Four Roads to the Capitol

Issue #1Four lives in public service

About this issue

Four lives. Four paths into public service.

Zohran Mamdani, Abdul El-Sayed, James Talarico and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: where they grew up, the work they have done, and what they want to change next. Their histories are sourced. Scenes showing them together are imagined.

src 1, 3, 61, 149

Chapter 1 · Zohran MamdaniGrowing up and working in Queens

A newborn in Kampala, held by his mother, a filmmaker, and his father, a scholar.

A teenage Mamdani swings a cricket bat on a patchy Bronx field.

Mamdani as a housing counselor goes over foreclosure papers with an older immigrant couple at their kitchen table.

Mamdani raps in a tracksuit under the 7 train beside an elderly woman in a sari.

Mamdani · 2020–2023From housing counselor to legislator

Mamdani knocks on a row-house door under the elevated train at night.

Mamdani sits with older taxi drivers on folding chairs outside City Hall at night.

Riders of every age board a city bus through all its doors.

Mamdani · 2024–2026Running for mayor, then governing

Mamdani leaps into the icy ocean in a thrift-store suit while a crowd cheers on the beach.

Mamdani delivers a line at a debate podium while Andrew Cuomo recoils at his.

Mamdani walks an empty Manhattan avenue at night, followers trailing behind.

Mamdani raises both arms at a podium as confetti falls on a cheering crowd.

Trump jabs a finger at a camera at an outdoor podium in front of a swamp and airboats.

Eric Adams points angrily at Andrew Cuomo with a snake on his shoulders, then the two hug stiffly for the cameras.

Mamdani points into a TV camera lens from the podium as the crowd roars.

Trump, beaming at the Resolute desk, pats the arm of a politely smiling Mamdani as reporters crowd in.

Mamdani takes the oath with his hand on two Qurans in a tiled, closed subway station.

Tenants cheer on the steps of a city building as frost breaks off an apartment facade; Mamdani raises a fist.

Two-year-olds paint and stack blocks in a bright classroom as a parent waves goodbye.

Delivery workers on e-bikes cheer in the rain as gold coins fall around them.

La Marqueta under the elevated viaduct, market stalls being built.

What has changed, and what comes next

A rent freeze. Free childcare. A win for delivery workers.

The Rent Guidelines Board approved a freeze on one- and two-year rent-stabilized leases. The first 2,000 free 2-K seats opened in September. His administration secured a $131.5 million DoorDash settlement, with more than $115 million designated for workers.

The next goals include citywide free buses and broader childcare access. His proposed tax on millionaires has faced opposition from Governor Hochul, and landlords filed a lawsuit challenging the rent freeze. Those fights continue alongside the gains already made.

src 161, 162, 36, 40, 101, 102

Chapter 2 · Abdul El-SayedGrowing up in Michigan and studying medicine

A young Egyptian engineer with textbooks on a Detroit campus at dusk.

A teenage El-Sayed whips a lacrosse shot under stadium lights.

El-Sayed in a graduation gown speaks at a podium before a stadium crowd.

El-Sayed as an Oxford scholar, a doctor in a hospital corridor, and a lecturer at a chalkboard.

El-Sayed · 2015–2018Rebuilding public health in Detroit

A young El-Sayed walks into a nearly empty Detroit city office, morning light cutting through the windows.

A grinning schoolgirl puts on her first pair of glasses in a mobile eye clinic.

A young mother holds her baby on a porch with two volunteer mentors.

El-Sayed raises a fist at a packed rally while Bernie Sanders claps beside him.

El-Sayed · 2020–2026Back to government, then the Senate race

El-Sayed records a podcast at night, a hardcover book on the desk.

El-Sayed grins in a small campaign office at night, staffers on laptops.

El-Sayed bursts through a wall of floating dollar bills and attack-ad screens, fists raised.

Chapter 3 · James TalaricoFamily, faith and the classroom

A young mother holds her newborn beside a packed Ford Escort while a man kneels by the car.

A dad mows the lawn while an elderly neighbor waves and a little boy watches; a mother decorates a crib tucked in a closet.

A lanky teenage Talarico carries a too-tall stack of folding chairs at a church potluck while church ladies cheer.

