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Bill Ackman has donated $1mn to a Super Pac opposing Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for New York City mayor, in an eleventh-hour attempt by the hedge fund billionaire to derail the odds-on favourite for City Hall.
With less than three weeks to go until election day, most opinion polls show Mamdani, the Democratic candidate, with a double-digit lead over Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor of New York state who is running as an independent. Republican Curtis Sliwa trails in a distant third place.
Polls have tightened in recent weeks, after incumbent mayor Eric Adams abandoned his re-election bid last month.
Mamdani had a 13-point lead over Cuomo, according to a Quinnipiac survey this week, with the support of 46 per cent of the electorate, compared to 33 per cent for Cuomo and 15 per cent for Sliwa.
However, Mamdani’s comfortable polling lead has not stopped Ackman and a handful of other deep-pocketed donors from pouring cash into the race in a last-ditch effort to stop the 33-year-old self-declared democratic socialist from being elected.
New York state campaign-finance disclosures show Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, made a $1mn contribution on Tuesday to Defend NYC. This fundraising vehicle was set up by Jason Meister, a former campaign adviser to US President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Third Point founder Daniel Loeb gave Defend NYC $100,000, according to state filings.
A spokesperson for Ackman declined to comment. A spokesperson for Loeb did not respond to a request for comment.
A Financial Times analysis of filings shows how Super Pacs, which can raise unlimited funds, and wealthier donors — with Ackman and Loeb as the latest examples — have spent large sums to oppose Mamdani and support Cuomo’s candidacy.
Super Pacs supporting Cuomo, who resigned as governor of New York in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, have raised more than $40mn to date, compared to about $20mn for Super Pacs backing Mamdani, filings show.
Mamdani’s campaign has drawn primarily from small donors who have contributed less than $100. He has also benefited from New York City’s campaign laws, which encourage candidates to engage with “average New Yorkers” rather than “seeking large contributions from special interests” by matching contributions up to $250 from city residents with public funds. The largest proportion of donors to Cuomo’s campaign contributed more than $250.
In an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, Mamdani accused Cuomo of “selling out working-class New Yorkers to [his] billionaire donors.”
Mamdani’s come-from-behind victory in June’s Democratic primary — when he defeated Cuomo, Adams and several other Democratic challengers — sent shockwaves through the party establishment, and made the political novice a national figure.
But while Mamdani’s candidacy has energised progressive Democrats, his policy positions have also proven divisive, exposing fissures in the party and prompting attacks from top Republicans, including Trump.
Mamdani has proposed a sweeping expansion of public services, including free city buses, subsidised child care and city-owned grocery stores, paid for by raising income and corporate taxes.
He has also said that, if he were elected mayor, he would direct the New York City Police Department to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court “for crimes against humanity and war crimes”. Ackman is an outspoken supporter of Israel.
Trump has repeatedly criticised Mamdani and threatened to withhold federal funding for New York City if he is elected mayor.
Speaking at an event at the White House on Tuesday with Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Trump called Mamdani a “communist” and said it would be a “fluke” if he won the mayoralty.
“It is impossible to think that New York City can have a communist mayor,” said the president, a longtime New York City resident who changed his primary residence to Florida in 2019.
“I wouldn’t be generous to a communist who is going to take the money and throw it out of the window, because you are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars.”
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