He\u2019s the Million Dollar Mam.<\/p>\n
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spent the week cozying up to ultra-wealthy liberal power players at pricey private fundraisers to hit his whopping $4 million transition goal \u2014 even after insisting during his campaign that billionaires shouldn\u2019t exist.<\/a><\/p>\n The Democratic Socialist<\/a>, elected to City Hall after vowing to take on modern oligarchs and rein in living costs, kicked off his high-dollar haul Tuesday, tapping Michael Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of crypto firm Galaxy Digital, to co-host a sold-out fundraiser at a West Village home, according to the New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to cheer for him until he does something I will really hate,\u201d Novogratz told the paper. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not batting 1.000, but so far he hasn\u2019t driven the car into the ditch.\u201d<\/p>\n The next morning, Mamdani, 33, was scurrying into a private Tribeca home, where lefty Hunt oil heiress Leah Hunt-Hendrix and crypto booster Marvin Anmori were hosting yet another cash-grab, the outlet reported, citing invitations it reviewed.<\/p>\n Next week, Mamdani will reportedly hit two uptown events and a star-studded Lower East Side bash, rubbing elbows with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Titus Burgess, and his mother, director Mira Nair \u2014 where tickets start at a cool $1,000.<\/p>\n Mamdani met his $4 million goal after relying on deep-pocketed benefactors to fork over as much as $3,700 to boost his small-dollar contributions, his transition team told the Times.<\/p>\n Overall, the transition team added, the mayor-elect raised more than $3 million from nearly 30,000 donors.<\/p>\n Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spent the week cozying up to ultra-wealth liberal power players to pricey private fundraisers. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cWe accept donations from anyone who\u2019s interested in building a more affordable city for all,\u201d Mamdani told reporters Thursday, insisting the wealthy donors<\/a> he\u2019s been courting won\u2019t hold more sway over him than ordinary residents.<\/p>\n He has pulled in more than $3 million from nearly 30,000 donors to reach his $4 million transition goal. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post<\/p>\n New York Post front page with headline \u201cMamdani says \u2018white neighborhoods\u2019 should pay higher property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n The transition said most of the funds go toward office operations \u2014 covering staff salaries, rent, and lawyers for background checks \u2014 supporting a sprawling team of 84<\/a>, bigger than those of recent mayors.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are volunteers that need to be fed,\u201d Grace Bonilla, a transition co-chair, told the publication.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on,\u201d she said, adding that it was \u201ca really expensive venture to make sure that we are setting up this mayor and any mayor for success.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani is reportedly working around the clock to woo deep-pocketed benefactors to boost his small-dollar haul. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n Mamdani is currently raking in far more grassroots contributions<\/a> than most mayoral transitions, with the average gift hitting just $88 in November, according to the team, the outlet reported. <\/p>\n By comparison, Mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio pulled in donations averaging over $1,000 each. <\/p>\n New York Post front page featuring President Donald Trump shaking hands with Zohran Mamdani under the headline \u201cI Love You, Mam!\u201d<\/p>\n Both Adams and de Blasio hauled in around $2 million for their transitions from about 800 donors each.<\/p>\n But Mamdani hobnobbing with the wealthy elite is a sharp break from his soak-the-rich rhetoric<\/a> and belief that the 1% shouldn\u2019t hold such influence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are talking about our tax base growing smaller and smaller each day, with New Yorkers leaving to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to Connecticut,\u201d the pol told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d<\/a> in June. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we do not meet this moment, we will lose the city. I don\u2019t think that we should have billionaires, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n New York City is home to more billionaires<\/a>\u00a0than any town in the world \u2014 with 123.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s the Million Dollar Mam. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spent the week cozying up to ultra-wealthy liberal power players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[302,13754,57,9,24,55,54,56,63,563,58,82],"class_list":["post-62430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-hall","tag-donors","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}