Mamdani might have won the Democratic primary, but a plurality of local Dems still oppose him. A diverse set of them told The Post what worries them — from anti-business policies to his lack of understanding of working class struggles to anti-semitism and his alienation of the police.
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.