A young Talarico teaches a lively sixth-grade English class.

Talarico · 2018–2025Serving in the Texas House

Talarico, sweaty, shakes hands with a homeowner on a hot suburban doorstep.

An exhausted Talarico in a hospital bed with an IV, his campaign boots on the chair.

Talarico checks his blood sugar at a kitchen table covered in campaign walk lists.

Talarico testifies at a microphone before a committee of stern legislators, a Bible on the table.

Talarico at a House floor microphone points at a giant golden funnel draining money from a public school into a private academy.

Talarico turns back on the stairs of a chartered jet at night as other Texas Democrats board.

Talarico · 2025–2026Running for the U.S. Senate

A bald podcast host leans across the microphones, impressed, as Talarico laughs.

A network executive yanks the plug on a TV studio while every phone in the city shows Talarico grinning.

Talarico raises both arms on a stage as a crowd cheers on primary night.

An older defense lawyer shakes Talarico's hand at a podcast desk while Paxton presses his face to the window in shock.

Talarico, sleeves rolled up, pounds the podium at a packed rally of working Texans.

Chapter 4 · Alexandria Ocasio-CortezBronx, Yorktown, and the bar

A Puerto Rican father and mother hold their toddler daughter in a Bronx courtyard, then sit with her on the steps of a small suburban house.

A college-age daughter stands with her mother at a kitchen table covered in envelopes; an empty drafting table and a photo of her father sit in the background.

Ocasio-Cortez behind a taqueria bar, shaking a cocktail tin for regulars.

Ocasio-Cortez · 2018–2019The upset, then the House

Ocasio-Cortez in a red dress knocks on a Bronx walk-up while a neighbor waves from a folding chair.

Ocasio-Cortez in a white blazer throws her arms up on election night as the room cheers.

Results from her first term

From the House floor to help for families.

Three of her amendments became law in her first term, including $5 million for opioid treatment and $10 million to clean up former military sites in Puerto Rico. She also worked with Senator Chuck Schumer to include funeral assistance in COVID relief.

src 150

Ocasio-Cortez and an older white senator hold a blank green document on the Capitol steps, wind turbines behind them.

Ocasio-Cortez · HearingsThe clips in Greatest Hits

Ocasio-Cortez at a House dais points at two sweating witnesses.

Ocasio-Cortez at a microphone questions a man in a gray t-shirt at the witness table.

Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a House floor microphone, calm and direct.

Greatest Hits

Watch Ocasio-Cortez question witnesses and speak on the House floor in Greatest Hits.

Clips keep their original publishers’ edits, with no narration added by Political Arcades.

src 158

Issue #1 · ConclusionFour paths, and the work ahead

October 2026

Mamdani is mayor of New York. El-Sayed and Talarico are running for the U.S. Senate. Ocasio-Cortez serves in the House.

Their work has already reached tenants, patients, students and working families. Their next goals build on that record. In the following issue, we follow the Michigan and Texas Senate races and the opponents El-Sayed and Talarico face.

src 33, 34, 36, 111, 61, 150

Issue #2Show up and debate

Mamdani, El-Sayed and Talarico walk side by side up a rain-slick avenue, the Capitol dome lit behind them.

Fall 2026

Fall 2026. Time to face them.

In Michigan, Mike Rogers. In Texas, Ken Paxton. One skips the first debate. The other skips all of them.

Abdul El-Sayedvs. Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers lounges in a hammock outside a pink Florida house, a Michigan snow globe forgotten on the lawn.

Suits aim a fire hose of dollar bills at a snowy Michigan town while Rogers rides the cash wave on a pool float.

Rogers hands a giant telephone receiver to a faceless officer while phone cords run out to thousands of homes.

El-Sayed gestures at an empty podium on a TV debate set as the moderator checks his watch.

Where was he?

The week before, Rogers gave a speech at a convention in Dallas. Rogers said the Detroit event was “a town hall,” not a debate.

El-Sayed, afterward: “It tells you who he is. He’s a coward.”

src 116, 117

At the debate, El-Sayed holds up two fingers to the camera while a sweating Rogers grips his podium.

