Congress
New York’s richest aren’t opening their wallets to stop the left
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.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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