Zohran Mamdani may have won the Democratic primary in the race to become New York City’s next mayor, but many local Democrats still oppose him. In fact, he didn’t get a majority of votes in the first round against Andrew Cuomo, Brad Landers, and others.
The Post spoke to several “never Mamdani” Democrats from across the city about what worries them about the frontrunner, from his anti-business policies to his lack of understanding of working class struggles:
‘He wants to turn this metropolis into a college town’
“If you know anything about Black history since the great migration, it was only by purchasing private property that we were able to gain economic empowerment in New York City … So, anybody against private property, in my view, is against most of black wealth,” Pastor Conrad Tillard of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead told The Post.
Tillard, 61, who retired last year from teaching Black Studies at City College of New York and lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, originally supported Eric Adams. He says black people “do not know,” Mamdani and will “stick with Cuomo,” who he will also vote for.
“You embrace New York for what it is. You don’t try to make New York into Cambridge, Massachusetts. That’s what these gentrifiers are doing,” he said of Mamdani.
“The bike lanes, the pedestrian plazas, congestion pricing. They’re trying to make this great metropolis into a college town.”
‘I’m moving out if he wins’
Mamdani’s promises to bring prices down rings hollow with East Village resident Andrew Bernstein, who also believes his plan to freeze rent in stabilized apartments won’t work.
“The city’s already unaffordable … The whole housing situation in New York is so fundamentally broken and ridiculous, and Mamdani’s approach to it is the opposite of what is needed,” Bernstein explained. “It just brings the rent up for everyone else [not stabilized].”
Bernstein, 28, a Democrat who supported Zellnor Myrie in the primary, said he’ll move out if Mamdani wins – most likely to Florida or New Jersey – a move a quarter of New Yorkers are reportedly considering.
“I think if people have the flexibility to leave, they will … I think [Mamdani’s] pandering and trying to wait out the election. I don’t think he actually believes in any of this stuff [he’s now saying]. He’s really a socialist.”
‘I know socialism fails because my family fled it’
Phil Wong of Elmhurst, Queens, knows socialism doesn’t work after his family fled mainland China to be free from it. He warns Mamdani’s supporters think they’ll get “free healthcare, free buses, free rents … [but] nothing is free.”
Wong, 59, served as president of the Community Education Council for New York City’s 24th district and is particularly worried about Mamdani canceling gifted and talented programs.
“If he follows his group of people, the young hipsters that never had kids or never sat on a school board, that will be very harmful.
“The parents know best. I have three daughters, and I know there is a high demand for [these programs], and now you want to get rid of it? We’re going to have a mass exodus of kids.”
Wong, a self-described moderate Democrat, is throwing his hat into the ring in his local City Council race in Queens, where he says crime is rampant and more cops are needed — something he fears will get worse in a Mamdani New York.
‘Where is the money going to come from to make it free?’
Alicia Barksdale, 64, of Harlem, is a former toll collector at bridges and tunnels for the MTA, who thinks Mamdani’s plan to make buses free doesn’t add up.
“Where is the money going to come from to [make] it free? My eyebrows are going up, because, okay, you’re young… Saying free transportation is really saying to people you’re going to be losing jobs,” she said, explaining the MTA won’t have enough revenue to pay drivers and might force them into early retirement.
She also worries a Mamdani victory will cause Trump to pull federal funding for the city — and the least fortunate will suffer most.
“So you’re just going to jeopardize them, when they’re already struggling,” Barksdale told The Post. “When the city loses everything, he’s going to be a one-term mayor.”
‘His views would be comical if they weren’t so scary’
“His ideological point of view would be comical if it wasn’t so scary,” entrepreneur Jason Pomeranc told The Post.
The 54-year-old lifelong Democrat was born in Queens and resides in Manhattan. He co-founded the SIXTY and Thompson Hotel Groups and thinks Mamdani’s anti-capitalist views and past anti-police rhetoric will hurt business in the city.
“I don’t think Mamdani has a clear understanding of how important hospitality is, and how each decision he makes can have a ripple effect.
“Harboring hostility to some of the bravest and committed individuals in the city betrays a lack of understanding of public safety … People don’t feel safe walking around the streets of their home, tourists don’t feel safe walking around the streets of the city… I’m deeply concerned as someone who lives here that things could unravel quickly.”
‘I’m worried for my children’s safety’
Sarah Sarway, a Jewish mother of a one-year-old with a second on the way, worries a victory by Mamdani, who supports boycotting Israel, could make her community less safe.
The 34-year-old from Midwood, Brooklyn, is a lifelong Democrat raised in a Republican family. She says she always ignored conservative media — but she thinks they’re right about Mamdani.
“I was always rolling my eyes, trying not to listen to the media they were consuming just villainizing Democrats,” the marketing professional said. “But Mamdani is really as bad as they’re saying he is … they’re not exaggerating.”
Cuomo supporter Sarway says “Israel is always an issue in the back of [her] head” when voting and she worries future anti-Israel protesters could be emboldened and get out of hand under Mamdani.
“It didn’t make sense to me why he was just getting stronger, and getting more supporters, but then I realized that’s really what is going on in New York right now — it’s really frightening that the voice of the city now is his supporters,” she said.
‘It’s going to be a lot worse to run a business’
Richie Romero owns four sushi bars in the city and says costs are already too high for most business owners to turn a profit.
“You walk down the street, and you see all the For Sale signs in the storefronts — people can’t survive,” he told The Post.
“The labor costs are already too high. It’s very hard to do business here currently. It’s going to be a lot worse with him.”
Romero, 49, was raised in Queens and now lives in the West Village and feels Mamdani’s socialist agenda is against New York’s hustle.
“With socialism, eventually you run out of other people’s money. That’s the simple fact. It kills what makes New York, New York.
“It’s like running for middle school president and promising pizza parties every day. There’s no accountability, and I’m sick of not having accountability.”
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