US Republican President Donald Trump has announced that he will limit federal funding to New York City if Democratic candidate Zoran Mamdani wins Tuesday’s mayoral election.
President Trump said on the Truth social platform on Monday that if Mamdani wins the race, it is “very unlikely that I would contribute any federal funds, other than the bare minimum.”
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Polls show Mamdani leading over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary and is running as an independent, and the Republican candidate, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
The latest Real Clear Politics poll on Monday showed Mamdani leading with 45.8%, holding a 14.7-point lead to Cuomo’s 31.1% and 28.5 points to Sliwa’s 17.3%.
On Monday’s final day of campaigning, mayoral candidates raced through New York City’s five boroughs after months of bickering, social media attacks and cheeky debates.
As the closely watched election day approaches, Mamdani led a sunrise walk across the Brooklyn Bridge surrounded by hundreds of supporters, then began the day with a speech at City Hall.
Mr. Cuomo denounced socialism in the Bronx, visited elderly people in Chinatown and dropped an X-post calling Mr. Mamdani a “poser.”
Mr. Sliwa, the Republican candidate, also spoke at the subway station where a woman died on a train last year and greeted supporters in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood wearing his distinctive red hat.
The duel between Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo reflects their positions in the New York election. The son of another former New York governor steeped in the liberal Democratic political establishment and a young, little-known lawmaker who would become New York City’s first Muslim, first African-born, and first South Asian to lead New York City.
According to the New York City Board of Elections, a record 735,317 early votes were cast over the past nine days in the globally-watched mayoral race, more than four times the total number of votes cast in the 2021 election.
“Our time is now.”
Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old New York state congressman, has energized New Yorkers with an optimistic, multilingual campaign promising free buses, a rent freeze and universal child care, paid in part by tax dollars for the city’s wealthiest residents.
He reiterated that Trump had voiced support for Cuomo in his 60 Minutes interview. Mr. Cuomo has appealed to conservatives in recent weeks as a way to boost his vote.
“If[Cuomo]is elected mayor, our city will fall deeper into the darkness that has forced too many neighborhoods to evacuate and made it impossible for working people to live dignified lives,” Mamdani said.
In his speech at City Hall on Monday, Mandani seemed to embrace the seismic shift his campaign has brought to New York politics.
“Few in this city had the courage to imagine that we could win, and few to imagine what that would mean for a city that for too long has served only the rich and powerful at the expense of those who work sunrise and sunset,” Mamdani said.
Immediately after that, the audience erupted into cheers, saying, “It’s our turn now!”
Mr. Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 after an independent state investigation found that he had sexually harassed women, took aim at Mr. Mamdani in the final hours of his campaign by likening his democratic socialist promises to left-wing governments in Latin America.
“Socialism didn’t work in Venezuela. Socialism didn’t work in Cuba. Socialism won’t work in New York City,” Cuomo said. However, Mamdani calls himself a “democratic socialist.”
New York’s most prominent billionaires are supporting Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has donated a total of $750,000 through a donation vehicle known as a super PAC, CNBC reported last week.
