Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City
by Pauline Park
Eric Adams is the most incompetent and corrupt mayor in the history of New York City; the only good news is that his reign of error will be coming to an end in January 2026. Adams has decided to skip the Democratic mayoral primary altogether — clearly because he realizes he would come in a distant third at best — and instead run as an independent in the general election which he will lose badly.
“Dozens of donors to Eric Adams’ first mayoral run have defected from him this year and instead poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of two of his top challengers, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Daily News analysis of contribution filings found. Out of the 423 donors who this month gave the legal max amount of $2,100 to Cuomo’s mayoral campaign in its first two weeks, about 10%, or 41 individuals, were financial supporters of Adams’ successful 2021 campaign. In total, the ex-governor raked in at least $126,000 from 135 individuals who have previously made political contributions to Adams — including executives in New York’s powerful real estate, lobbying and finance sectors, records show. That’s nearly 9% of the $1.5 million Cuomo raised total in the two week stretch after his March 1 campaign launch. Ken Frydman, a New York PR veteran who has represented investment firms, said Cuomo’s courting of Adams donors in real estate, lobbying and finance is especially key. Such donors are part of the “permanent government” class that holds extraordinary influence over city politics, Frydman argued,” Josephine Stratman reported for the New York Daily News (Josephine Stratman, “Dozens of Adams donors shifting loyalty to Cuomo, Adrienne Adams in 2025 NYC mayoral race,” New York Daily News, 20 March 2025).
Cuomo’s SuperPAC “Fix the City can be hard to distinguish from his official campaign. It is run by Steven M. Cohen, a member of Mr. Cuomo’s inner circle for decades, and its messaging closely mirrors that of the official campaign. A New York City Campaign Finance Board investigation determined that because the campaign’s messaging was so similar to the super PAC’s, they were most likely colluding,” Nicholas Fandos reported of donations to the Cuomo campaign (Nicholas Fandos, “The Business Interests Bankrolling Andrew Cuomo’s Run for Mayor,” 1 June 2025), noting, “Millions of dollars more have arrived from labor unions, tech companies, real estate developers and landlords who have a direct financial stake in the election’s outcome — grand gestures that, while legal, raise pressing ethical questions about the motivations behind their generosity. Mr. Mamdani, Mr. Myrie, Ms. Adams, Mr. Lander, Mr. Stringer, Mr. Blake and Jessica Ramos, a Democratic state senator, have said that if elected, they would lobby the board to halt increases, even though landlords are increasingly saying they are not making enough to keep units in rentable condition. (Mihir Zaveri, “How the N.Y.C. Mayoral Candidates Plan to Solve the Housing Crisis,” New York Times, 1 June 2025).
Andrew Cuomo was the frontrunner according to all the polls except the very last Emerson College survey but the worst governor in the history of New York would be a disaster as mayor and came in a distant second on June 24 despite having started with a nearly 40-point lead in the early polls.
Zohran Mamdani was and remains the clear choice of progressive voters (Sahalie Donaldson, “Zohran Mamdani is trying to build a new NYC Democratic primary coalition,” City & State New York, 5 May 2025): he has been endorsed by the Working Families Party (WFP) and by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA), which I recently joined as a member. There are many reasons why I have decided to endorse Mamdani but one is that Zohran is the only mayoral candidate who has clearly endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement working to end Apartheid Israel’s illegal and genocidal occupation of Palestine as Apartheid Israel is actively ethnically cleansing the West Bank and pursuing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Zohran Mamdani‘s support for Gaza and Palestine alone sets him apart from the rest of the Democratic primary pack and is just one of many indications that he is the choice of progressives. It is significant that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has chosen to endorse Mamdani (Courtney Gross and Erica Brosnan, “Mamdani picks up endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” NY1, 5 June 2025). In announcing her endorsement, she urged Democratic primary voters to rank Adrienne Adams second, Brad Lander third, Scott Stringer fourth and Zellnor Myrie fifth; but there was no question that her enthusiasm was reserved for Mamdani.
I did not rank Andrew Cuomo if you care about this city: the power-hungry and corrupt former governor left office in disgrace after being accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by at least 11 different women and after killing more than 15,000 New Yorkers in the COVID-19 pandemic by blithely disregarding public health strictures and moving people infected with the Corona virus into nursing homes. As the Working Families Party suggested, Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor — DREAM~!
While Scott Stringer served as New York City comptroller as well as in the New York State Assembly, the credible allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault against him disqualified him in my mind just as similar allegations against Andrew Cuomo disqualify him for me. And Stringer like Cuomo is a rabid Zionist supporter of Apartheid Israel, which is at least as disqualifying as allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In fact, in the June 12 NY1/WNYC debate, Stringer explicitly identified himself as a Zionist and a supporter of a ‘Jewish State of Israel’ and an opponent of BDS, which he falsely labeled ‘anti-Semitic.’
I would have recommended New York State Senator Jessica Ramos and intended to rank her second on my ballot; she represents me in the 13th State Senate district in western Queens; but on June 6, she dropped a stink bomb in the primary race by endorsing Andrew Cuomo while remaining on the ballot (Courtney Gross & Spectrum News staff, “Jessica Ramos endorses Andrew Cuomo, stays on ballot,” NY1, 6 June 2025).
in 2021, Jessica Ramos called for Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in the midst of the sexual harassment scandal that ultimately brought him down; and more recently, she has questioned his ‘mental acuity’; so one has to wonder what prompted her to do a volte face and embrace him for mayor.
