A top figure in New York City's influential bodega network resigned Wednesday in open protest after the group's president endorsed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor, escalating a public fracture within one of the city's most politically sensitive small-business blocs, the New York Post reported.
Fernando Mateo, co-founder of the United Bodegas of America, said he was resigning immediately after President Radhames Rodriguez announced the organization's support for Mamdani, calling the decision a violation of the nonprofit's legal neutrality and a direct betrayal of its members.
"I did not agree with what was done today," Mateo told the New York Post. "This was a betrayal."
Mateo, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for mayor in 2021, said he plans to hold a news conference Thursday condemning the endorsement.
He added that "hundreds of bodega owners" had already contacted him in protest, and that he advised them not to align with any candidate in the race.
"We are not in any position to endorse anyone," Mateo said. "We are in a position to expose what our concerns are and what we feel like government should treat us.
"Radhames Rodriguez violated not only the trust of every bodega owner that we respect but the trust of the organization and the leaders of that organization."
Rodriguez could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but during an event in The Bronx that morning, he described Mamdani as a pro-business reformer despite opposing his proposal to establish five city-owned grocery stores.
"Mamdani will cut fines and fees for small business in-house, allow business[es] to get up and running faster," Rodriguez said. "He will speed up permit and make [the] online application easier."
UBA leadership previously warned that Mamdani's municipal grocery plan would crush the city's already strained family-run bodegas, which operate on thin margins and often serve lower-income immigrant neighborhoods disproportionately affected by crime, inflation, and regulatory penalties.
Mamdani, known as one of the state legislature's most outspoken democratic socialists, made light of assumptions about his economic agenda.
"I'm running on a BEC agenda," Mamdani said, referring to the bacon, egg and cheese bodega sandwich. "It's not a bacon, egg and cheese, it's bringing economic change with some jalapenos on the side."
"Now, you cannot deliver meaningful economic change without the support of the local businesses that millions of New Yorkers rely on every single day," he added.
The endorsement is viewed as an 11th-hour effort to hold Latino backing as New York's political map shifts ahead of the contest.
Multiple polls have shown Mamdani leading among Hispanic voters, but a Suffolk University poll released this week found former Gov. Andrew Cuomo narrowly overtaking him 39%-38%.
Mateo accused Rodriguez of jeopardizing the UBA's credibility at a moment when bodega crime and city regulation remain top priorities among immigrant business owners who supported President Donald Trump's 2024 reelection, in part, on law-and-order grounds.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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