Congress

New York’s richest aren’t opening their wallets to stop the left

Published

4 weeks ago

June 4, 2026

ALBANY, New York — The Empire State’s wealthiest residents are doing little to halt the left’s relentless march in New York.

That posture is playing out in a deeply uncertain political environment for New York’s billionaire class. The surprise election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in the citadel of American capitalism rattled wealthy New Yorkers, and a recent battle in Albany over taxes underscored the growing influence of the state’s left flank.

Yet even as billionaire hedge fund titans like Ken Griffin publicly feud with Mamdani and deep-pocketed real estate interests protest a new tax on high-value second homes in the city, many of Gotham’s richest people are yet to open their wallets to shape the election cycle in this deep blue state.

Wealthy donors’ decision to remain on the sidelines has alarmed Republican operatives and political leaders in what’s shaping up to be a tough year for the GOP. They’ve been unable to persuade the super rich to aid the top of the Republican ticket, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is lagging in the polls behind moderate Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Republicans need a strong Blakeman candidacy. New York is home to several swing districts that stand to determine control of the closely divided House — making those races vital to President Donald Trump’s final two years in office.

“The thing about rich guys is they like to see a pathway,” said Republican strategist David Catalfamo, a former adviser to ex-Gov. George Pataki. “The only pathway is the governor. You have to show a pathway to success in order to make that bet. What’s the pathway?”

Wealthy New Yorkers were hardly shy about spending against Mamdani last year. Many of them had locked arms with his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with millions of dollars flowing into a Cuomo-allied super PAC from the likes of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and outspoken hedge fund chieftain Bill Ackman.

Mamdani’s win opened the floodgates for the left — a development that stands to have profound consequences for Albany and Washington policymaking.

Democratic socialists are running to unseat mainstream incumbents, with the 34-year-old Mamdani attempting to play kingmaker after he endorsed Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s far-left challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier.

DSA challengers are also trying to unseat incumbent state legislators — contests that may reshape an already Democratic-dominated state Capitol and apply even more pressure on Hochul to raise taxes if she wins reelection.

Business groups, including the influential Partnership for New York City, have tried to take a more measured approach by lobbying incumbents rather than unseating them — a posture that includes opposition to broad-based tax hikes. And some private-sector boosters are funding super PACs to protect moderate Democratic incumbents in Albany who have a say over the state’s tax policy.

None of these efforts, though, are directed at unseating the governor, who has forged a productive relationship with Mamdani while also opposing his more aggressive tax hikes. And the relative reluctance among the rich to write checks represents a departure from recent years when the ultra wealthy tried to shape New York’s politics with mixed results.

Financial sector leaders like Dan Loeb backed super PACs supporting pro-charter school candidates in the Legislature in prior election cycles. Billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen donated heavily to the state Democratic Committee while seeking a lucrative casino license, which he secured last year. Cosmetics heir Ron Lauder spent millions on an outside group to boost then-Rep. Lee Zeldin’s Republican bid against Hochul in her 2022 run for a full term.

That kind of spending is yet to materialize with less than a month to go until the state’s pivotal primaries.

Rather than try to halt the rising tide of democratic socialism, the most prominent of New York’s wealthy elite are renewing vows to move their investments and considerable fortunes to more economically friendly states like Florida or Texas.

The dynamic has left the state’s political class concerned that an even more troubling development is emerging for institutional candidates: The mega rich are simply checking out.

“Some of the entities that really care about this have moved to Florida or Atlanta,” said Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar. “They care, but they don’t care enough to take a lead. It boils down to this: You really love the city and gave up versus I love the city and I’m going to fight. What if they gave up?”

Blakeman, who trails Hochul in polling and fundraising, will need New York’s wealthy to side with him if he wants to be successful. His campaign scored a victory last week when a court ruled he could access public matching funds after Democrats tried to deny him the money, but even with that expected cash influx, he still trails significantly behind Hochul, who had $20 million in cash on hand at the start of the year. The governor is not participating in the public financing system.

The expected Republican nominee must improve both his poll position and fundraising to attract the attention of a deep-pocketed super PAC.

“Blakeman being able to properly get back into that program will be a magnet to attract other money to his campaign,” Kassar predicted. “I do think that Blakeman becomes much more appealing to individuals who want to play in New York state.”

Yet deep-pocketed help is not on the horizon, while the governor has shored up her own standing with New York’s economic upper crust.

Hochul has tried to signal to New York’s richest that she understands their concerns. She lobbied Mamdani to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a member of one of the country’s wealthiest families. She also met with Griffin after Mamdani bragged in a video outside his $238 million New York City penthouse that it would be taxed under a plan the governor championed.

Hochul has not disclosed what was said in her meeting with Griffin, which was scheduled prior to the dustup with Mamdani. And the mayor has not been able to get a sit-down with the hedge funder after the video when Griffin threatened to yank his company’s Big Apple investments.

