
Balthazar owner Keith McNally among NYC millionaires backing socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor
McNally — who owns more than a dozen eateries in Manhattan including Minetta Tavern, Pastis and Morandi — called the democratic socialist 'fantastic' on Instagram, adding: 'More so, when my affluent, paranoid friends tell me Mamdani's dangerous.'
6 Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.
Paul Martinka for NY Post
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The restaurateur joins left-leaning financiers, corporate lawyers and other business leaders who are aligning behind Mamdani — despite his platform to tax wealthy to pay for his expansive social programs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Mamdani became the front-runner to lead the nation's center of capitalism by shocking former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to win the Democratic primary for mayor last month.
His policy proposals include free public buses, a freeze on regulated rents, universal childcare starting at six weeks old and a pilot program for city-run grocery stores.
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6 Restaurateur Keith McNally, best known for owning and operating several iconic eateries including Balthazar, has praised Mamdani.
Instagram/@keithmcnallynyc
Yet a growing faction of millionaires sees Mamdani as a necessary force to address the city's deepening income inequality — and are willing to pay their 'fair share' to elect him over current Mayor Eric Adams, who will run as an independent.
James Hueston, a 27-year-old venture capitalist, is part of a group of younger, upwardly mobile professionals, many in finance, who are backing Mamdani's campaign.
'In my eyes, I should absolutely be paying my fair share for the people that need it,' Hueston told the Journal, adding that his views don't represent those of his employer.
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6 Kathryn Wylde, president and chief executive officer of Partnership for New York, said she recently met with Mamdani.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
'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.'
Voting data show that about a third of the city's wealthiest residents supported Mamdani in the primary. Many donors — particularly from Wall Street and large law firms — have remained anonymous, citing concerns about being ostracized by colleagues or clients.
One executive at a major bank told the Journal she feared for her safety and that of her family if her support became public.
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Campaign finance records confirm that Mamdani received contributions from a trader at Jane Street Capital, a managing director at Deutsche Bank and several employees at Goldman Sachs.
6 Ahmed Haque, CEO of Didactic Labs, said that he is supporting Mamdani.
Linkedin/Ahmed F. Haque
While critics like billionaires Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb have denounced Mamdani's agenda and thrown their financial might behind Adams, others have offered words of encouragement.
Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist who ran Michael Bloomberg's third campaign for mayor, wrote on LinkedIn that New Yorkers should 'do what we can to help him succeed.'
These unusual alliances may stem from a belief that Mamdani's proposals are either politically constrained or morally necessary. Some backers assume that Albany's control over taxation will prevent the most aggressive parts of his agenda from being enacted.
Others argue that his focus on small businesses, transit equity and public health infrastructure could improve quality of life across the city.
'His qualifying comments have identified the capitalist system as promoting income inequality. A lot of people in business agree with him on that,' said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a major business group.
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Wylde met with Mamdani in September and recalled him saying, 'I'm not in favor of government taking over your business.'
6 Mark Gorton, CEO of Tower Research, told the Journal he supports Mamdani's plan for free buses.
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Wylde, who did not offer an endorsement, added that Mamdani '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.'
Mamdani has also faced intense criticism from Jewish leaders and pro-Israel groups for defending the slogan 'globalize the intifada,' supporting BDS and sponsoring the 'Not on Our Dime!' Act, which aimed to block New York charities from aiding the Israeli military or settlements.
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After the October 2023 Hamas attack, Mamdani condemned Israeli actions but did not explicitly criticize Hamas, further fueling accusations of bias.
Some supporters said Mamdani's immigrant background and Muslim identity also influenced their decision to back him, particularly in contrast to Cuomo, who left office in disgrace over allegations of sexual harassment.
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President Trump's threat to deport Mamdani, a naturalized citizen born in Uganda, has further energized parts of the city's diverse business class.
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Even Mamdani's ads have struck a chord with entrepreneurial voters. In one campaign spot, he promises to cut red tape for street vendors. In another, filmed in a neighborhood bodega, he pledges to simplify permitting processes for small businesses.
'For immigrants coming to this country, these small businesses represent the single path for upward mobility that they have,' Ahmed Haque, CEO of Didactic Labs, told the Journal.
'Overall, they are far more open to Mamdani's message because the high costs of New York City are forcing them out of the city.'
6 James Hueston, a 27-year-old venture capitalist, said he would gladly pay more in taxes.
Linkedin/James Hueston
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Mamdani's coalition includes both immigrant entrepreneurs and prominent investors.
Mark Gorton, CEO of Tower Research, told the Journal he supports Mamdani's plan for free buses and brushed off warnings that wealthy residents would leave the city if taxes rise.
'New York is a pretty special place,' he said. 'It's very hard to go somewhere else. And are you going to do it for an extra 2%?'

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35 minutes ago
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Brennan has rejected the allegations as 'baseless.' The task force examined every possible angle, Miller said, including whether Trump and his campaign somehow conspired with the Kremlin to skew the election outcome. They did not find intelligence to support that scenario, she said. After sifting through all the intelligence and publicly available information, the team concluded that Russia had waged a large-scale information warfare campaign to undermine America's democratic process, damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy and boost Trump's chances. 'The paper was multiple pages long, but the summary of it is 100% they tried to influence the election, and 100% we can't say if it worked unless we polled every voter,' Miller said. When the assessment was wrapping up and a draft was being edited, then-FBI Director James Comey asked that the report include a dossier about Trump by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, according to Miller and a Senate report from 2020, which cited accounts from multiple officials, including Comey and Brennan. The dossier featured unverified allegations about Trump that had not been corroborated by U.S. intelligence agencies, and CIA officials argued against adding references to the dossier in the report. 'We had already written the paper and it was going through edits,' Miller said. The FBI's stance annoyed Miller. Her view was that 'we can't just shove this in' to the assessment at such a late stage and that 'it's going to take us another six months to go and try to figure out if this is true,' she said. But the FBI insisted that if the dossier were not included, the bureau would withdraw and not endorse the intelligence assessment, according to Miller. 'The FBI said that 'unless you tag it onto the end of it, then we're not going to sign off on this,'' she said. In the end, the CIA and the FBI worked out a compromise. The dossier was included in an annex to the assessment, with a disclaimer that the claims in the file had not been verified by the intelligence community. Comey could not be reached for comment. Later on during the first Trump administration, Miller was called up to the general counsel's office at the CIA. There, she said, an agency lawyer told her she was facing possible criminal charges over her role leading the assessment. Miller assumed it was a joke. 'I laughed out loud.' But it was not. Miller decided to hire a lawyer, though it was unclear what potential criminal charge was in play. The administration eventually used a special counsel, John Durham, to investigate how the previous administration had handled probes into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign. Durham's team questioned Miller for hours. They asked her questions about whether she had an anti-Republican bias that influenced how the assessment was written, Miller said. 'I was answering questions like, 'Tell us how you hate all Republicans, and that's why you wrote this paper.' Actually, if you look at my registration, I'm a Republican.' Miller was never charged with any crime and she said she was never disciplined in any way over the intelligence assessment. She retired during the Biden administration after 39 years with the CIA. Earlier this month, Ratcliffe declassified an internal 'lessons learned' review looking at how the intelligence assessment was drafted. The internal review found that some standard procedures were not followed and that the report was rushed, but did not question the conclusions of the assessment. Miller said no one at the CIA contacted her for the internal review. The CIA declined to comment. Nine years since the 2016 election, Russia is likely pleased to see yet more political acrimony in Washington over what transpired, according to Miller. 'Putin and his BFFs in the Kremlin are toasting vodka shots as we speak at the turmoil this is creating,' she said.