Profile: Elle Bisgaard-Church, New York’s newest kingmaker

Illustration by Andy Bunday

Shortly before New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, delivered his rousing victory speech to a packed hall in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, one person was singled out for praise: Elle Bisgaard-Church, his 34-year-old chief adviser.

A rapturous crowd broke into chants of “Elle! Elle! Elle!” as she was hailed as “the person who has been Zohran’s right hand from day one, whose deep commitment to our movement and care for our people has infused every part of this campaign from top to bottom, and without whom we would not be here tonight”.

It was a fleeting moment in the spotlight for Bisgaard-Church, who likes to keep a low profile. She rarely speaks in public or gives interviews and, unusually for a New York politico, does not post on X. Yet she has masterminded one of the most improbable, closely-watched and successful campaigns in recent political history, propelling an obscure socialist candidate to the highest office of the most important city in the US.

Mamdani was elected on three core pledges focused on affordability: a rent freeze, free buses and universal childcare. He has also promised city-run grocery shops and 200,000 affordable homes. These will be paid for by taxing the rich and big businesses.

Insiders credit Bisgaard-Church with crafting this platform and the communication strategy that drove the message home, helming a brains trust of other thirtysomethings.

“Her influence cannot be overstated,” said Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America. “She should take credit for the top three demands that make up the affordability agenda. With Zohran, she is the brains of the campaign.”

Patrick Gaspard, a former Obama aide and an informal adviser to Mamdani, describes Bisgaard-Church as the campaign’s “boiler room”. “She’s easily the most influential voice, partner, strategist in the camp, and there's no close second,” he said.

Few believed Mamdani would even make it past the Democratic primary this summer, which put him up against the well-funded former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. In February, a pollster had Mamdani in last place with just 1% of the vote. He ended up a runaway winner, triumphing with a 13-point lead over Cuomo.

Pithy TikTok videos were a key part of the campaign run by Bisgaard-Church. In one, a fully-suited Mamdani plunged into cold waters to promote his rent freeze. Another neatly distilled something Mamdani called “Halalinflation” – the high prices charged by Muslim food trucks in New York as a result of the city’s broken permit system. His account quickly racked up a large following, with many clips going viral.

These posts helped introduce voters to Mamdani’s ideas. But the primary campaign also relied on an old-fashioned doorknocking strategy that saw 50,145 volunteers turn up at 1.5 million doors. Mamdani drew so much support that, at one point, his team asked supporters to stop sending in donations.

The effort, in Bisgaard’s words, was grounded on the principles of “consistency, clarity, authenticity”. Not only did it entertainingly distil dense policy ideas, but it never deviated from the guiding message of affordability.

“They pounded it and pounded it into voters until there was no one in New York City who could say they didn’t know why Mamdani was running,” said Bradley Honan, a Democratic pollster.

The same strategy guided the mayoral campaign itself. Mamdani did not stray from his upbeat message even when the campaign turned ugly: opponents claimed Mamdani, a Muslim and vocal critic of Israel, would encourage Muslims to wage a jihad and lead pogroms against New York’s Jews.

Like her boss, Bisgaard-Church is something of an outsider. The only daughter of a single mother, she grew up in California. After graduating from Swarthmore, a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, she worked for a series of charities and went to New York on a public affairs fellowship run by Coro, a nonprofit that trains postgraduates. She completed a master’s run by Columbia University and the London School of Economics, focusing on taxation.

Bisgaard-Church had little policy experience when she became Mamdani’s chief of staff at New York City Hall in 2020. But she quickly proved to be a skilled political operator with a knack for coalition building. She was among the leading voices that successfully called for higher taxes on wealthy residents during the pandemic and played a key role in Mamdani’s efforts to secure relief for New York taxi drivers weighed down by crushing debts.

In 2023 she helped drive the launch of a free bus pilot scheme.

“She is an extremely hard worker, constantly thinking about how we can win and how we can expand our coalition, and has always prioritised consensus among the different parts of Zohran’s constituency,” said Gordillo. “She’s also very skilled at handling internal disagreements, which I think is a reason why we saw so much left unity around Zohran’s campaign.”

This was borne out in Tuesday’s election result. Mamdani built a new Democratic coalition in the city, uniting young and working-class voters while drawing strong support from a range of ethnic groups. It was an astonishing achievement, especially since Bisgaard-Church learned how to run a campaign by running one. Mamdani again fended off Cuomo, who ran as an independent, with ease, despite his decades of experience, deep-pocketed donors and backing from Donald Trump.

Bisgaard-Church is now expected to play a pivotal role in an administration overseeing a city with a budget of $116bn and a population of 8.5 million. Both Republicans and Mamdani’s fellow Democrats will be watching closely.

Any slip-ups will be seized upon by Republicans eager to cast the Democrats as being in thrall to a radical communist wing. The Democrats, however, are still reeling from Trump’s emphatic win last year. Some think centrist positions are most likely to claw back support in states that turned red for Trump in 2024; others see Mamdani as a template.

Then there is the president himself, who threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mamdani became mayor. Some fear he could deploy National Guard troops to the city, as he has done in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Sheinkopf, noting that moderate Democrats also won large majorities in elections in New Jersey and West Virginia last week, said: “It can work elsewhere, but it depends where. The income gap continues to grow and people are angry. They are not going to tolerate it. So you’ll see more of these campaigns, so long as they are funded.”