Mamdani’s Donations Surged After the Primary While Cuomo’s Funding Lagged

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Individual donors since the primary

Money raised since the primary

Note: Only contributions from individuals were counted. Donations that surpassed the $2,100 individual campaign contribution limit were included.

In the month and a half after Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, he received an outpouring of small contributions from individual donors, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures.

Through small-dollar donations and matching public funds, Mr. Mamdani has surged ahead of his rivals. His campaign announced on Friday that he had reached the $7.9 million spending cap and would end his fund-raising efforts. The city gives qualifying candidates an eight-to-one match of small-dollar donations from New York City residents.

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo fell behind in fund-raising after his bruising defeat in the June primary, raising the least amount of money and having the fewest donors contribute to his campaign.

Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, comfortably leads in most polls by double digits, with Mr. Cuomo as the main opposition.

Mayor Adams, who is polling in fourth, has received the most money from individual donors since the primary. Those donations to his campaign were mostly for $2,100, the maximum contribution limit set by the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, is consistently polling in third and has received contributions from the most individual donors after Mr. Mamdani.

With two months to go before Election Day, Mr. Mamdani has an estimated $6.3 million on hand, followed by Mr. Adams with $3.9 million, Mr. Sliwa with $3.4 million and Mr. Cuomo with $1.6 million. These figures do not include fund-raising by super PACs, which are not constrained by contribution or spending limits, and which overwhelmingly spent in favor of Mr. Cuomo before the primary. In the past two months, funding to PACs has remained relatively flat.

Money raised since Democratic primary

Contributions to candidates from individual donors

Donations to Mr. Adams skyrocketed in early July, but they have slowed since Mr. Cuomo’s decision in mid-July to run as an independent. Contributions to Mr. Cuomo started picking up at the end of August. Potential backers are reportedly conflicted as to which of the two can serve as the most effective competitor against Mr. Mamdani, and many are holding off to see if conditions change.

Despite the infusion of cash into Mr. Adams’s campaign since the primary, he has been repeatedly denied matching funds because the Campaign Finance Board believed he violated the law, putting him at a disadvantage in overall funding. Some of the money given to his campaign will also most likely have to be returned to donors because they surpassed campaign finance limits, though the exact amount still needs to be determined by the board.

Most of the money that Mr. Cuomo raised during the most recent fund-raising period came from larger donations, which means he also received fewer public matching funds.

In the past two months, Mr. Cuomo has held a series of fundraisers in the Hamptons and transferred funds from his state campaign account, indicating his campaign is strapped for cash.

A New York Times analysis of donors who contributed between the Democratic primary and the end of the most recent filing period shows that each candidate is attracting different groups of supporters.

Top self-reported occupations of donors

Hover or tap to see which job groups donated across multiple candidates

Retired 21%

Not employed 11%

Educator 6%

Student 5%

Lawyer 5%

Software engineer 4%

Doctor 3%

Engineer 3%

Manager 3%

Designer 2%

Retired 33%

Executive 7%

Real estate 7%

Lawyer 6%

Finance 5%

Consultant 3%

Not employed 3%

Homemaker 3%

Doctor 2%

Business owner 2%

Retired 68%

Not employed 3%

Homemaker 2%

Educator 1%

Lawyer 1%

Real estate 1%

Service 1%

Doctor 1%

Sales 1%

Manager 1%

Real estate 20%

Retired 10%

Lawyer 9%

Executive 9%

Finance 4%

Homemaker 3%

Sales 3%

Not employed 3%

Doctor 3%

Manager 2%

Note: Similar job titles were grouped together.

Donors who worked in real estate or were company executives often backed Mr. Cuomo or Mr. Adams. Since the primary, both candidates have pitched themselves in meetings with business leaders who fear potential tax increases under Mr. Mamdani.

Employees from SL Green, a real estate firm currently vying for a coveted casino license in Times Square, donated more to Mr. Adams’s campaign than any other private company.

Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Sliwa received the largest number of donations from educators. While both received many contributions from employees at the city’s Department of Education, Mr. Mamdani also drew support from students and educators at higher education institutions in the city such as Columbia University and New York University.

Many workers in the tech industry also gave to Mr. Mamdani. Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft were among the top private employers of donors to his campaign.

The mayoral election goes national

Share of contributors from outside New York City

The proportion of donors from outside the city has risen substantially since the primary, from about a quarter to over 50 percent overall.

A majority of that shift is carried by Mr. Mamdani, who drew support nationally through viral social media videos and a charismatic online presence. Mr. Mamdani’s donors from outside the city were concentrated in urban, Democratic-leaning areas, with the largest number coming from Los Angeles. Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Alameda and Santa Clara Counties in the California Bay Area also broke the Top 10.

His rivals drew a higher share of donors from Westchester and Suffolk Counties in New York, parts of New Jersey and western Connecticut, and Florida counties including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

Republicans in New York City are donating across candidates

Percentage of contributors to candidates by party registration since the primary

Within New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one, those not running on the Democratic Party ticket face a crowded field.

A Times analysis of voter registration data in New York City indicates that while Mr. Sliwa, the Republican nominee, has received the most donations from registered Republicans, they are contributing across all the candidates aside from Mr. Mamdani.

Mr. Cuomo has sought agreement from the others for the weakest candidates to drop out and coalesce around a frontrunner against Mr. Mamdani, but he has been met with resistance. In a statement, Mr. Adams said that Mr. Cuomo “is the only one to blame for this mess,” and called on him to drop out. Mr. Sliwa said he would only drop out if he died.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that advisors to President Trump had discussed the possibility of intervening in the election by offering roles in the administration to Mr. Adams and Mr. Sliwa, clearing a path for Mr. Cuomo to run against Mr. Mamdani unimpeded.

Young donors in New York City are turning out for Mamdani

Percentage of contributors by age group since the primary

Mr. Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, a public safety group, and a longtime fixture of New York City politics, is primarily drawing older donors.

In contrast, Mr. Mamdani’s campaign has engaged many “zero-prime voters,” a term political strategists use to refer to New Yorkers who have not voted in several recent primary elections. An analysis of the age distribution of voters in the Democratic primary showed that younger voters turned out significantly more than they had in the 2021 primary.

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