Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, one week after offering "hundreds of millions of dollars" to support an alternative to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, late Thursday night said that incumbent Mayor Eric Adams would have the best chance of winning and that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo should drop out of the race.
Ackman, posting on X, said that he met Wednesday with Adams and Cuomo for about an hour each, and as a result, his "takeaway is that Adams can win the upcoming election and that the Governor should step aside to maximize Adams' probability of success."
Ackman said he does have a "high regard" for Cuomo and his contributions to the state, but he also found it "abundantly clear in his body language, his subdued energy, and his proposals to beat Mamdani, that he is not up for the fight."
But Adams, a former New York City police officer, is "ready to go to battle, guns blazing with enormous energy and clarity on why Mamdani and his socialist/communist ('We must seize the means of production) and anti-NYPD policies would be catastrophic for NYC," he said.
The mayor is also a "great campaigner" who can lead a grassroots effort to defeat Mamdani, said Ackman, while acknowledging that his first term wasn't "without flaws."
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"He relied too much on friends of Adams to staff his administration; however, when one looks at his record in totality, he has had a strong first term," said Ackman.
Ackman added that Mamdani's policies as a democratic socialist are inspiring "many of our talented citizens with relevant experience" to join Adams' team, and said the mayor is committed to hiring the "best and brightest" to staff his campaign and administration.
He also said that Adams has had "impressive accomplishments" in public safety, quality of life, and the economy.
"Under the leadership of the Mayor and Police Commissioner Tisch, major crime is down by double-digit percentages this year," said Ackman. "Shootings are down to their lowest level in recorded City history, and murders are down to record lows we haven't seen since the 1960s. Subway crime is also down by double-digit percentages this year."
The Adams administration has also achieved record job growth after the city lost a million jobs at the outset of COVID, and now, more than 4.86 million New Yorkers are employed, he added.
"NYC now has a record number of small businesses — more than 183,000 — with 20 percent of those opening during this administration," Ackman wrote, while warning that the strong economy and tax base won't continue to grow if Mamdani is elected.
Adams has also worked to make the city more affordable to live in, and has reduced the tax burden on working-class New Yorkers, "429,600 of whom had their city income taxes eliminated, and another 152,500 whose taxes were reduced," said Ackman.
He further pointed out that Adams protected the child care voucher system and established a unit of 1,500 police officers to focus on "quality of life" crimes, "with excellent results, it has been expanded citywide."
The city's latest budget has also increased funding for cultural institutions and programs, as well as libraries, and provided more funding and personnel to keep the city clean, said Ackman.
And, the billionaire concluded that "Adams is also always authentically himself — his smile is real unlike the other guy's — and in my experience, the more authentic candidate always wins."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.