Some wealthy New York elites surprisingly back NYC socialist candidate who wants to tax them more

Despite his socialist proposals, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has several millionaires backing his candidacy amid his calls to tax the wealthy to fund expansive social programs.

James Hueston, a 27-year-old venture capitalist, is part of a group called the Mamdani Millionaires in a Wall Street Journal piece published Monday. 

“In my eyes, I should absolutely be paying my fair share for the people that need it,” Hueston told the newspaper. “I don’t think that he’s increasing taxation for the sake of it. I think that he’s doing it to fund very explicitly good policies.”

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Voting data showed that about a third of the city’s wealthiest residents supported Mamdani in the primary, the New York Post reported. Many donors, some from Wall Street and large law firms, have remained anonymous.

Other high-earning supporters of Mamdani include Ahmed Haque, the founder and CEO of consulting firm Didactic Labs. 

“For immigrants coming to this country, these small businesses represent the single path for upward mobility that they have,” he said. 

Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist who ran Michael Bloomberg’s third campaign for mayor of New York City, wrote on LinkedIn that New Yorkers should “do what we can to help him succeed.”

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In an Instagram post, Keith McNally, owner of Balthazar, a French restaurant, called Mamdani “fantastic.” 

“More so, when my affluent, paranoid friends tell me Mamdani’s dangerous,” he wrote. 

Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a major business group, told The Journal that she met with Mandani in September, long before his candidacy was taken seriously. 

“I’m not in favor of government taking over your business,” Wylde recalled him telling her.

She added that “he has already acknowledged that the housing crisis is only going to be addressed if there’s an increase in private supply. So he’s not just talking about social or socialized housing solutions.”