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.