Billionaire Ackman Backs Adams in NYC Mayoral Race Amid Mamdani Concerns

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, has thrown his support behind incumbent New York City Mayor Eric Adams in the upcoming mayoral race. Ackman, who has an estimated personal fortune of $9.4 billion, called on former governor Andrew Cuomo to drop out of the race, citing Adams as the only credible alternative to Democratic primary winner Zohran Mamdani. Ackman's endorsement comes amid concerns that Mamdani's socialist-inspired economic agenda and opposition to billionaires like him pose a threat to New York's financial system.

Ackman had previously backed Cuomo, but the latter lost decisively in the primary. Cuomo relied heavily on his name recognition and deep-pocketed donors to out-fundraise his opponent, while Mamdani campaigned across the five boroughs on a program of tackling economic inequality. Ackman, however, concluded that Cuomo was not up for the fight against Mamdani, and tacitly ruled out endorsing Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels.

Ackman sees Mamdani's victory as a clear threat to New York's Wall Street financial system. Last week, the activist investor vowed to help bankroll any candidate that could defeat the Democratic nominee. "There are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight," he wrote. Following on the heels of the $290 million Elon Musk spent to help Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the promise to flood the campaign with money was seen by some as another example of the ultra-wealthy trying to buy elected officials.

Tearing into Ackman, Senator Bernie Sanders later told his left-leaning supporters more was at stake than just local politics. "The NYC mayor’s race is not just about who wins. It’s whether ordinary citizens have ANY power in our ‘democracy,’ or whether billionaires control it all," he wrote in a post. "We can’t let them win." Faced with public pushback, Ackman sought to temper his comments. "I simply meant to suggest that fundraising was not going to be a barrier to entering the race," he backpedaled. "I don’t believe that money can buy elections."

It is unclear whether Ackman’s endorsement will help Adams. The 64-year-old became the first sitting mayor in the city’s modern history to face criminal allegations when he was indicted last September on federal corruption charges. His police commissioner, chief counsel and two deputy mayors all resigned amid the scandal. The charges were later dropped when Adams agreed to cooperate with the new Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigrants. The order out of Washington triggered a round of resignations from top Justice Department prosecutors who refused to carry out Trump’s wishes.

Mamdani also has vulnerabilities. For one, he faces skepticism as to whether a previously unknown state assemblyman has the experience to run a $1.2 trillion economy. And as a Muslim in the city with the second largest jewish population after Tel Aviv, there are doubts as to whether he can in a key constituency. The left-wing Mamdani’s victory comes amid widespread discontent over an economy perceived to no longer be working for the middle class. After a wave globalization offshored blue-collar manufacturing jobs, generative AI now threatens to eliminate more white collar jobs. "Within the next five years," tech investor Vinod Khosla recently predicted, "any economically valuable job humans can do, AI will be able to do 80% of it."