Close-up: Rogers frozen at his podium, jaw hanging open, a bead of sweat, a tumbleweed rolling past.

Rogers tugs on a too-small maize-and-blue sweater with the price tag on while El-Sayed laughs at his podium.

The moderator

It gets so loud the moderator, Rick Albin, has to ask: “I’d like to be part of the debate, too.”

Afterward: “In 30 years of doing debates… I’ve never seen it continue during the commercial. But it did.”

src 119, 121

Rogers shouts and jabs a finger from his podium; El-Sayed stands calm at his.

Trump jabs at his phone in a gold bedroom; El-Sayed reads his phone at a kitchen table, deadpan.

James Talaricovs. Ken Paxton

Ken Paxton smirks on the Texas Capitol steps as an endless blank scroll unrolls behind him.

Paxton sprints across a lawn toward a waiting pickup while a process server holds out an envelope.

Two faceless billionaires in Stetsons atop oil derricks work Paxton like a marionette.

Talarico waits at a debate podium beside an empty one with puppet strings dangling onto it.

Paxton shades his eyes at a rally podium, pretending to search the crowd.

Issue #3The Healer

An older Egyptian woman in a white coat that flares like a cape, children safe behind her, attack ads tearing into confetti.

A young woman in a fresh white coat on stone steps by the sea.

The woman in a white coat holds a child's crayon drawing in a modest aid office.

The woman in the white coat walks down federal-building steps into gold light.

The woman pins a court paper over a screaming red attack-ad poster.

The woman listens to a tired young man across her clinic desk.

The woman sits in a classroom circle as a child shows her a crayon drawing.

El-Sayed stands unbothered at his podium while Rogers points at him.

The woman in the white coat walks toward a small clinic at dawn, patients waving.

Issue #4What they want to do next

The next goals

They have a record to build on.

Rent protection and childcare in New York. Health programs in Michigan. An insulin copay cap in Texas. Community funding and relief work in Congress. The following pages show the broader changes they propose. These imagined futures are goals, not a claim that every policy is already in place.

src 161, 162, 111, 61, 150

A future New York morning: riders board a free bus in a red bus lane, a dad drops a toddler at daycare, Mamdani rides along.

A future Detroit street: a family leaves a clinic with no bill, a crew swaps lead pipes for copper, El-Sayed waves from the clinic steps.

A future Texas public school: teachers welcome families, Talarico high-fives a kid on the steps.

Ocasio-Cortez · The proposed future

The work continues in the House.

Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution calls for union jobs, cleaner energy and investment in infrastructure. She has introduced the resolution and related legislation; that is different from having the full agenda enacted.

src 150, 156

At dawn, Mamdani, El-Sayed and Talarico stand at the foot of the Capitol steps with a huge crowd of ordinary Americans behind them.

Issue #1Four lives in public service

Chapter 1 · Zohran MamdaniGrowing up and working in Queens

Mamdani · 2020–2023From housing counselor to legislator

Mamdani · 2024–2026Running for mayor, then governing

Chapter 2 · Abdul El-SayedGrowing up in Michigan and studying medicine

El-Sayed · 2015–2018Rebuilding public health in Detroit

El-Sayed · 2020–2026Back to government, then the Senate race

Chapter 3 · James TalaricoFamily, faith and the classroom

Talarico · 2018–2025Serving in the Texas House

Talarico · 2025–2026Running for the U.S. Senate

Chapter 4 · Alexandria Ocasio-CortezBronx, Yorktown, and the bar

Ocasio-Cortez · 2018–2019The upset, then the House

Ocasio-Cortez · HearingsThe clips in Greatest Hits

Issue #1 · ConclusionFour paths, and the work ahead

Issue #2Show up and debate

Issue #3The Healer

Issue #4What they want to do next

Their records and next goals

Freeze the rent

No-cost child care

Fast, fare-free buses

Community safety

City-owned groceries

200,000 homes

Bad landlords

Who pays

$30 by 2030

Medicare for All

Money out of politics

Put money in your pocket

Housing

Clean water

Schools

Data centers

Public schools

Raise pay

Money out

Lower costs

Child care

Green New Deal

Medicare for All

Housing

Workers