Four political canvassers explain their route to electoral politics, and why you should get involved, too.
BY ELLIS RHEE JABLONSKI | news@queensledger.com
Have you ever seen a twentysomething standing in the sun on a humid day, giving out leaflets to passersby on your street corner? Have you ever answered a knock on your front door to a fresh-faced youngster eager to chat you up about a local politician? If you have, then you’re already familiar with canvassers – the passionate, door-knocking volunteers who form the backbone of grassroots political campaigns.
Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in 2025 was built on an army of 30,000 such canvassers, many of whom now work on campaign teams for progressive candidates, or volunteer with influential political organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America or the Working Families Party.
Canvassers are everywhere during election season, and nowadays seem to have an outsize influence on who gets elected to high office in the Big Apple. But have you ever wondered what’s behind the flier or the elevator pitch? What would compel someone to hand out flyers on a street corner for hours, or get rejected over and over again by impatient commuters?
We spoke to four New York City canvassers of different ages, careers and backgrounds about their motivations, their route to politics, and what they learned from their experience.
For some canvassers, it was the moral clarity of a new crop of progressive candidates who were unflinching in their critique of Trump, ICE and Israel that inspired them to get involved in electoral politics.
Amaru Landrón is a college student and self-described Nuyorican from Jackson Heights who canvassed for Chuck Park’s congressional campaign to unseat moderate Democrat Grace Meng.
“Chuck Park has experienced the real horrors of Homeland Security,” he said. “He started seeing the real horrible crackdowns that were happening towards immigrant communities during Trump’s first term.”
Landrón was already a seasoned canvasser, having first doorknocked for Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Canvassers paid close attention to which candidates gave clear oral stances on issues, as opposed to maintaining neutrality.
“Grace Meng posted something on her Instagram story saying, ‘Should we defund ICE? Yes or no?’” said Landrón. ‘She was really apathetic toward a lot of constituents. There’s just all these areas that are very heavily immigrants, heavily policed and have seen the most ICE activity.”
Japneet Singh (founder of South Asians for Zohran and former City Council candidate) felt drawn to Claire Valdez for similar reasons. “Claire was one of the very first sitting politicians that came out and called what is going on [in Palestine] what it is, which is a genocide,” he said.
“Moral clarity is very important to me as a voter,” Singh continued.
He first got involved in politics after the rise of anti-Asian hate violence in 2020.
“I’m a Sikh, and whenever Islamophobia is on the rise, it doesn’t just impact Muslims, it impacts us as well,” he comments.
“Most of the times when my community members are being attacked, they’re not necessarily being attacked for being Sikh, because a lot of people don’t know what Sikhs are.”
Singh said he wanted to invest his time into a candidate who would look out for people like him, and causes that impacted his community. “What I saw personally was the message and how grounded the message was in affordability and moral clarity on what’s going on in the Middle East.” he said. “He also was very clear on her platform from the beginning, whereas other candidates were flip flopping.”
Other New Yorkers got involved with canvassing as a tactile way to engage with policymaking, in lieu of reductive online debates.
“I was never a political person growing up,” said Eric Diamond, an IT businessman in Manhattan.
The 2024 election didn’t pique his interest until Biden was replaced by his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
“Kamala was a lot younger. She was a lot more capable, and it got me excited.”
At first, he intensely followed online forums and news sites, soon realizing that their inherent bias wasn’t going to cut it, and that he craved the nuance of in-person conversations. After going to protests and networking socials, he found the inspiration he was looking for in a chance encounter with New York State Representative and former congressional candidate Alex Bores, who shared Diamond’s background in tech. This understanding of tech made Diamond especially skilled at arguing for Alex, he said, and it made the task of canvassing that much more rewarding.
“Election day, I canvassed for six hours. I was just having so much fun doing it,” he says. “It helps you better understand your politics and how the entire political system works.”
Meanwhile, for civically-minded high schoolers, canvassing represented a rare opportunity for leadership.
“Canvassing was unique, because usually high schoolers don’t really get a lot of trust or responsibility,” said one 17-year old campaign fellow. “If you are ambitious and you know they trust you, then you move up into managing others.”
It remains to be seen what the November grassroots numbers and operations will be like, especially given that many of these candidates came close, but didn’t ultimately take home the ticket. Regardless, canvassers remained staunchly optimistic about grassroots power. Landrón comments, “[Park] didn’t win, but he got more than 40% of the vote. That was all completely grassroots.” Singh corroborates, “I think these were movement wins. As long as the movement is fed.”
New York’s general election is on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, and Early Voting is open from October 24 to November 1st. A new Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller are on the ballot, as well as all 26 of New York State’s US House of Representatives seats.
