Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman plans to bankroll a New York City mayoral campaign, arguing that his affluent associates are poised to flood the election with money in an effort to defeat Democratic Socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
Arguing that his own support of President Trump would automatically disqualify anyone Ackman might put forward, the activist investor said he was making a public appeal: Anyone capable of taking down Mamdani in the Nov. 4 election should step forward and volunteer.
“Importantly, there are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight (believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups) so that a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time,” he wrote.
“So if the right candidate would raise his or her hand tomorrow, the funds will pour in.”
It’s unclear whether New Yorkers would honor such a candidate. The recent intervention by Elon Musk in Wisconsin’s state supreme court election indicated the voting public does not always respond well to billionaires using their money to sway races.
New York mayoral races are notoriously unpredictable due to the city’s chronically low turnout. In 2017, for example, Bill de Blasio won reelection with only 14% of registered voters coming out to support him.
A large influx of New Yorkers heading to the voting booth because they are as concerned as Ackman could easily affect the outcome. If Cuomo can hold on to enough fundraisers, political pundits also point out, it’s possible he could run as an independent like Adams, splitting the left vote and spoiling the race.
Ackman, however, argued all these factors would support the emergence of a centrist candidate looking to position themself on the national stage. It could even be another businessman like Bloomberg, he suggested, although Ackman in an earlier post appeared to indicate he would not seek to run himself.
“For the aspiring politician there is no better way to get name recognition, build relationships with long-term donors, and to showcase oneself,” the hedge fund manager wrote, pitching the campaign like a business deal. “The risk/reward of running for mayor over the next 132 days is extremely compelling as the cost in time and energy is small and the upside is enormous.”
Billionaires are against Mamdani, eh? Something tells me he is the right guy for the job then.
Surely this billionaire Trump supporter cares about the interests of democratic voters
I mean, this guy must live in an insane bubble if he doesn’t understand that this will help Mamdami more than if he had endorsed them. I am sure NYC voters will just rally around a guy who, through funding, owns its allegiance to billionaires.
the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy
Is that a promise? Look dude I’m already sold on him, you don’t need to keep selling him
Billionaires hate him, genocide enablers hate him, fascists hate him, Nazis hate him, government criminals hate him, citizen concerned for fellow citizens love him.
This Texan Jew is about to send some donations to a Yankee antisemite.
*references to antisemitism are sarcasm based on comments from people who apparently loooove fascism*Ackman is also a part owner of X, and that platform will also definitely be a big part of an effort to defeat Mamdani.
Edit: a family member just asked me what I think of Mamdani wanting to put a tax on all hiring, saying he proposed a 35% tax on the salary of all new hires. I googled this, and the only results are on X. The fix is in.
So they are ok with spending hundreds of millions of dollars, just not in any way that actually improves the city for the people that live in it?
It’s not about the money, it’s just misanthropy.
“It’s not to make sure that I have a lot; it’s to make sure that I have a lot more than everyone else. Forever.”
People of NYC: your vote is far more powerful than this dude throwing his lunch money at the opposition.
Huh. I wonder why he just doesn’t vote for the other person. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Isn’t that what poor people do? I was told voting was important… /s
That got tossed overboard by Citizens United. Money is free speech, and for most cases money is a big bag of votes.
So let me get this straight. Current tax law favors billionaires. He’s concerned that progressive policies will target taxing billionaires forcing a mass exodus of billionaires thereby undercutting the tax base. In other words they’re already not paying taxes but taxing them more will make them leave. Make it make sense.
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
Fucking seriously.
Those rich people aren’t going anywhere. Theres not another New York City. They’re not gonna pack up their factories and offices with datacenters and move them elsewhere.
These guys were the first against the wall, come the revolution.
I have no clue what Mamdani ideas for NYC are, but if this pile of crap is against him, that signals to me that Mamdani has principles. Bill Ackerman will only support candidates that he can corrupt.
Lots of articles say that Ackman is a real bloodthirty piece of crap, a famously petty crybully, and a supremecist. So I can see why he’d be against Zohran Mamdani.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/crybullyism-bill-ackman-ruling-class/ https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bill-ackman-war-harvard-mit-dei-claudine-gay.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzkY3NA_ZkQ
His daughter was in the social-studies department just like her father, and rowed crew, too, but she had chosen to write her thesis on “The Concept of Reification in Western Marxist Thought,” having come to very different conclusions than her father had about how the world should work. Ackman said it felt as though she “had been indoctrinated” into a cult.
It’s only “indoctrination” when the system of preference isn’t capitalism. They’d never admit capitalism breeds its own cult.
He wants to flood the FPTP ballot with progressive and centrist candidates so that those votes are spread so thin, the single conservative candidate is a shoe in with a landslide 3% of the votes.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the NYC election ranked choice?
The democratic primary was ranked choice. The general election is still the old broken system.
at what point is it cheaper to just pay taxes than buying politicians? mindless greed from control freaks.
It’s such a mild change too. If you make $1.1 million then your NYC taxes go up $2000 under Mamdani’s plan.
Okay, but if you make $1.1B…
If it was just paying taxes, that would be cheaper–at first, anyway. But the important thing is the power. Laws on everything from taxes to business regulations to social engineering need to be passed and/or stopped from passing, to benefit them and guarantee their lifestyle preferences. And it goes beyond that, because having that kind of power means everyone bows to them, serves them, kisses their asses, and most of all, fears them (or can be crushed by them if they don’t do those things).
