After pulling off an upset win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani still faces a long road ahead in his quest to win the general election and become the city’s first openly socialist mayor.
Although Mamdani proved he was a force to be reckoned with when he defeated former New York governor Andrew Cuomo during Tuesday’s low-turnout primary, he will likely need to adjust strategies, move to the center, and compile a massive war chest of funding in order to keep the city’s incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, from winning reelection this November.
“He needs to make his case to the wider population of New York and energize some groups who wouldn’t traditionally consider voting for someone like him,” political analyst William Kedjanyi told Newsweek.
Since Mamdani won the primary, Adams’s campaign has appeared to experience a boost in popularity amid worries from those concerned over antisemitic views the socialist is accused of holding, as well as a string of left-wing economic policies he is promoting, including raising corporate tax rates in the city to 11.5%, boosting taxes on millionaires by 2%, freezing monthly rent payments that are governed by a city board, and implementing government-run grocery stores.
“They’re going apoplectic,” a former Wall Street CEO said of his peers in comments to Politico.
However, raising millions to take his vision for the Big Apple across the airwaves, reigning in controversial rhetoric on issues such as his anti-Israel views, and appealing to low-income voters who favored Cuomo, could help Mamdani expand his base of progressives, allowing him to coalesce the broad support from city residents required to win the election.
“My gut is that we’re going to have to raise a lot more than we did and we’re going to have to spend a lot more than we did in the primary,” Regina Monge, chairwoman of a pro-Mamdani super PAC, told New York Playbook. “Corporate special interests and billionaires might want to throw down for Eric Adams. They might want to support Cuomo on his line. I don’t know what folks’ plans are, but I want to make sure that we’re ready.”
His words come after Bill Ackman, a billionaire Jewish businessman from New York, offered to bankroll a centrist alternative to Mamdani, citing concerns over the mayoral candidate’s economic policies and anti-Israel positioning amid reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which suggested Israel was to blame for Hamas’s 2023 terrorist attack on the country and was denounced by former President Joe Biden over its leadership’s support for terrorists, donated $100,000 to the socialist through its Unity & Justice Fund.
“I thought ‘What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn’t understand that freezing rents will only reduce the supply of housing, who has no experience managing an organization — let alone a city with a $100+ billion budget and a $2 trillion economy — and who believes chants for ‘Globalizing the Intifada’ are acceptable, wins the Democratic Primary,’” Ackman wrote in a post to X.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the right candidate. More importantly, it is an opportunity to save our City and be a superhero. Life is short and you must dare to be great,” Ackman added. “The time is now.”
Mamdani supporters hope some of the unions that backed Cuomo will transfer support to Mamdani, giving him an added boost as he faces intense opposition from centrists, the Adams campaign, and Republicans.
“I do think you’re going to see the trade unions coalesce around him,” said John Samuelsen, leader of the Transport Workers Union International.
“They viewed Cuomo as the sure win, like the favorite at the Kentucky Derby,” he added. “Zohran has got to be the overwhelming favorite to win. And there are pragmatic unions who will enter a political relationship with him now.”
However, that strategy could fall flat if Cuomo keeps his campaign alive. The former governor has refused to completely exit the race thus far, keeping the door open to running on an independent line against Mamdani and Adams in the general election.
And despite calls for him to adopt more moderate positioning ahead of the general election, Mamdani has reiterated some of his more controversial positions since he won the primary, signaling he’s not backing away from controversial takes.
Mamdani’s official campaign website features a policy memo that says that if elected, his administration will shift the tax burden to homes “in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”
When pressed during a CNN interview on whether he “like[d]” capitalism, the economic system that undergirds the U.S. economy, Mamdani said “no,” and refused to distance himself from “many critiques of capitalism.”
“I think ultimately the definition for me of why I call myself a democratic socialist is the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King decades ago. Call it democracy, call it democratic socialism, there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country,” he said Wednesday evening.
“And that’s why I’m focused on is dignity and taking on income equality,” he continued. “For too long, politicians have pretended we are spectators to that crisis of affordability. We’re actually actors, and we have a choice to either exacerbate like Mayor Adams has done or to respond to it and resolve it.”
HOW ZOHRAN MAMDANI TOOK DOWN ANDREW CUOMO IN NYC MAYORAL PRIMARY
Conservatives have already begun targeting Mamdani over the memo as he seeks to build out voter support ahead of November.
“Wow. Not only an antisemite and communist… but a full-blown racist against ‘whiter neighborhoods.’ Yep – Mamdani is totally the roadmap for winning elections, guys. Keep going with that one,” the Washington Examiner‘s Joe Concha said.
