Mamdani's campaign platform says his agenda will be paid for by tax increases, including adding a flat 2% tax increase on the 1% of New Yorkers earning more than $1 million per year. He also proposed hiking the corporate tax rate from 9% to 11.5% to match New Jersey's rate—which his campaign says will bring in an additional $5 billion annually for the city. However, in order to implement these tax increases, Mamdani would likely have to work alongside the state legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has already expressed misgivings about the plan. "I'm not raising taxes at a time when affordability is the big issue," Hochul told PIX11 last week. When asked specifically about raising taxes on the wealthiest residents, Hochul was still dismissive. "I don't want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We've lost enough." Mamdani's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment from Forbes.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo had been heavily favored to win the Democratic primary, despite stepping down as governor in 2021 in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal he later denied. Mamdani has only served in the New York State Assembly since 2021, but his ground campaign drove early voter turnout in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. The same data revealed that 25% of those early voters had never voted in a Democratic primary between 2012 and 2024, implying the campaign energized more voters than expected. The Associated Press called the race for Mamdani on Tuesday night with 43.5% of votes, compared to Cuomo's 36.4%.
"We have won because New Yorkers have stood up for a city they can afford," Mamdani said in his victory speech Tuesday evening, echoing his campaign's major theme of reducing the cost of living.
Wall Street executives, many of whom supported Cuomo, were among the loudest critics of Mamdani during the campaign. Many continued criticizing his policies after his victory on Tuesday. Bill Ackman, a Cuomo megadonor who contributed $500,000 to his super PAC, criticized the low voter turnout in the primary election. "If we allow 9.1% of registered voters determine the future of New York City, then we deserve the city that we are going to get," Ackman wrote in a post on X. Dan Loeb, the billionaire CEO of hedge fund Third Point, announced the start of "hot commie summer." Republicans such as Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for former President George W. Bush, called on New Yorkers to "evacuate" the city," while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invited New Yorkers to move to the Lone Star State." Vice President JD Vance hailed Mamdani as the "new leader of the Democratic Party," trying to tie the democratic socialist's platform to the party at large. Others attacked Mamdani's background. "NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration," Trump advisor Stephen Miller wrote in a post on X. Mamdani was born in Uganda and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.