Anna Eskamani is bringing the ‘Mamdani Model’ to Central Florida 

As the hours tick down to the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Anna Eskamani continues her methodical, grassroots campaign for Orlando mayor in next year’s election. 

If Eskamani wins, progressive Democrats will have another municipal toehold in the largely red Sunbelt.

Numerous U.S. mayors and would-be mayors aspire to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mantle, marketing themselves as “another Mamdani” or “the next Mamdani.” Term-limited after eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, Eskamani, 36, also hopes to replicate Mamdani’s victorious 2025 campaign, applying his organizational playbook.  

For Eskamani, a progressive Democrat and child of immigrants, a victory in the diverse 340,000-people resort city would culminate a nearly decade-long march. 

“Power matters only if you use it to make life better for people and close the gap between what people earn and what it costs to live here,” she said after Orlando magazine recently named her the third most powerful person in the city. “That’s the work I’ve done in Tallahassee, and it’s the work I’ll bring to City Hall.”

She is hardworking, upbeat and relentlessly optimistic, which energizes volunteers and supporters. By January 2026, her campaign had knocked on more than 33,000 Orlando doors and raised a $1.4 million war chest, mostly in small $50 and $100 donations.

“I’m definitely an optimist and believe there is good in people and that people can change, that you can persuade people,” she told me in a telephone interview.

Volunteer Elly Kennedy, 50, now a realtor, met Eskamani in the mid-2010s when both worked at Planned Parenthood. “She was a real hard-working woman in a field that wasn’t the easiest,” Kennedy said. “She always had smile on her face.” 

“I am a fan of her philosophy that we build from the........

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