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Candidates for mayor of New York City have made their cases this year in Zoom forums and delivered impassioned stump speeches, but there may be no pitch as effortlessly engaging as a candidate joyfully dancing toward a camera, telling New Yorkers she’s “on her way to replace Bill de Blasio as NYC’s first afro latina mayor.” That’s what former nonprofit leader Dianne Morales did in one of her TikTok videos last fall, amassing over half a million views.
Morales has combined effective online communication and organizing with the farthest-left platform in the race to amass a progressive, young fan base that has propelled her from a relatively unknown nonprofit leader to a champion of the left. Morales supporters congregate on online platforms such as TikTok, Twitter and even the audio chatroom Clubhouse. On Twitter especially, fans of the candidate can be spotted easily by their profile photos set against purple, pink and orange gradient backgrounds. This sunset-color