Under the heading of “a cautionary tale from Buffalo,” USA Today reports that opposition to the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, “may be looking to New York state’s second-largest city for inspiration.”
The newspaper explains: “After India Walton, a democratic socialist and first-time candidate, beat Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the 2021 Democratic primary, Brown campaigned as a write-in candidate, with backing from business groups, Republicans and police. He won, before resigning in 2024 to run an off-track betting corporation.”
Walton says that “watching the New York City mayoral primary from Buffalo last Tuesday gave me a familiar feeling.” She adds: “In 2021, Zohran Mamdani supported my run for Buffalo mayor; I was a first-time unknown candidate challenging a 16-year incumbent, and conventional wisdom said it was an impossible race to win. Now, in 2025, Zohran has once again toppled the establishment. I’m starting to think that populist policies that focus on working people are a winning strategy.”
Looking toward the general election this fall, Mamdani will face opposition from billionaires who have pledged to pour huge amounts of money into defeating him. In a piece headlined “Who’s Afraid of Zohran Mamdani? Billionaires,” Norman Solomon writes: “a key context of the upcoming election battle is that hell hath no fury like corporate power scorned.”
Solomon’s article continues: “A social-media screed by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman (net worth: upward of $9 billion) was damn near apoplectic that activists and voters had so terribly transgressed. Ackman described himself as ‘a supporter of President Trump’ while expressing a fervent desire ‘to save the Democratic Party from itself.’ Mamdani’s policies, Ackman wrote late Wednesday night, ‘would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country.’ …
“Another aggrieved hedge-fund multibillionaire, Daniel Loeb, opted to be concise: ‘It’s officially hot commie summer.’ Many other moguls have also sounded alarms. But beneath all the froth and bombast, extremely wealthy individuals are busy gauging how to prevail against the threat of democracy and social justice.”
Available for interviews:
INDIA WALTON, [email protected]
Walton won the Democratic Party primary for mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., in 2021. She is the senior strategist at RootsAction.
NORMAN SOLOMON, [email protected]
Solomon is national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.