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Zohran Mamdani won over some of his critics in the New York business community on Tuesday at a meeting designed to assuage the fears of seasoned executives about the democratic socialist becoming mayor of the largest city in the US.
The Democratic party nominee spoke at a gathering in Manhattan of more than 100 invitees hosted by the Partnership for New York City, an advocacy group for the city’s corporate and financial elite.
A top finance executive in the room said: “The meeting was a net positive. He listened, he was genuinely wanting to engage and ultimately gave most people present a sense that he cares about New York and wants to be the mayor of all New Yorkers.”
Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral nomination in June, easily defeating the heavily favoured former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the city’s ranked choice voting system.
His surprise victory stunned the Democratic party establishment and made the political novice a national figure at a time when the party is grappling over how to move beyond last year’s disappointing election results and take on President Donald Trump.
But his win also prompted alarm among business leaders and New York’s financial elite, who oppose the self-described democratic socialist’s plans to increase taxes on millionaires and corporations to pay for his pledge to roll out universal childcare and free city buses.
Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, said: “The initial reaction on primary night was shock, nobody had really paid attention [to Mamdani] except the negative ads.”
JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon last week said Mamdani was “more of a Marxist than a socialist”, and criticised Democrats for supporting him. He described the mayoral hopeful’s policy proposals, which include city-run grocery stores and a freeze on rents, as “ideological mush that means nothing in the real world”.
The meeting on Tuesday focused on Mamdani’s ideas on fiscal and tax policies as well as his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 33-year-old, who is a Muslim of Indian descent, has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause which has led to accusations of antisemitism.
One person who attended estimated about a fifth of the questions posed to Mamdani related to his views on Israel and New York’s Jewish population.
While the group was sceptical of Mamdani ahead of the event, multiple people told the Financial Times they were impressed with his willingness to appear before a business class he had long criticised.
Wylde said that since the primary, Mamdani had been proactive in reaching out to chief executives and financiers and agreeing to speak privately with the business community.
One top Wall Street executive who was in the room said: “Do I or any of my friends want him to win? The answer is no. Emphatically no. But I think there is some room to work with him. I don’t think we have another option.”
Mamdani described the meeting as a “constructive, honest discussion”, according to a statement from his campaign spokesperson Jeffrey Lerner, who added the candidate was looking “forward to the opportunity to build on this conversation, even in navigating disagreement on fiscal policy”.
But not everyone was convinced. One person briefed on the discussions said that while Mamdani was “very good at crafting answers” and appeared polished and articulate, he remained unsuitable to run the city, with some describing him as “dangerous”.
One top New York investment banker active in politics and civic affairs said most of Wall Street remained in wait-and-see mode to see if a plausible centrist challenger to Mamdani emerges.
“Everybody is watching the movie for a bit to see how things develop and then go from there,” this person said.
Mamdani may benefit from a fractured opposition. On Monday, Cuomo announced he would run as an independent in the general election.
The incumbent mayor Eric Adams, who earlier dropped out of the Democratic primary after the Trump administration declined to pursue a previously filed corruption indictment against him, is also running in the election as an independent.
A poll released this week by the progressive pollster Data for Progress showed that if the election were held tomorrow, Mamdani would win with 40 per cent of the vote, compared to 24 per cent for Cuomo, 15 per cent for Adams and 14 per cent for Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Trump has declined to make an endorsement in the race, but on Tuesday said he thought Cuomo had a “good shot of winning”, adding: “You know he is running against a communist.”
Reported by Sujeet Indap, Amelia Pollard, Akila Quinio and James Fontanella-Khan in New York and Lauren Fedor in Washington
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