Mamdani cheerleaders<\/a> chat spawned from Creators4Zohran, a motley crew of influencers convened during his social media-savvy mayoral campaign last year, according to the report.<\/p>\n\u201cA group of content creators and influencers, the Creators4Zohran group that supported his election campaign was reconfigured to promote coverage and talking points from the Mayor\u2019s office,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group is run by the Director of New Media and Cultural Communications at the NYC Office of the Mayor, Emilia Rowland, and her staff, and members of the group receive daily updates, talking points and clips that they can use in their posts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emilia Rowland, Director of New Media and Cultural Communications at the NYC Office of the Mayor. X\/EmiliaWinterRo<\/p>\n
How much influencers were paid, or if at all, was unclear.<\/p>\n
Political insiders who have worked with their ilk have told The Post that influencers don\u2019t work for free if involved in specific campaigns, like pushes for vaccinations or public service announcements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Influencers would eventually look for some sort of compensation for carrying the mayor\u2019s water, insiders said.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/crop-40600102.jpg\")
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference at Manhattan Housing Court in New York City on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Michael Brochstein\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
One influencer highlighted by Creators4Zohran, Allie O\u2019Brien, recently said Mamdani was the \u201cmayor of uncontrollable joy\u201d in a worshipping social post.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, though, appears to live in Connecticut from online records.<\/p>\n
Another out-of-NYC influencer, who goes by the handle bananadotgov on Instagram, is from Columbus, Ohio, and has posted a number of lionizing videos about Mamdani.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani with Tascha Van Auken by his side. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n
\u201cStrange things are happening, because I have literally not felt this way about a politician since Bernie Sanders,\u201d she said, responding to the mayor saying he wouldn\u2019t take a pay raise in July.<\/p>\n
It was unclear if these two were on the group text, but they are often featured on the Creators4Zohran page.<\/p>\n
The use of Signal prompted controversy during former Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s administration when it was revealed his aides were using the encrypted text app, which can be set to delete messages.<\/p>\n
City Hall officials are required by law to keep records, including messages, related to government business to give the public and watchdogs a necessary window into how decisions are made.<\/p>\n
Tascha Van Auken speaks on January 2, 2026. She works for the Office of Mass Engagement. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n
When asked about concerns the encrypted Signal chat violates the city\u2019s record retention laws, Mamdani first deflected by arguing that tapping influencers is no different than engaging with radio, TV and other media to spread information.<\/p>\n
He then broadly acknowledged the need to follow the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy administration will always strive to fully provide all legal requirements, including those that relate to the presentation of city records,\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Emily Minster, who has been referred to as the \u201cinfluencer whisperer,\u201d was appointed to the Office of NYC Mayor Mamdani as Deputy Press Secretary for New Media and creative partnerships. Linkedin\/Emily Minster<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are any departures from what is legally required, my administration will look into it immediately and take corrective action.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Hall officials directed The Post toward Mamdani\u2019s comments and refused to answer specific questions.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Additional reporting by Matthew Fischetti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re under Zo\u2019s influence. Mayor Zohran Mamdani assembled an army of nearly 200 \u201cinfluencers,\u201d giving the social media…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1039338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,37971,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-1039337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-influencers","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117202836178846060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}