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Mayor Zohran Mamdani rode into Gracie Mansion on a social media wave — and he’s keeping his influencer friends close.
A bombshell Columbia Journalism Review study found that Mamdani’s administration maintains a secret Signal chat with roughly 200 influencers, where the terminally online creators get the inside scoop — or marching orders — from City Hall.
Here’s a look at four influencers that CJR confirmed to be in the covert chat, along with others who were part of a group that spawned it.
Public school teacher Sari Beth Rosenberg — who also works as a digital content strategist for the American Federation of Teachers — touts that she educates about “history behind the headlines” to more than 420,000 followers across several social media platforms.
Rosenberg, aka @saribethrose, is part of Mamdani’s group chat, telling CJR researchers that she views herself as providing information that’s no longer easily available as local news dwindles.
“A lot of people are too busy to seek out news about New York City but they might follow my content or someone else’s, and might engage with it more, so that it’s going to pop up on their feed more,” she told the researchers.
The outspoken educator, 51, on Wednesday posted an “EXCLUSIVE” interview with Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, giving them a platform to promote the admin’s one-year moratorium on generative AI in public schools.
Nile Berry posts deep dives on the Big Apple’s future, real estate and economics to 109,000 followers on his @urbanexplained Instagram account.
The influencer’s audience is primarily 25- to 40-year-old men who work in finance and real estate, the CJR study reported.
Berry, 34, also received direct access to Mamdani, posting he met with the mayor to discuss the administration’s “Block by Block” housing plan to build 200,000 housing units in the city.
But Berry claimed he’s not a mindless Mamdani booster, noting his criticism of the mayor’s city-run grocery store proposal and rollout of a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes.
“Sometimes I’m pro what the mayor’s up to, other times I’m outwardly critical of it,” he said. “To their credit they are holding on to people who are not always in alignment.”
A former preschool teacher turned Bronx lifestyle creator, Diego León boasts nearly 46,000 Instagram followers for his @dandyinthebronx handle. His content typically combines menswear, Boogie Down businesses, travel, food and Pokémon.
But León, 40, also did a paid city Department of Sanitation promotion, according to the CJR report.
In an April 1 Facebook post he told his followers to vote in Mamdani’s “Municipal Madness” bracket for what New Yorkers most want cleaned up in the city.
“I’m voting to Clean up Illegal Dumping right here in Soundview,” he said on the video. “Every fix on the bracket is getting done eventually, but the winning neighborhood gets their project completed by the mayor himself by his 100th day in office.”
The Soundview cleanup eventually won and Mamdani did show up — only to flake out and bounce 15 minutes after a photo op.
José Vilson, an education activist and Columbia Teachers College adjunct, offers his thoughts on racial justice, politics and New York City to more than 12,000 Instagram followers on his @thejosevilson account.
He told CJR researchers that Signal chat group members do not simply want to be associated with Mamdani but want to “ask good questions” because they care about the city — and maintained he has not been paid for his coverage.
In a February video promoting Mamdani’s universal childcare expansion, Vilson, 44, asked the mayor who his top 5 favorite rappers were.
The Creators4Zohran group that spawned the Signal group chat includes several influencers who aren’t even New Yorkers, but often fanboy and fangirl online over Mamdani.
Southern California resident Josh Greene, 26, boasts 460,000 followers for his @joshtheprogressive Instagram account.
Greene has history of getting paid for social media posts about politics, with The New York Times reporting at least seven candidates or aligned groups did so during the last campaign cycle — including about $21,500 from Tom Steyer’s California gubernatorial campaign.
At one point, he gushingly seemed to credit Mamdani for the New York Knicks’ NBA championship.
“Maybe the mayor’s success in New York had something to do with that,” he said.
Another out-of-state Creators4Zohran influencer is Allie O’Brien, a 25-year-old Connecticut resident who repeatedly praises Mamdani.
She recently called him “mayor of uncontrollable joy” in a worshipful social media post.
Mamdani superfan Alexis Williams, 25, called the Creators4Zohran group her “little family” in a post after the mayoral election.
She boasted in a Jan. 8 post that she was “ready to serve new york city as a deputy press sec for culture partnerships and Black media.”
Fellow Mamdani devotee, Creators4Zohran group member and TikTokker Layla Taremi, 31, attended a cringeworthy Jan. 7 City Hall news conference for influencers.
She got a chance to ask the first question for Mamdani, but not before fawning, “I’ve had so much fun making content for you.”
