Zohran Mamdani Book Highlights Campaign
FUV reporter Andrew McDonald and author Theodore Hamm (Photo by Nick Dawson, courtesy of Theodore Hamm)
The victory of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary on June 24 caught the eye of Theodore Hamm, a writer for OR Books. On July 1, Hamm, along with his publisher, Colin Robinson, announced a book centered on Mamdani's meteoric grassroots campaign, called Run Zohran Run!, only days after the primary and the mayoral candidate's victory.
“Mamdani is certainly a self-avowed Democratic Socialist," said Hamm, "and that's what interested Colin and myself is that if it appeared that the left was going to do far better than in any time in our recent memory in electoral politics in the city.”
However, Mamdani's decisive primary victory, which Hamm says was an unexpected conclusion on election night, altered the timeline on the project.
“[The Mamdani campaign] thought it would have to go to the extended rounds of rank choice voting, but they pulled off the dramatic upset," he explained. "Colin told me the next day that he wanted to move up the deadline. So I had to come to work.”
Run Zohran Run! is available now.
A portion of this interview ran on the What’s What Podcast on September 4, 2025.
