Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, has rocketed past his rivals in fundraising, bringing in a little more than $1 million in recent weeks, according to new campaign reports filed Friday.
Mamdani’s haul far exceeds the $425,000 raised by the city’s embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is waging a long-shot independent bid for a second term, and that of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who raised a little more than $507,000 since relaunching his campaign in July after his bruising primary loss to Mamdani.
In one sign of the former governor’s financial challenge, Cuomo also opted to transfer more than $68,000 from a state campaign account to help build his coffers for the city contest.
The Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa – viewed as a marginal candidate in the deeply Democratic city – raised about $407,000.
The haul by Mamdani between July 12 and August 18 marks an uptick from the roughly $852,000 he collected a month earlier as the democratic socialist shocked the political world by trouncing Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary.
Mamdani also has built a substantial war chest – with $4.4 million cash on hand, according to Friday’s filings with the New York City Campaign Finance Board. His campaign said it also expects to qualify for more than $2 million in public money under the city’s public fund matching program.
In all, more than 8,000 people contributed to Mamdani in roughly five weeks. And about half of his money came from donors who live outside the city, the filings show.
“With over 50,000 volunteers, thousands of small-dollar donors, and genuine enthusiasm for Zohran’s vision for a more affordable New York City, our momentum is surging,” Mamdani’s campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement Friday.
Cuomo, who announced in mid-July that he would continue to mount a general election campaign as a third-party candidate, has about $1.2 million in available cash. His campaign said Friday it is hoping to secure some $525,000 in matching funds.
The city’s campaign finance regulators will meet next week to consider the candidates’ funding requests.
Adams, meanwhile, has a cash balance of roughly $3.9 million but has been repeatedly denied valuable public funds from the New York campaign board, which has cited its ongoing investigation of his campaign’s practices. He recently sued the board over its denial.
Federal prosecutors last year indicted Adams on corruption charges, which the Trump administration has since dropped. On Friday, Adams insisted he would not abandon his reelection bid, a day after his former chief advisor was accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes. The mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Mamdani, who has sharply criticized the role of billionaires in the race, also is benefitting from the support from the family member of a billionaire, recent filings show.
Philanthropist Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of late hedge-fund co-founder James Simons, donated $250,000 earlier this month to a pro-Mamdani super PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs. The donation is the largest contribution reported by the group to date.
Super PACs operate independently of candidates’ campaigns.
Shortly after winning the Democratic primary in June, Mamdani said he didn’t think billionaires should exist. “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country,” Mamdani said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” at the time.
A Mamdani campaign official on Friday declined to comment on Simons’ donation to the independent group.
Meanwhile, recent bold-faced contributors to a super PAC promoting Cuomo’s candidacy include billionaire Walmart heir Alice Walton. Walton contributed $100,000 earlier this month to the pro-Cuomo Fix the City PAC, bringing her total donations to the group to $200,000.
The group spent more than $22 million in the Democratic primary fight.
CNN’s David Wright and Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.