with diverse residents.
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