Zohran Mamdani campaigned for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, promising to make the city’s largest city affordable.
The 33-year-old Democratic socialist proposed plans that would transform the city – including a free bus programme and freezing rent increases on rent-stabilised apartments – paid for by a heightened income tax for millionaires and an increase in the corporate tax rate.
After receiving endorsements from former president Bill Clinton, those promises led to his eventual victory in the mayoral primary by 12 points over Andrew Cuomo, his closest closest rival.
McKayla Lankau, a 25-year-old tech worker, had canvassed for Mamdani’s campaign. She claimed that she was encouraged by Mamdani’s numerous economic policies, including one that included housing, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, which she won by a 79-point margin.
“I believe that if people are living a better life in a more affordable community, we all will, and Zohran’s campaign fulfilled that from my perspective”, said Lankau.
Many voters believe that Democratic leaders have limited their offerings to symbolic gestures and strongly worded statements as the cost of living rises and US President Donald Trump continues to shape political discourse.
Mamdani, a three-term state assembly member, presented something different– a campaign centred around grassroots organising over big donors, detailed policies over vague slogans, and the kind of charisma and gravitas that defined other change candidates like Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid in 2008 or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise win of the House of Representatives in 2018.
Mamdani’s message was firmly rooted in affordability, which was a powerful one. But Mamdani also faces another side of New York – the ultra-wealthy investor class. They are the ones who have made New York City the center of world finance and commerce. They are a powerful force to be reckoned with, and they are not happy.
They are used to getting their way, and they are angry that they lost. They’re used to setting the rules…. Adin Lenchner of Carroll Street Campaigns, a political strategist, told Al Jazeera, “Mamdani ran a transparent, clear campaign and New Yorkers showed up in droves to support it.”
Some investors and lenders are threatening to pull out of deals amid fears of new taxes and regulations. Benefit Street Partners’ managing director Michael Comparato claimed to have abandoned a $300 million hotel project in New York. “The financial capital of the world could be in the hands of a socialist. Hard to comprehend,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Comparato did not respond to requests for comment.
Although the city’s financial power players were vocal about the difference between Democratic socialism and socialism, which is an ideology that promotes the transfer of power from corporations to individuals within a capitalist democracy.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” about Mamdani’s rise, warning that the city would become “economically unviable”. He pledged to back a candidate who was “centrist” more. Pershing Square, his firm, declined to comment.
Lenchner said, “The fear is not about economics; it’s about power.” “That doesn’t mean the policy is unsound. I believe that economic growth is based on affordability.
Mamdani’s funding proposals are ambitious but not unprecedented. He would increase the city’s corporate tax rate from the current 7.25 percent to 11.5%, matching New Jersey’s next-door neighbor. Fortune 500 firms like Johnson &, Johnson and Prudential Financial base their headquarters in New Jersey despite its higher rate. According to the campaign of Madani, this would bring in $5 billion annually.
Historically, higher rates haven’t driven business away. In the late 1990s, wages and salaries in the private sector increased by 9.6 percent, while employment increased by 2.6 percent annually.
“I think there’s a lot of exaggeration here on the part of the wealthy investor class on how much this is going to economically harm New York”, Daniel Wortel-London, professor of history at Bard College and author of The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, told Al Jazeera.
Mamdani also proposes a new 2 percent tax on individuals who make more than $1 million. That is projected to raise another $4bn annually. Earners who make $1 million already have a combined federal, state, and local tax burden of about 46 percent (37 percent of that is the federal income tax that the government has set aside).
Currently, the marginal local rate for someone making $40, 000 (3.82 percent) is nearly identical to a millionaire’s (3.88 percent), due to New York City’s flat local tax structure for anyone making more than $50, 000 annually.
Mamdani is unable to alter tax policy in any way. Any adjustments would require approval from Governor Kathy Hochul. According to Worthtel-London, Mamdani and Hochul’s shared priorities, such as expanding childcare, could lead to opportunities for collaboration, including on proposals for free bus services that would require state support.
The state already raised personal income taxes on millionaires in 2021 under then-Governor Cuomo, pushing rates to 46 percent (when state, local and federal income taxes are combined), the highest in the country.
In a podcast with journalist Katty Kay, Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and former White House communications director, warned that Mamdani’s platform might cause wealthy people to relocate to Florida. Scaramucci did not reply to a request for comment.
According to the nonpartisan think tank Citizen Budget Commission, which is based in New York, that is at least partially true. Because of the millionaire migration, the city missed out on $2bn of tax revenue that ended up going elsewhere.
According to the data, the highest rates of net negative migration for those with the highest incomes occurred in 2020 and 2021, which were at their highest levels of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have been a major factor in the move, as happened everywhere in the country, where people were moving out of cities, and started to return to historical rates in 2022.
With the exception of that period, high-income earners did not leave at a significantly higher rate before or after.
However, moving out doesn’t mean that new people aren’t moving in because millionaires are. According to a Henley &, Partners report, New York has gained more new millionaires than any other city in the world – up 45 percent from 2014 to 2024.
“The majority of high earners don’t relocate simply to avoid paying taxes,” they say. They certainly don’t really relocate across the country. The majority of high-earners choose to remain in a city for the sake of prestige, their families, or their culture. I think there have been scares before. When]fuerter Mayor] Bill de Blasio resigned, we saw it. They were also worried about tax hikes, and they didn’t leave in droves”, Wortel-London said.
