By Jack Stern
The fallacy of Zohran Mamdani running a “grassroots campaign” is a tall tale greater than the myth of Santa Claus.
Yes, Mamdani has galvanized Gen Z’ers frustrated by the inflation and economy while making them feel warm and fuzzy inside about his pipe dream policy proposals which face an uphill battle to implementation. His polarizing personality has generated a level of emotion, anticipation, and excitement, which hasn’t been seen in years locally. People have been inspired to turn out at the ballot box – for better or worse. But financially speaking, Mamdani’s no different than the rest of them.
What do Dr. Wasif Abidi, Actor/Comedian Geoffrey James, and Professor Robert Meister have in common? All three were among the 19,947 people who donated to Mamdani’s roughly $1.5 million treasure chest of out-of-state contributions. Two of the three didn’t return The Finest Unfiltered’s request for comment with Abidi offering a response via email: “Sorry, I don’t have time.”
Dr. Abidi is a gastroenterologist in Houston, James works in Los Angeles, and Professor Meister – who donated twice to Mamdani’s campaign, once before the democratic primary and a second time prior to the general election – teaches social and political thought at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Other contributors include Aaron Sosnick, a fund management professional from Reno, Nevada, who works for A.R.T. Advisors (based in Manhattan), and Conrad Zbikowski, a consultant from Minnesota.
The professional background of all five individuals speaks to their motivation for voting for Mamdani. Meister likely wants a national far left leaning figurehead he can integrate into his curriculum, while James seems confident about Mamdani’s handling of the entertainment industry in New York City. Sosnick, Abidi, and Zbikowski, all seem to have a vested business interest in the election, which helps dismiss the concept that Mamdani’s campaign has been fully funded by blue collar New Yorkers.
Surely the army of young energized voters behind Mamdani in TikTok videos gives off that deception. But perception and reality couldn’t be further apart. After all, people from different parts of the country didn’t just wake up one morning and say “I’m going to donate to Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in New York City.” Even during a particularly noteworthy and emotional election cycle.
The public resistance to billionaires and big time establishments from Mamdani’s campaign is just part of the show; window dressing designed to distract constituents from the important stuff. And if Mamdani wins the election, he’s going to have a laundry list of favors to return for those who funded his campaign and large corporations that operate in NYC.
Because the big time medical establishments, banks, and other businesses will be looking to quantify their campaign contribution with some sort of return on investment, which may have already been discussed behind closed doors or underneath the table. Knowing how politics works in America’s largest city works, it’s also safe to assume many of those discussions already occurred or are ongoing.
Either way, the diversity of the area codes and wide ranging contributions from different vocations indicates that Mamdani inspired financial proaction from people with seemingly no incentive to donate to the election. When there’s smoke, fire is usually not that far behind, and the slew of out-of-state contributions paired with the 170 donations from overseas exposes the fact that he HAS NOT run a grassroots campaign.
Similar to the millionaire restaurateur whose son opened a well run and supported lemonade stand, Mamdani’s operation clearly isn’t what it appears to be.