For former governor Andrew Cuomo’s corporate allies and ultrawealthy megadonors, purchasing New York City’s 2025 mayoral race should have been business as usual. But thanks to the city’s little-celebrated public campaign finance system, Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-four-year-old democratic socialist and state assembly member, was able to defeat the moneyed and powerful Cuomo political dynasty. And he was victorious despite record-shattering political spending from the former governor’s fundraising apparatus, including the biggest super PAC in New York City’s history.

A 1986 anti-corruption commission convened by Andrew Cuomo’s own father, then New York governor Mario Cuomo, found that “candidates in New York elections frequently collect and spend grossly excessive amounts of money on campaigns. . . . The huge sums involved create vast opportunities for abuse, influence peddling, and other improprieties.”

New York City’s subsequent public campaign financing system, which matches small-dollar donations at an eight-to-one rate, has given populist challengers like Mamdani the resources to take on corporate-backed establishment candidates.

Public campaign financing is “incredibly important,” Mamdani told the Lever this summer, because it “[amplifies] the voice of ordinary New Yorkers as opposed to the billionaires who have grown used to buying our elections.”

It’s no wonder that New York City’s ultrawealthy — who have spent the last year manufacturing panic by threatening to flee the city over Mamdani’s proposed 5.9 percent income tax on residents making more than $1 million — helped fuel tens of millions in pro-Cuomo PAC spending this election cycle. That includes $9.8 million from former Democratic mayor Mike Bloomberg, $1.75 million from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, $2.6 million from cosmetics heirs Ronald and William Lauder, and $500,000 from Fox News cofounder and IAC chairman Barry Diller.

Billionaires who don’t live in New York City but who have major business interests before the city council have also poured cash into Cuomo’s campaign coffers. Airbnb cofounder, Tesla board member, and Trump administration official Joe Gebbia gave $3 million to pro-Cuomo PACs as Airbnb fights to roll back NYC’s strict short-term rental ban.

Cuomo’s largest corporate donation came from DoorDash, which has recently descended on City Hall to try to “throttle” bills securing better benefits for NYC delivery drivers.

In the final days before the election, Cuomo also received endorsements from President Donald Trump and billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk — whose businesses previously benefited from nearly $1 billion in state subsidies that Cuomo carved out as governor.

With the help of the city’s matching funds, Mamdani was able to walk a different path. His campaign raised $4 million in donations and received $12.8 million in public matching funds. After reaching fundraising and spending caps in September, Mamdani stopped soliciting donations, telling supporters, “I am once again asking you to stop sending us money.”

Mamdani also received support from a PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, which raised nearly $1.2 million during the election.

“For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands,” Mamdani said in his acceptance speech Tuesday night. “Thank you to the next generation of New Yorkers who refused to accept that the promise of a better future was a relic of the past.”