As Donors Work Against Mamdani, Top Democrats Stop Short of Backing Him

The day after Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani rocked the nation’s largest city by becoming the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee, New York’s political leaders declined to formally endorse him, and some donors to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo considered coalescing behind Mayor Eric Adams.

In an interview, Scott Rechler, one of the city’s biggest landlords, said that in a general election race between Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, and Mr. Adams, he would put his support and potentially his financial resources behind the scandal-tarred incumbent.

Mr. Rechler, who donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Mr. Cuomo, expressed hope that the former governor and Mr. Adams, who is running in the general election as an independent, would not split the centrist vote.

“You want to have leadership that speaks to what New York is,” Mr. Rechler said. “It’s the capital of capitalism.”

Mr. Cuomo, who for months led in Democratic primary polls, continued on Wednesday to leave open the possibility that he would run in November on a third-party line. Polls and conventional political wisdom suggest that such a move would only enhance Mr. Mamdani’s chances, at the expense of Mr. Adams.

Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and supporter of President Trump who donated $500,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s super PAC, said on social media that he also “may ultimately support and endorse” Mr. Adams.

But one major donor to Mr. Cuomo’s super PAC, the investor Mark Gorton, said he is likely to back Mr. Mamdani, owing to the support that Mamdani had received from Brad Lander, whom Mr. Gorton said he ranked first.

“I feel like people misunderstood my $250,000 for Cuomo for real enthusiasm,” Mr. Gorton, the chairman of the transportation news site Streetsblog NYC, said in an interview.

“It was basically, ‘Oh, looks like Cuomo is coming back. We don’t want to be shut out. Let’s try and get on his good side,’” Mr. Gorton said.

Mr. Mamdani ascended in the primary by focusing on affordability and proposing free buses, government-run grocery stores, universal child care and higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. But his vision for expansive new government programs and a rent freeze on regulated apartments alienated many in the business community.

Mr. Mamdani’s successful showing comes as Democrats across the country are facing profound questions about their leadership and political strategy. In Washington, younger lawmakers, a number of them to the left of the establishment, have been clamoring for more influence over the party’s direction and calling for it to adopt a more forceful, confrontational style of politics.

House Democrats have shown some recent openness to elevating younger progressives, including by selecting one to lead their party’s members on a prominent committee.

But with Democrats shut out of power in Washington and focused on taking back the House next year, it remains unclear how closely senior lawmakers will embrace Mr. Mamdani as they try to flip battleground districts where his far-left stances might alienate voters.

Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, New Yorkers who lead Senate and House Democrats, congratulated Mr. Mamdani on Wednesday and said they planned to meet with him, but stopped short of an endorsement. Former President Bill Clinton, who backed Mr. Cuomo in the final days of his primary campaign, adopted a similar stance.

Other leading Democrats began to coalesce behind Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, including Representative Jerrold Nadler, the venerable Upper West Side legislator.

And Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, an assemblywoman who chairs the Brooklyn Democratic Party, and has cultivated close ties to both Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo, said, “New York City spoke, and we as leaders have to fall in line.”

But moderate House Democrats who represent suburban swing districts voiced alarm about Mr. Mamdani’s ascension and the repercussions it could have for the national Democratic Party.

Two of them, Representatives Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, both of Long Island, were quick to distance themselves from Mr. Mamdani on Wednesday.

Mr. Suozzi, whose district covers a sliver of Queens and who endorsed Mr. Cuomo during the primary, said he still had “serious concerns” about Mr. Mamdani, while Ms. Gillen — citing defund the police rhetoric he has since disavowed and his unflinching critiques of Israel — called him “the absolute wrong choice” for New York City.

Mr. Adams, for his part, made an unannounced appearance on “Fox & Friends,” during which he called Mr. Mamdani a “snake-oil salesman.”

Privately, a range of interest groups on Wednesday were meeting to consider their options. At 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, the Partnership for New York City, a big business group, held a meeting for a subset of its members to discuss the new political landscape.

In separate discussions, some business leaders even consulted election lawyers to see if there was a way to replace Andrew Cuomo on the ballot, should he not run in the general election as an independent, three people familiar with the conversations said.

As potential replacements, they discussed Edward Skyler, who worked as a deputy mayor for Michael R. Bloomberg and is now a senior executive at Citigroup, and Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, the people said. Mr. Skyler left the Republican Party to become an independent earlier this year, and Ms. Tisch is a Democrat.

But Jerry H. Goldfeder, a state election law expert, said that was unlikely to be a legal possibility.

Mr. Mamdani’s success may also have implications for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is up for re-election next year and already faces one Democratic challenger.

Republicans considering running against her, including Representative Michael Lawler, from the Hudson Valley, are already trying to tie Ms. Hochul to Mr. Mamdani’s policy agenda.

“He quickly elevated himself to the leading voice in the Democratic Party, and now they’re all going to have to figure out how they respond to it,” Mr. Lawler said. “Do they agree with him? Do they embrace him?”

Before the primary, Ms. Hochul stressed that she would work with whoever was the next mayor, emphasizing that a constructive relationship between the two offices would be in New Yorkers’ best interests.

But in a television interview over the weekend, Ms. Hochul said that Mr. Mamdani’s desire to levy billions in new taxes on the city’s wealthiest individuals and corporations, which would require state approval, were non-starters with her.

“I’m not raising taxes on people at a time when affordability is the big issue,” she said. “I don’t want to lose any more people to go to Palm Beach. We’ve lost enough.”

In a statement early Wednesday morning, Ms. Hochul congratulated Mr. Mamdani on his victory but declined to endorse him or say she would campaign with him.

Representative Elise Stefanik, another Republican considering challenging Ms. Hochul, said Mr. Schumer, Mr. Jeffries and other Democratic leaders should be forced to say whom they voted for in the primary and whom they would back in the fall.

“Kathy Hochul has not disavowed all of his statements saying he would arrest Netanyahu, that he would open up government grocery stores, frankly, putting small businesses out of business, and that he does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” said Ms. Stefanik, a vocal supporter of Mr. Trump.

During a Wednesday morning appearance on WNYC Radio, the host Brian Lehrer asked Mr. Mamdani if he thought the New York Democratic establishment would line up behind him.

Mr. Mamdani was circumspect.

“My thinking throughout this primary has been for each and every day to earn the support of another New Yorker with every call I make, every text I send, every conversation that I have,” he said.

“Ultimately, that’s how we got to this point, where we won this race. I’m excited to continue to grow that coalition as the Democratic nominee for this city’s mayoralty, and to show that this is the coalition that will deliver on the most pressing crisis in this city, which is that of affordability.”

Nicholas Fandos, Lauren Hirsch, Jonah E. Bromwich, Theodore Schleifer and Katherine Rosman contributed reporting.