Democratic Socialist Shows Major Fundraising Strength in Mayor’s Race
The field for New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has grown even wider, adding former governor Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to its ranks. But recent fundraising figures show two candidates ahead of the pack in the run-up to the June election.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist who represents part of Queens, has reported raising close to $845,000 in the past two months with his campaign anticipating more than $500,000 of that sum will be eligible for the city’s eight-to-one matching funds. Per his campaign, more than 16,000 individual donors have contributed since Mamdani announced his bid last year. “We have the momentum, the movement, and the money to win,” he said in a statement.
Though Mamdani was initially one of the lesser-known figures in the race as a state legislator, his campaign has grown in prominence in recent months as a potential progressive answer to voters hoping to move beyond Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams. While the assemblymember has called out both moderate candidates, he has also attempted to harness the growing ire against President Donald Trump, criticizing the administration’s handling of immigration and, most recently, the detention of a Columbia graduate student and green-card holder.
Cuomo, who was the front-runner even before entering the race, has also boasted a significant financial haul since making it official nearly two weeks ago. His campaign reported that it has taken in a little more than $1.5 million in the past 13 days, including $332,350 in matching funds, citing contributions from 2,821 individual donors.
“I’ve been humbled by the depth and breadth of the outpouring of support we’ve received upon entering this race,” Cuomo said in a statement. “New York is the greatest city in the world, and those who live here deserve a New York that is better, stronger, safer, and more affordable than the New York we have today.”
By comparison, Comptroller Brad Lander reported taking in just under $228,000 with $130,330 in matching funds, which his campaign called his “best fundraising period to date.” Politico reports that State Senator Zellnor Myrie raised $136,258, while former comptroller Scott Stringer has raised $186,987 since January. Adams, the term-limited council speaker, raised more than $128,000 from 1,130 donors in the first five days of her campaign, but it won’t be enough to qualify her for matching funds, per the Daily News.
As for Adams, his campaign has yet to share its most recent fundraising numbers. The mayor’s reelection campaign has been relatively slow-moving as he awaits word on whether a federal judge will grant the Justice Department’s dismissal of his pending federal legal case. Adams is also beginning to shed some of his previous backers from 2021 amid questions about whether he’ll run at all. Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the chairwoman of the Kings County Democratic Party and a onetime Adams endorsee, officially endorsed Cuomo’s bid for mayor over the weekend.
In a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month, 31 percent of registered voters said they would back Cuomo in the Democratic primary, followed by 11 percent for Mayor Adams and 8 percent for Mamdani. A late-February poll was even more encouraging for Mamdani, whose profile has grown in recent months due to the prominence of his social-media-forward campaign. The Honan Strategy Group poll had Cuomo with the backing of 38 percent of respondents, followed by Mamdani with 12 percent.