View / New York’s elite ‘resigned’ to Mamdani win

Tuesday marks the mayoral election in New York City. Unless the polls are more wrong than they were in June, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is likely to be the next mayor of the capital of global capitalism.

The home stretch has brought a flood of late spending from Andrew Cuomo, yet more words from Bill Ackman, and a nose-holding but robust endorsement from President Donald Trump to save his “beloved first home” from a “Communist.” None of it is likely to matter. The business community is bracing to wake up Wednesday reminded of their diminishing power in their own backyard. And their own employees led the revolt: The core of Mamdani’s coalition is high-income, college-educated, white voters.

New York’s business elite are mostly resigned, Kathy Wylde, who runs the Partnership for New York, tells me. “Most of them get that the city is resilient,” she said. “We did get through eight years of Bill de Blasio.” The former mayor slightly raised taxes on the wealthy to fund outlandish communist programs like … pre-K, but was stymied by Albany in his more ambitious efforts. (This late mellowing does not include New York’s Jewish executives, who are alarmed by Mamdani’s criticisms of Israel.)

For his part, de Blasio recently noted Mamdani’s ability to code-switch with the city’s elite, who mind being taxed less than they mind being scolded. “If you say nice things to them, they’ll be cool and they can even work with some of your policies they disagree with,” de Blasio said. “I think Zohran has figured that out.”

For all his progressivism, Mamdani is a relentlessly boosterish NYC insider with a uniform — black suit, white shirt — familiar to New York’s financiers. The city’s tech executives like the idea of a digital native. Its real-estate dynasties have been around long enough to know that Albany can be a powerful check on ambitious mayors. And for a lot of the city’s CEOs, “their focus is really on what’s going on in Washington,” Wylde said.