Business leaders, including Bill Ackman and Andrew Yang, have congratulated Zohran Mamdani on his mayoral win.
Zohran Mamdani is the next mayor of New York City, and the congratulations have started to roll in from some business leaders.
Mamdani’s progressive agenda, which includes freezing rent, establishing city-owned grocery stores, free child-care, and taxing New York’s millionaires a flat 2% tax, has put some on Wall Street on edge. The 34-year-old mayor-elect has also said he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist.
Some high-profile business leaders came out against Mamdani prior to election night, throwing their support behind former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Billionaires like Bill Ackman, Mike Bloomberg, and Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia poured millions into pro-Cuomo groups. On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged in a post on X to “VOTE CUOMO!”
Wall Street, however, isn’t unanimously anti-Mamdani. An analysis by Business Insider previously found that back-office workers on Wall Street overwhelmingly donated to the democratic socialist.
Yasser Salem, a former McKinsey executive and Mamdani’s “CEO whisperer”, told Business Insider that some executives are open to a few of Mamdani’s proposals, including free childcare, which could alleviate some of their employees’ financial burdens.
