The Big Thing Dems Can't Forget About AOC and Mamdani's Digital Success

It's a lesson digital fundraisers seem to have ignored

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) was first elected a little over six years ago. In a matter of weeks, journalists like David Perry were admiring her as “the first major politician whose rise to prominence came through live video chats and disappearing Instagram stories.”

Perry’s piece in the Pacific Standard noted what he called AOC’s mastery of “the politics of digital intimacy.” “Her followers feel as if they are being invited into her life,” Perry noted, “participating with her as she enters the halls of Congress as an outsider, sharing in her triumphs and cheering as she overcomes obstacles.”

A year later, an INC magazine headline dubbed Ocasio-Cortez “the queen of digital emotional intelligence.” And the accolades for her authentic communication skills and ability to leverage social media channels like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok continue to mount.

Now, of course, following his stunning New York victory, Mahmoud Mamdani’s mastery of digital media is being lauded as a model for Democrats struggling to navigate the modern, attention-centered media ecosystem.

But here’s the thing: Too much of the commentary about their amazing digital acumen leaves out a very important element.

AOC and Mamdani’s power of persuasion doesn’t stem just from their digital communications skills. Those talents wouldn’t matter nearly as much if they weren’t deployed to convey compelling, substantive ideas and to generate real world support for those ideas.

Mamdani didn’t just make a fun video diving into the freezing waters off Coney Island. He used that video to communicate and engage people in support of his call for a freeze on rents.

His constant stream of videos didn’t just amuse. They communicated.

Here’s how Jonathan Nagler, a politics professor at New York University put it:

“If you ask voters, ‘Why did you vote for Mamdani?’ ... I don’t think they’re going to tell us, ‘Oh, because I saw some cute thing on social media,’ I think they’re going to say what actually influenced them is because they learned something on social media about policies he had that mattered to them.”

It’s that combination of engaging technique and genuine substance that matters. And that’s what other candidates have to carry into 2026.

On the fundraising side of things, Democratic digital efforts have been marked by a failure to understand this fundamental communications principle:

Using techniques in support of a compelling message is powerful and persuasive. But using techniques in place of a compelling message is a recipe for failure.

Whatever we do, we can’t let digital campaigning and organizing go the way of digital fundraising.