Mamdani Braces for the Coming Battle

NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani’s team knows he’s got a fight ahead of him.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist’s aides and allies are girding for a costly battle in November against opponents bankrolled by a fired-up business class desperate to stop him from taking over the epicenter of world finance. Mamdani’s campaign, as well as outside groups backing him in New York’s mayoral election, said they are preparing to drop millions to counter those efforts, while also tapping into an asymmetric strategy to capture voters’ attention through social media and a door-knocking volunteer army.

“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,” said Regina Monge, chair of a pro-Mamdani super PAC. “Corporate special interests and billionaires might want to throw down for Eric Adams. They might want to support [Andrew] Cuomo on his line. I don't know what folks’ plans are, but I want to make sure that we're ready.”

Mamdani’s performance in November will be closely scrutinized by Democrats and Republicans across the country as a test of America’s burgeoning democratic socialist movement. The freshly minted political star begins the general election as the favorite in the deep-blue city, but with more perceived vulnerabilities than recent Democratic mayoral nominees.

Though Mamdani won over a diverse cross-section of the city’s voters in the primary, including those in areas home to many young people as well as Latino and Asian enclaves, he performed less strongly in majority-Black neighborhoods and faced skepticism among some Jewish Democrats. In a recent podcast interview, Mamdani declined to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” He also previously backed the effort to defund the police, though he later reversed that position.

To make matters more complicated, the full field of candidates he’ll be running against this fall isn’t finalized yet. Like other New Yorkers, Mamdani’s supporters are monitoring that cast of characters, which includes a flawed but charismatic incumbent mayor, an eccentric cat-loving Republican, a pugnacious, well-funded lawyer running as an independent, and, perhaps, the wounded former Gov. Cuomo.

Adams, the sitting mayor who has been dogged by now-dropped federal corruption charges, kicked off his campaign Thursday. With dozens of supporters standing behind him outside City Hall, the retired police captain presented the race as “a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a suit and a silver spoon.” But big money could get behind Adams. Corporate leaders are considering spending $20 million to defeat Mamdani.

Mamdani’s campaign told The News Pulseit expects to rapidly raise $8 million, the maximum amount it can spend in the general election, per city regulations. Pro-Mamdani super PACs face no limits on how much money they can pony up, and Monge’s group, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, brought in $1.5 million in the primary. She said she plans to surpass that in the fall.

Mamdani and outside groups supporting him were outspent more than 3-to-1 in the primary — and his team said it is prepared for the possibility of being outspent again in the general election.

Mamdani is promising big-ticket policies like free buses, universal child care and city-owned grocery stores, all of which won the attention of primary voters despite the money gap and a barrage of negative TV ads. Mamdani’s advisers and allies attribute that to his happy-warrior communication skills, 50,000-strong volunteer army and memorable ads. They plan to replicate that strategy in the general election.

“We’re confident that we’ll raise to the cap quickly and have the resources we need,” said Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani’s campaign manager. “Our unprecedented field operation and our ability to clearly communicate have allowed us to cut through the noise. Our late surge occurred while we were being dramatically outspent. No amount of Republican billionaire money changes the fact that New Yorkers have shown they want a mayor who puts the people over the 1 percent.”

Along with raising money, one of the biggest tasks in front of Mamdani is uniting the fractured Democratic Party after a divisive primary. He and his team have been working the phones, talking to elected officials and community leaders in New York and around the country. At the same time, he appears to be making a concerted effort to neutralize his vulnerabilities.

In the hours after his all-but-certain primary victory, Mamdani spoke privately with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats. The two leaders didn’t immediately offer him full-throated endorsements, but made positive comments about him on the social media site X and said they planned to meet him soon in person.

A person close to Mamdani who was granted anonymity to speak frankly described the remarks as “positive green lights” and said that his team is “very, very bullish about what we’ve been able to do” in the short period after the primary.

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Mamdani focused on affordability, the campaign issue that fueled his rise, but also nodded to the tension over his criticism of Israel and its war in Gaza, pledging to “reach further to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree.”

He returned to the issue in his first broadcast TV appearance after the primary, saying on MSNBC that he understood Jewish New Yorkers were fearful of antisemitism and pledging to boost funding for hate crime prevention programs. The outlet he chose seemed purposeful: MSNBC is viewed by older, more traditional Democrats.

Mamdani was introduced to the stage Tuesday night by New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the state’s best-liked and most influential Democrats known for her legal battles with President Donald Trump — another move that appeared to be aimed at lending him some legitimacy in the eyes of national Democrats.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the dean of the state’s congressional delegation and one of the most respected names in liberal Jewish political circles, followed, endorsing Mamdani on Wednesday after backing one of his rivals in the primary.

John Samuelsen, leader of the Transport Workers Union International, believes Mamdani is on the path to winning over more supporters. He said his union of subway and bus drivers still has some concerns about Mamdani when it comes to policing on the subways, but he expects even those that backed Cuomo in the primary will shift their support.

“I do think you’re going to see the trade unions coalesce around him,” he said.

“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.”

Already, 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich seemed to throw soft support behind Mamdani in a Wednesday night post on X , even after the influential union of building service workers backed Cuomo in the primary.

Progressive New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera, whose district on the east side of Manhattan heavily broke for Mamdani, said the democratic socialist’s campaign called her Thursday morning asking for her support. She didn’t endorse a candidate in the primary.

“They’re trying to build an even bigger coalition than they had,” she said. “And it’s exciting. Because this isn’t over.”

But Mamdani is still facing hesitancy from some of the state’s most powerful Democrats. After congratulating him in an X post on primary night, Gov. Kathy Hochul pointedly declined to say she’d support him in the general election when asked at an unrelated press conference Thursday.

“Obviously, there’s areas of difference in our positions,” said Hochul, who has resisted tax increases on wealthy New Yorkers pushed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature. “But I also think we need to have those conversations. In the meantime, I truly am not focused on the politics. We’re six months away from inauguration day, and that’ll determine who I’m working with for the next four years.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) also declined to endorse Mamdani when asked on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, and condemned his language on Israel. Pressed on whether she’d consider backing Adams or Cuomo instead, she demurred.

“I vote in Albany,” the upstate resident said, “and I have tried to leave this to the voters of New York.”

The general election in New York City is expected to have marginally higher turnout than the primary — just over 1.1 million people cast ballots in November four years ago, compared to just under 950,000 in the primary. Unlike the city’s closed primary where only registered Democrats can vote, the general will include Republicans and the city’s independent voters — who outnumber those in the GOP 2-to-1.

The effort against Mamdani is still forming as well. Shell-shocked business leaders who were counting on a Cuomo win strategized with Adams on Wednesday night. Cuomo hasn’t announced yet whether he’ll pursue a serious campaign on the independent line he’s secured for the general election. While he mulls it, the influential New York Post editorial board is pushing him to drop out so he doesn’t split the vote with Adams. Meanwhile, Republicans are slamming Mamdani — Trump called him “a 100% Communist Lunatic” on social media — while reportedly exploring a way to get gadfly Curtis Sliwa off the GOP line and give it to Adams, to further consolidate the anti-Mamdani vote. Sliwa has resisted, saying only death will get him out of the race.

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Mamdani ally, acknowledged his supporters have work to do in the general election.

“We certainly can celebrate for a day,” he said. “But then our job is between now and November to be able to tell New Yorkers, ‘Listen, this is not an ego trip. This was not a pie in the sky. No, this is about how do we actually change the way the government works in this city to serve you better?’”

Will the rest of the party join him in that? “They better ,” the Bronx Democrat said. “The Democratic voters of the city of New York voted.”