Those contrasting relationships have suited Hochul well as she navigates this populist political era. Mamdani’s February endorsement of her reelection bid helped short circuit a left-flank primary challenge by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado. The Buffalo-native governor has presented herself to the city’s monied elite as a backstop to the mayor’s more sweeping tax measures.

“Absent the governor I think you have a left-leaning legislature that would have pushed more significant tax increases who are not grasping how we’re losing the competitive race,” said Steve Fulop, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a business-boosting organization.

The DSA, meanwhile, stands to become the biggest winners of the upcoming June Democratic primaries. Candidates backed by the group are supporting primary challengers across New York, and their success would complicate state budget negotiations next year.

There are, however, some exceptions.

One group, Next NYC PAC, has received support from real estate interests like the Real Estate Board of New York’s political arm. The super PAC New York Forward, a group supported by the Albany-based lobbying firm Brown & Weinraub, is backing moderate Democrats in city races including those running against DSA-backed candidates.

“Our clients know they won’t win on every policy issue,” said Evan Rantzaklis, the PAC’s senior adviser. “But they are looking for leaders who will sit down, have real conversations, and find practical solutions — not just try to score political points. This effort is about supporting that kind of legislator.”

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

34 minutes ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”

Congress

Capitol agenda: The GOP confronts its lost summer

Published

2 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Congress is settling in for a do-nothing summer.

House leaders lost control of their chamber with just eight legislative days before a planned five-week summer recess. And President Donald Trump’s demands for action on a stalled elections bill — along with his series of mercurial power moves — have left Senate Republicans frustrated and morose as major legislation piles up.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are confronting the reality that ticking items off their pre-midterm to-do list is looking increasingly unattainable.

Wednesday’s events only made that clearer:

— RECON 3.0: Key rank-and-file House members and chairs huddled in Johnson’s office Wednesday to plot a path forward on a long shot policy bill under the party-line reconciliation process.

Those who attended — including Rep. August Pfluger, an avowed cheerleader for the bill — acknowledged hope is fading fast. Members are mired in fights over how to pay for the package, and their goal of advancing a budget blueprint for the bill this week is dashed.

“After this recess, if it doesn’t happen in the first couple of days, then I think it’s in real trouble,” Pfluger, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in an interview.

— EMERGENCY IRAN FUNDING: Trump has asked Congress to direct billions of dollars to cover the war with Iran — but support for the emergency funding is in serious doubt.

Key Republicans left a classified briefing from senior Pentagon officials Wednesday frustrated by unanswered questions. They want to know how the requested $67 billion would be spent — and whether servicemember paychecks and munitions stockpiles might be at imminent risk.

“We need more information,” said Rep. Ken Calvert, the top House Republican responsible for shepherding the supplemental bill, which also includes farm assistance, disaster and Ebola aid.

— IMMIGRATION: As hard-liners continue to gum up the GOP agenda over the SAVE America Act, some are similarly incensed over Johnson’s failure to act on an immigration measure he promised weeks ago to take up.

Johnson held a call Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and other members to try to find a path forward but didn’t make much progress, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss the details.

Some centrist Republicans don’t want to vote on it before the midterms, they said, and farm-state members are demanding GOP leaders add guestworker visa provisions — something immigration hard-liners sharply oppose.

And while only a handful of potential developments appear capable of pulling the GOP majorities out of their summer torpor, the contemporary Congress tends to act only when deadlines force it to. That has made the early part of this summer especially languid on Capitol Hill.

It didn’t help, some members noted this week, that lawmakers were sent home early rather than hash out their differences in person.

“We shouldn’t be leaving town,” Rep. Ralph Norman said. “We ought to be working, and we’re not doing it.”

What else we’re watching:

— THE GOP’S DIRTY LITTLE SAVE AMERICA SECRET: House conservatives bristled this week over the Senate’s refusal to pass the SAVE America Act, shutting down the floor in protest. But their outrage has obscured an inconvenient truth for the Republicans locking arms with the president to push for his election security bill: It can’t even pass the House — at least not the version Trump wants. Johnson acknowledged as much this week, appearing to concede he does not have the votes to move forward with a drastic crackdown on mailed ballots that Trump has repeatedly demanded be added to the legislation.

— TRUMP’S CLAYTON REVIVAL: Trump threw Senate Republicans a rare bone Wednesday — telling reporters that Jay Clayton would have a hearing for his director of national intelligence nomination in two weeks. The president’s remarks were welcome (but in several corners, surprising) news for GOP leaders, who had watched in frustration as Trump scuttled both Clayton’s nomination hearing and passage of a key surveillance tool renewal last month.

Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy, John Sakellariadis and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

Congress

Congress is settling in for a do-nothing summer

Published

5 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Republican congressional agenda is melting in the summer heat.

