Despite billionaire backing, Cuomo couldn’t stop Mamdani’s grassroots surge

MNTV Staff Writer

NEW YORK (MNTV) — Zohran Mamdani’s landslide win over Andrew Cuomo has redrawn the map of political power in America’s largest city.

Despite being massively outspent, the 34-year-old Queens assemblyman defeated the former governor and his billionaire-funded campaign machine, signaling a deep shift in how New Yorkers engage with politics.

Financial disclosures show Cuomo’s side — including his official campaign and allied super PACs — spent an estimated $56 million during the election, compared to just under $17 million for Mamdani.

Of Mamdani’s total, nearly $13 million came from public matching funds, part of the city’s program designed to amplify small donors. The rest came from nearly 170,000 contributions averaging under $100 each, a record for any municipal race in New York City history.

Cuomo, by contrast, leaned heavily on corporate and high-net-worth donors. Hedge fund executives, real estate developers, and venture capitalists formed the backbone of his financial network.

Records from the city’s Campaign Finance Board show that 94 percent of donations from finance-sector professionals went to Cuomo, including large checks from Blackstone, Citadel, and JPMorgan executives.

Among the most prominent backers were billionaire developers Stephen Ross and Daniel Loeb, who contributed through political committees. Ross’s New York Forward PAC alone donated $3.2 million to pro-Cuomo groups. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a personal contribution of $1.5 million to Fix The City — the largest super PAC supporting Cuomo — just a week before polls closed.

Fix The City emerged as the single biggest outside spender in the race, investing $28 million in television, digital, and mail advertising. Another group, Defend NYC, added $14 million, much of it on attack ads accusing Mamdani of being “soft on crime” and “anti-police.”

In total, outside spending favoring Cuomo or attacking Mamdani reached $50.8 million, more than seven times the amount of independent expenditures supporting Mamdani.

Mamdani’s campaign itself spent frugally but strategically. The team focused its $17 million war chest on grassroots organizing, digital outreach, and multilingual voter engagement. Volunteers knocked on nearly 1.2 million doors across the five boroughs. Campaign manager Leila Rahman said, “We didn’t have Wall Street. We had WhatsApp groups, Metro cards, and block captains.”

Cuomo’s campaign, meanwhile, spent lavishly on media buys and consultants. Advertising accounted for nearly $33 million, including a saturation blitz across major networks and streaming platforms in the final ten days.

Yet despite the financial advantage, his message failed to connect with younger and working-class voters frustrated by years of inequality and establishment politics.

Cuomo’s campaign was also fined $1.3 million for alleged coordination with Fix The City, a violation of city campaign finance rules. The penalty came after leaked emails suggested joint planning of ad schedules and talking points — an issue that further dented Cuomo’s credibility.

Political analysts say the result is a watershed moment.

“This race shattered the myth that you can buy your way into City Hall,” said Columbia University’s Professor Marcia Geller. “Mamdani showed that small donors, volunteers, and social networks can defeat moneyed interests if the message resonates.”

In neighborhoods from Queensbridge to the South Bronx, turnout was the highest since 1969, with young voters leading the surge. For Mamdani, the victory was about more than politics. “We didn’t just win an election,” he said on election night. “We proved that in New York City, power still belongs to the people — not to the billionaires.”

In a city long dominated by money and influence, the election of Zohran Mamdani stands as a rare story of people’s power triumphing over political fortune.