New Yorkers woke up this week to a story that smells of the same hypocrisy Washington types have been serving up for years: at least 26 billionaires poured millions into efforts to stop Zohran Mamdani, and yet two billionaires quietly put their names and checks behind the very candidate who rails against the existence of the wealthy. That contradiction isn’t accidental — it’s the predictable result when money and ideology collide in a city where political theater is a profitable industry.
One of those donors is Elizabeth Simons, heiress to the Renaissance Technologies fortune, who wrote a six-figure check to a super PAC backing Mamdani — a reminder that the progressive elite will bankroll whatever keeps their preferred policy agenda in play, even if it requires underwriting the rhetoric they publicly denounce. For any voter who pays taxes and raises kids in this city, it’s jarring to see a capitalist dynastic heir funnel money into an outfit promoting a candidate who says billionaires shouldn’t exist.
The other notable backer is tech billionaire Tom Preston‑Werner, the GitHub cofounder, who made a much smaller but symbolically important contribution to the pro‑Mamdani effort. Whether it’s a quarter‑million from an heiress or a five‑figure check from a tech founder, the message is the same: elites of all stripes will hedge their bets and protect their interests when their power or programs are at stake.
Meanwhile the opposition was funded by a who’s who of big-money players who truly understand what Mamdani’s platform would mean for business and public safety — from Michael Bloomberg to Wall Street heavyweights writing large checks to anti‑Mamdani PACs. This isn’t a populist uprising; it’s a battle of elites on both sides, with taxpayers and small business owners left to pick up the tab for whatever deal is struck behind closed doors.
Conservatives and independent-minded voters should be clear-eyed: the spectacle of self-described socialists taking money from billionaires is not noble, it’s transactional. The real question for everyday New Yorkers is simple — who will answer to you, not to a donor list or to a foundation’s boardroom?
If this race has taught anything, it’s that money will always flow where influence and access promise returns. Hardworking Americans deserve leaders accountable to neighborhoods and honest about who funds their campaigns, not candidates who flip‑flop depending on whose checks clear.