Intraparty fights, tight margins, election-year pressures and an indifferent president have grounded the pre-midterm legislative plans of GOP leaders on Capitol Hill, with just a handful of days left to do anything about it.

House leaders, in particular, appear to have lost control of their chamber with just eight session days before a planned five-week summer recess. They discarded two of those days this week, sending members home early for Independence Day after a member rebellion left them unable to move major bills.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s demands for action on a stalled GOP elections bill and a series of mercurial power moves have left Senate Republicans frustrated and morose as major legislation piles up — including the annual defense policy bill, fiscal 2027 spending measures, an extension of government spy powers, the farm bill and more.

“Who needs Democrats when you have your own party derailing the Trump agenda?” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) lamented Tuesday as members unexpectedly scattered for the upcoming holiday.

Absent strong leadership or presidential intervention, the contemporary Congress tends to act only when deadlines force it to, and that has made the early part of this summer especially languid on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers blew past a supposed June deadline for the surveillance program’s renewal, with spy agencies able to rely on existing wiretaps into early next year. The Pentagon bill doesn’t have to get done until the end of the year, and government funding expires Sept. 30, when it is likely to be extended beyond the November election — along with the farm bill.

Still, frustrations are mounting among the lawmakers who toil at the committee level to prepare bills for a dysfunctional House floor.

“We lost four bills that we might have been able to get across the floor,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Tuesday. “We’re losing time, and time is a very precious commodity.”

The one major piece of legislation passed in recent weeks, a bipartisan housing bill, remains unsigned by Trump, who recently called it a “big yawn.” And the GOP’s chances of passing a new policy bill under the party-line reconciliation process are looking increasingly remote.

House GOP leaders hoped a Trump administration request for defense funding would jump-start plans for that longshot bill, which could carry other Republican priorities ahead of the midterms. Instead, members are mired in fights over how to pay for the package, and hopes of moving forward with a budget blueprint for the bill ahead of the July 4 recess collapsed last month.

Key rank-and-file members and some House chairs huddled in Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Wednesday to plot a way forward on a reconciliation package, but another meeting with Budget Committee Republicans was canceled after GOP leaders sent lawmakers home early.

Those who stayed — including Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), an avowed cheerleader for the party-line bill— acknowledged hope is fading fast.

“After this recess, if it doesn’t happen in the first couple of days, then I think it’s in real trouble,” Pfluger, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in an interview.

Only a handful of potential developments appear capable of pulling the GOP majorities out of their summer torpor.

In the Senate, members are on guard for a potential Supreme Court confirmation fight — especially after National Public Radio mistakenly published a false report about Justice Samuel Alito’s retirement.

Otherwise the chamber is set to debate its version of the defense policy bill and process a handful of Trump nominations later this month before starting its summer recess. Other bills, including those dealing with college sports and cryptocurrency regulations, could also come to the floor.

Republicans in both chambers believe they could be forced to act on an emergency Pentagon funding request that the White House transmitted to Capitol Hill last week to cover the expense of the war with Iran. Farm assistance, disaster aid and other bipartisan priorities could ride along on that bill.

But the military funding request is facing serious doubts as GOP lawmakers bristle at a lack of information from the Trump administration on how the requested $67 billion would be spent — and whether servicemember paychecks and munitions stockpiles might be at imminent risk. Key Republicans left a classified briefing from senior Pentagon officials at the Capitol Wednesday frustrated at the unanswered questions.

“We recognize that the department needs more money fast,” said Rep. Ken Calvert of California, the top Republican responsible for shepherding the supplemental bill through the House. “We’ve got to figure out exactly how much that is, and we’ve got to do that as fast as possible.”

Asked as he left the briefing when exactly the Pentagon needs the money, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said, “Now.”

“This is really, really, really crucial,” he said.

But even if the administration coughs up the details appropriators like Calvert and Diaz-Balart are demanding, there is no sign the hard-liners holding the House floor hostage are willing to end their blockade — to say nothing about a potential Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

The 13 Republicans who tanked a procedural vote Tuesday had a variety of grievances. Some wanted to pressure the Senate to take up the elections bill, the SAVE America Act. Others wanted to protest Johnson’s failure to act on a border security measure, as they claim he promised to do weeks ago.

“When leadership is making promises and not following through and then you don’t do anything about it, then it’d be, shame on me,” said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.).

But the proposed border bill is entangled in other intra-GOP conflicts, according to five people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations. House GOP leaders and leadership staff huddled in a series of closed-door meetings Wednesday over the various issues, with still no solution to reopening the floor.

Johnson held a call Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other members to try to find a path forward without making much progress, according to the five people.

It didn’t help, some members noted this week, that members were sent home early rather than hash out their differences in person.

“We shouldn’t be leaving town,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said. “We ought to be working, and we’re not doing it.”

Calen Razor and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.