Ramos’ reversal shocked her supporters and prompted the New York Working Families Party to rescind its recommendation to rank her fifth on the primary ballot, declaring:
Was Jessica Ramos promised a position as commissioner or even deputy mayor in a Cuomo mayoral administration in exchange for her endorsement…? How interesting that Cuomo made a point of saying that he did not endorse her.
This much seems certain to me: Jessica Ramos has shredded her credibility with progressives in New York; instead, she has thrown her lot in with the profoundly anti-progressive multi-millionaire Andrew Cuomo and the enormously corrupt oligarchy she claimed to be fighting.
It has been reported that Ramos managed to raise only $9,000 — a minuscule amount for a mayoral campaign in any city and especially in New York, the most expensive media market in the country — and perhaps more to the point, managed to rack up more than $250,000 in debt; so perhaps part of the deal with Cuomo was his agreement to allow her to go to his well-heeled millionaire and billionaire donors to help retire her enormous mayoral campaign debt.
I thought Jessica Ramos was a progressive; but there are those moments in which someone reveals herself for who and what she is and it seems to me that this is one of those moments. Interesting that though Ramos did not formally withdraw from the race, she also did not participate in the NY1/WNYC debate on Thursday, June 12; I do not know whether that was her choice or whether those organizing the debate simply thought it was pointless to have her on the stage (Emily Ago, “Claws out for Cuomo, Mamdaniat debate as rivals dig into their missteps, weaknesses,” Politico, 12 June 2025).. As for my part, instead of ranking Jessica Ramos second, I did not ranking her at all; bye, Felicia~!
Adam Gray (@agrayphoto, adamgrayphotography.com) took this shot of Ramos at Cuomo’s ‘victory’ party on primary day and it brilliantly captured her political isolation following her endorsement of the disgraced former governor; significantly, she was the only elected official to appear at the political wake and she is now in nowhere land; even if she manages to hold onto her state Senate seat in 2026, she will have done so after shredding her credibility with the very progressives who helped elect her to the Senate.
I ranked Brad Lander second on my ballot; in the June 12 debate, he said he was a supporter of Israel but he did not identify himself as a Zionist; instead, he said he favored a two-state solution and wanted a ceasefire in Gaza; Lander is far from where he should be on Israel/Palestine but he has been a competent New York City comptroller and his cross endorsement of Mamdani and strong support for the progressive earned him a place on my ballot.
I ranked Adrienne Adams third as a tactical vote even though as New York City Council Speaker the ‘other’ Adams (no relation to Eric) has been at best an establishment liberal and far too supportive of the New York Police Department (NYPD); I ranked her third because she and Andrew Cuomo share much of the same base and ranking her helped cut into his vote share. While I cannot say I have been overwhelmed by Zellnor Myrie, I ranked him fourth and ranked Michael Blake fifth in part because of his willingness to cross endorse with Mamdani.
Mamdani’s winning the Democratic mayoral nomination shocked the political establishment and especially the Democratic Party establishment but he still faces Eric Adams, Curtis Sliwa on the Republican line and possibly Andrew Cuomo on his own party line (the Fight & Deliver Party) in the general election in November.
Cuomo was the worst governor in New York’s history and could rival even Eric Adams for corruption as well as slavish self-interested loyalty to Wall Street, the real estate industry, Apartheid Israel and the Zionist machine; now that Mamdani has won the Democratic mayoral nomination, it is imperative that we work to get him elected and defeat his severely compromised rivals.
Mamdani has staked out progressive positions across a wide range of issues, including LGBT rights. Mamdani is proposing a $65 million investment in public providers to ensure the availability of gender-affirming care (GAC) including $57 million to public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers and non-profits providing GAC. Mamdani is specifically proposing that $8 million be directed to support virtual and telehealth GAC and the addition of GAC to New York Health+Hospitals Virtual Care. Equally important, Mamdani promises to hold private hospital systems accountable for denying GAC in violation of the state constitution and state and city laws.
Mamdani is also proposing making New York an LGBTQIA+ ‘sanctuary city’ and he has promised to implemented recommendations from the Taskforce on Issues Faced by TGNCNBI People in Custody to ensure that trans and gender-variant New Yorkers in city jails are treated with dignity. Mamdani is also proposing the creation of an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs to improve the lives of queer New Yorkers and has concrete proposals on housing, education and workforce development for the LGBTQIA community. Taken as a whole, Mamdani’s proposals go far beyond anything any other Democrat running for mayor has proposed not to mention the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and Mamdani’s proposals compare favorably with the paltry efforts of the Adams administration to date.
The extraordinary enthusiasm for Mamdani and his candidacy was on full display when he appeared at the New York City LGBT Pride March (organized by Heritage of Pride) on June 29 and then the Queer Liberation March (organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition) afterwards; I was participating in the latter when the putative Democratic nominee showed up and crashed the party, creating a sensation; marchers started to chant his name and dozens of them mobbed him just to be near him; one can’t imagine Andrew Cuomo receiving anything but a polite welcome at the Pride March and he most certainly would have received a hostile reception at the Queer Liberation March.
Pauline Park is a Queens-based activist; she did her B.A. in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her M.Sc. in European studies at the London School of Economics & Political Science and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; she was the first student at any University of Illinois campus to win a Fulbright fellowship for France; the personal endorsement of Zohran Mamdani and the above assessment do not necessarily represent the opinion of any organization with which she is associated or has been associated.