New York City vs. The Billionaires: Zohran Mamdani Won’t Back Down & Neither Will Elizabeth Warren

What Makes the Rich Nervous? A Mayor Who Works for the People

The NY Times ran somewhat related Zohran articles on Monday (The Elite Ramp Up Their Fight Against Mamdani) and Tuesday (Elizabeth Warren, Campaigning For Mamdani, Scores Cuomo And Billionaires). James Barron asked if big money will lose big again. “The answer could make permanent the power shifts in the city’s Democratic politics that worry the established order [Hochul, Jeffries, Schumer, Gillibrand…]— and could rewrite the playbooks for candidates. For now, real estate executives and financiers are forming super PACs to try to defeat Zohran Mamdani, who won the primary with a far less costly campaign than their preferred candidate, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running on a third-party line in the general election. ‘The long-held idea in politics that the candidates with the most money win is no longer an assured position,’ said Grace Rauh, the executive director of Citizens Union, a good-government group. ‘That is part of the reason why many wealthy donors and interests who are looking at this race, in New York and perhaps beyond, are responding in a bit of a state of panic.’ Citizens Union says that super PAC spending in all the races on the ballot in the primary totaled $46 million… But eight candidates backed by super PACs lost, according to a Citizens Union report.”

$26.6 million went towards Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani by double digits anyway. Cuomo has the money; Mamdani had the voters. The money being deployed against Mamdani by the New York business elite for the general is unlike anything anyone has ever seen in the city. Elizabeth Warren was in town campaigning with Mamdani on Monday just as her OpEd, Why Billionaires Are Doing All They Can To Stop Zohran Mamdani, was published by Rolling Stone. She noted that though Democratic voters picked Mamdani on primary night, “there are some billionaires and Wall Street CEOs who can’t stand the idea of a mayor who wants them to pay their fair share to create a city that everyone can afford. So the billionaires are dumping millions and millions of dollars into the race, backing either of two deeply flawed candidates: Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. Maybe we should be asking ourselves why these Wall Street executives are pouring in millions of dollars to stop Mamdani, the affordability candidate.”

In a democracy, billionaires should not be able to buy our elections and control our politicians. Elected officials should work for their constituents, not use their government offices to hand out favors to a well-connected few. Adams escaped prosecution on charges of bribery and fraud only after he sold out New York City in a sweetheart deal with the Trump administration. As governor, Cuomo handed control of the state Senate to Republicans in a sham backroom deal. He also vowed to clean up Albany with an anticorruption commission, but when that commission began investigating one of Cuomo’s buddies, Cuomo shut down the entire panel. 

You don’t have to look very hard to see just how out of touch with working people and the mainstream values of the Democratic Party Adams and Cuomo have become. Adams withdrew from the primary early on, and Cuomo felt so entitled to the nomination that he barely bothered to campaign. But they’ve both gotten the memo from their wealthy backers to step it up: Adams is attacking Mamdani nonstop, and Cuomo is trying— and failing— to carbon copy Mamdani’s man-on-the-street videos.

Mamdani has specific ideas for making New York more affordable, and he’s willing to stand up to ultra-powerful special interests to turn these plans into reality. 

Take the cost of housing. Mamdani has plans to build 200,000 new affordable units over the next 10 years, he intends to freeze the rent for units controlled by the city, and he is committed to cutting the red tape that drives up costs for home owners. Mamdani also has the courage to write plans— including rent control— that crack down on the city’s worst landlords and push back against billionaire real estate moguls. It’s no surprise then that this month, the CEO of a New York-based real-estate   investment trust held a $2,000-a-ticket fundraiser for Adams to stop Mamdani.

…Mamdani has a bold, detailed plan for protecting consumers and cracking down on the companies that try to cheat them. As mayor he would work to ban hidden fees, crack down on scammers, and end secret corporate handouts. When working people are getting gouged by giant companies, Mamdani is on their side.

Mamdani has charged ahead with plans to make New York more affordable, and he’s showing how to pay for it by taxing the ultra-rich and giant corporations. That may not make him popular with the richest New Yorkers, but he’s willing to let Adams and Cuomo suck up to those guys. Mamdani is fighting to make New York work for working people.

Yesterday Emma Fitzsimmons and Ben Oreskes covered the Warren-Mamndani campaign event at a union headquarters in Manhattan. “I like this man,” she said, “but what I like most of all is what he’s said he’ll fight for. It’s so important that we have a leader who cares, but it’s also important that we have a leader who is steely on this issue,” referring to affordable childcare. “If we want mommas and daddies to be able to go to work, then we need childcare all across New York City. Even for people who say, ‘We’ll find a way to find the money,’ you still can’t find the slots. And that’s what happens when you take a basic piece of infrastructure and say to families, ‘You’re on your own.’”

Fitzsimmons and Oreskes wrote that “Warren was in full-scale attack mode on Mamdani’s behalf… [and] she later defended Mamdani’s calls to raise taxes during a combative interview on CNBC. ‘Oh dear, are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?’ she said.”

Warren said that Mamdani had the right affordability message for Democrats nationally.

“New York City is the place to start the conversation for Democrats on how affordability is the central issue— the central reason to be a Democrat— and delivering on it in meaningful, tangible ways that will touch working families,” she said.

Then she laced into Cuomo, accusing him of being beholden to wealthy donors and slow to understand everyday New Yorkers’ worries about the cost of living.

“Andrew Cuomo is spending his campaign evidently out just grabbing up as much money as he can from millionaires and billionaires who are unhappy” about Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy, she said, adding that Mamdani “didn’t start by bending a knee to the billionaires to say, ‘What would make your life better?’”

Cuomo spent the day with his scare-mongering about Mamdani opening the floodgates to crime, calling for more police while denouncing Warren’s remarks as “political rhetoric.” Both Cuomo and Adams are desperately trying to paint Mamdani as anti-police and anti-public safety. Polling shows Mamdani beating both of them— and Republican Sliwa— combined.

• Mamdani- 50%

• Cuomo- 22%

• Silwa- 13%

• Adams- 7%