Mamdani’s economic pitch targets small businesses, which make up the majority of New Yorkers, rather than the wealthy. He plans to appoint a “Mom-and-Pop Tsar” to cut red tape, streamline permits, reduce fees and fines (including not charging first-time offenders), and increase funding for small business support agencies by 500 percent. His platform promises to reduce business costs by 50%.
How realistic are the plans?
Where does Mamdani’s message resonate more than in housing? As rents skyrocket, nearly half of New Yorkers say they’ve considered leaving the city, according to the think tank, the 5boro Institute.
The rent-stabilized units, which make up about 28 percent of New York’s housing stock, are expected to remain unchanged, which is important to voters like Lankau, who currently reside in one. These are typically buildings built before 1974 with six or more units. Some older structures opt in, but they do so in exchange for tax breaks.
Under the current law, rent increases are approved annually by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, an independent panel appointed by the mayor. In his first three years in office, incumbent mayor Eric Adams approved a combined increase of 9% and 4%, which was followed by another 4.5% earlier this month. If elected, Mamdani would appoint new members to this board and seek to reverse course.
However, critics have criticized the proposal. The New York Apartment Association (NYAA) – a pro-landlord group that backed Cuomo – says a freeze could worsen the city’s housing shortage. According to them, landlords may choose to leave vacant apartments rather than make expensive repairs that can’t be covered by a 2019 law’s increase in rent. As a result, tens of thousands of rent-stabilised units are currently vacant.
NYAA CEO Kenny Burgos stated to Al Jazeera, “Freezing rents will only just accelerate the distress and physical decline of these buildings.”
Mamdani’s platform doesn’t currently include a proposal to address these vacancies or to cap rent increases on market-rate apartments directly.
The campaign has proposed building 200, 000 new affordable units over the course of ten years, tripling the city’s current pace, to increase the pressure on the housing market, which indirectly affects the cost of market-rate apartments. His housing plan also includes overhauling zoning laws, eliminating parking minimums, and supporting mixed-use development.
According to Lenchner, “I believe that those two [freezes on rent-stabilized units and plans to build more housing] would form the kind of holistic program that would increase the cost-effectiveness of New York.”
It remains unclear whether Mamdani would adopt policies proposed by Brad Lander, the third-place primary finisher who endorsed him. Some city-owned golf courses should be converted into housing, according to Lopez. Lander did not respond to a request for comment.
Mamdani also wants to raise the city’s minimum hourly rate from $ 16.50 to $ 30 by 2030. A Cornell University study estimates a true living wage in New York would be $28.54, meaning Mamdani’s proposal would exceed that. Future increases would also be related to productivity and inflation metrics.
Even so, the gap between “living” and “comfortable” is wide. A New Yorker would need to make $66 per hour to live comfortably, according to a SmartAsset study. Mamdani hopes to relieve some of that pressure through policies like universal childcare, free bus service and a public grocery store option.
To address food deserts, the plan for a city-run grocery store would start with one location in each borough. Much similar to city-owned hospitals or public housing, it would not replace the private sector but augment it. Despite this proposal, Republican megadonor and chain owner of Gristedes, a regional grocery store chain, has reacted against this proposal. He threatened to close his stores if Mamdani wins.
Catsimatidis did not respond to a request for comment. He donated more than $500, 000 to Republicans this year, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Grocery costs remain politically sensitive. Grocery prices increased by 2.4 percent over last year, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index.
Mamdani also wants to make city buses permanently free. He pushed for a robust pilot program at the State Assembly, which increased weekend ridership by 38% and weekday ridership by 30%. Making that permanent would require cooperation from state leaders and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which is state-run, and might require some concessions on his part.
Lenchner argued that the kind of momentum and energy behind this campaign effectively convinces Albany to take those kinds of investments, giving him the authority to persuade state lawmakers to push forward with this kind of proposals.
This, however, comes as the MTA is under additional pressure from the federal government. The US Department of Transportation threatened to withhold funding for New York’s congestion pricing initiative, which would allow for transit improvements.
The political calculus
Mamdani, like any mayor, would not operate in a vacuum. He’d have to navigate complex City Council dynamics, work with borough presidents and contend with powerful interest groups.
Democrats have struggled across the nation as a result of their broad coalition, which suggests little conviction in policy positions, which has alienated their base. Even if Mamdani’s proposals are seen as more “radical”, he enters negotiations with a clear starting point and non-negotiables – something Republicans mastered a decade ago when they embraced it and Democrats still have not figured out, Lenchner suggested.
It’s difficult to recall a campaign that articulated its goals, beliefs, morality, and practical policy objectives with such clarity, Lenchner said.
To win in November, he’ll need to expand his coalition, particularly among Jewish and Black voters where he underperformed.
Mamdani will also have to demonstrate that he can hold Wall Street accountable without alienating it in a city that is still dominated by finance. His campaign appears to be trying. At the campaign’s request, Mamdani and executives convened a meeting at the Partnership for New York City, which was attended by business leaders from more than 300 top corporations. The meeting turned out to be successful and attendees felt he was “willing to listen” and “find solutions to the city’s challenges that will work for all,” but they were skeptical if he was real.
