Billionaires Unite: $22 Million War Chest to Stop Zohran Mamdani’s NYC Mayoral Bid
Oct 27, 2025: A coalition of 26 billionaires — including Michael Bloomberg, Bill Ackman, Alice Walton, Steve Wynn, and Ronald Lauder — has collectively poured over $22 million into efforts to derail Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City mayor, in what’s shaping up to be one of the most unequal political battles in recent memory.
The donors’ list reads like a “billionaire panic roll call.” Their goal is simple: to stop Mamdani — a progressive state assemblyman from Queens and one of the most outspoken critics of Wall Street, real estate interests, and corporate power — from taking City Hall.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and community organizer, has built his campaign on promises of affordable housing, wealth taxes, and corporate accountability, directly challenging the city’s economic elite. His growing grassroots support among working-class New Yorkers has rattled the establishment, prompting unprecedented political spending.
Critics say the billionaires’ intervention isn’t about civic concern, but self-preservation. Mamdani’s policies — including rent caps, luxury tax reforms, and curbs on speculative development — threaten to disrupt the systems that have long kept wealth concentrated at the top.
“This isn’t philanthropy — it’s a firewall,” said one political analyst. “The city’s richest are uniting to defend their privilege against a candidate who’s daring to question it.”
For Mamdani’s supporters, the surge of billionaire funding only reinforces their message: that New York’s democracy is being bought and sold. His campaign has responded with renewed calls for campaign finance reform and grassroots mobilization, framing the race as a moral referendum on the city’s future.
As the 2025 mayoral race heats up, one thing is clear — the battle isn’t just political. It’s ideological. It’s the billionaire class versus the boroughs.
