Celebrations broke out in shock and joy throughout New York City as New Yorkers learned that in all likelihood, their next mayor would be a socialist who dared to promise an end to rent increases, city-run grocery stores, and free buses – all amid years of skyrocketing cost of living.
Late on June 24, 33-year-old socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani clinched the nomination for the Democratic Party primary. In New York, the vast majority of mayors in the recent period have been members of the Democratic Party, and the city has had solid Democratic leadership for 11 years – therefore, a Democratic primary nearly essentially secures the mayoralty.
However, the general election for mayor is still months away in November – when the young socialist candidate will face off against the Republican Party candidate Curtis Sliwa (a very unlikely winner) and possibly, current New York City Mayor Eric Adams who has decided to run as an independent in the November election. Adam’s decision comes after a scandal originating from federal bribery and corruption charges that were dropped after intervention by the Trump administration, tanking his credibility within his party.
Additionally, time will tell if Mamdani’s main competitor in the Democratic primary, disgraced former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, will take Adams’ route and decide to run as an independent in the general election. Cuomo conceded the election of Mamdani late Tuesday night when the younger candidate had a clear lead, winning 43.5% of the vote compared to Cuomo’s 36.4%. As early as May, Cuomo had already created and filed an independent ballot line as an “insurance policy” against losing the primary, as a source close to Cuomo told The New York Post.
Cuomo supporters set their money on fire
Cuomo’s campaign brought together right-wing and corporate interests to raise USD 25 million for a supposedly independent pro-Cuomo “Super PAC”, called “Fix the City”. A super PAC is a type of political organization that exists in the US that can raise unlimited amounts of money to promote a candidate through means such as advertising and fundraising, with the caveat that it must not coordinate directly with candidates or parties. Fix the City ended up breaking records by becoming the single largest outside spending force in the city’s history, enabling Cuomo’s supporters to spend three times as much as Cuomo legally can within his own campaign.
Principal donors to Fix the City include right-wing billionaire Bill Ackman, who donated half a million dollars. Ackman is a well-known figure in the pro-Palestine student movement, notable for donating USD 10,000 to a GoFundMe to show Hamas go-pro footage across from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at George Washington University, and calling for the release of students’ names associated with a letter authored by Harvard University students in solidarity with Palestine.
New York City landlords also spent USD 2.5 million on a Super PAC ironically titled “Housing for All” to fund pro-Cuomo campaign advertisements. This constitutes the largest ad donation for this election cycle, and was paid for by the New York Apartment Association, a grouping of landlords that also lobbies the New York City Rent Guidelines Board – a mayor-appointed body that Mamdani has centered much of his campaign around in his promise to use it to freeze the rent for rent stabilized tenants. The New York Apartment Association lobbies for rent increases, arguing that landlords don’t have money to pay for maintenance – despite the fact that their profits rose by 12% from 2022 to 2023.
Right-wing and corporate interests begin mobilizing opposition
Commentary on CNBC may indicate some of the broader panic among New York’s wealthy. Today, when CNBC Host David Faber mentioned that Mamdani promised to freeze rents for 2.4 million rent stabilized tenants, TV personality and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer asked, “But how about the rich? Do they get shot?”
Meanwhile, within the Trump administration, top Trump adviser Stephen Miller has taken to Twitter to pin the blame of Mamdani’s win on something that impacts tens of millions in the US: legal immigration.
“When the adjective ‘legal’ is affixed before a verb it means to have government approval or permission. A state-sanctioned activity. The most uncontroversial but vital policy statement is that a government must not sanction the migration of anyone who rejects the nation’s values,” Miller wrote in a post on X.
“The commentary about NYC Democrats nominating an anarchist-socialist for Mayor omits one point: how unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate,” Miller wrote in another tweet.
Ackman, who contributed significant funding to Cuomo’s campaign, wrote on X the day after Mamdani’s win: “I have a great idea on NYC. I will share it as soon as I can. I was a bit depressed when I woke up this morning, but I am now optimistic.”
“We are looking into legal issues,” Ackman elaborated. “Legal issues concerning the potential for another candidate to run now.”
