With New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary just days away, influential business leaders are voicing alarm over the rising political fortunes of self-described socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a development they fear could upend the city’s economic future.

An Emerson College Polling/Pix 11/The Hill survey released Monday shows Mamdani narrowly edging out former Governor Andrew Cuomo in eight rounds of ranked-choice voting, a result that has sent shockwaves through the city’s corporate and political establishment.

‘Disastrous for the City’

Fearing backlash from progressives and Mamdani’s energised base, many in the city’s business elite have remained publicly silent. But behind the scenes, executives warn that a Mamdani administration could be “disastrous” for New York.

“It would be disastrous for the city,” said John Borthwick, founder and CEO of Betaworks, a Manhattan-based tech startup studio. Borthwick met Mamdani during a recent Partnership for New York City meeting and came away deeply concerned.

“He’s a very nice, charming human, but I think he has absolutely no idea what it would take to run a city government,” Borthwick said. “Given the challenges the city faces with the state budget and federal government, they will eat him for breakfast.”

Mamdani’s progressive platform, including free city buses, municipally run grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030, has won over many younger and left-leaning voters. But critics in the private sector say these ideas could devastate small businesses and push wealthy residents to flee the city. Billionaire supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis has warned he may shutter his Gristedes grocery chain if Mamdani wins. “I cannot operate under policies that make it impossible to do business,” he reportedly told associates. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis even chimed in, mocking the situation on X: “Just when you thought Palm Beach real estate couldn’t go any higher…”

Queens chamber warns

Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said most of the borough’s small businesses, 90% of which employ fewer than 10 people, would be unable to absorb Mamdani’s proposed $30 minimum wage. “It’s unsustainable,” Grech said. “The average merchant can’t afford a minimum wage increase now. That would kill the bottom line. They’d have to cut employees.”

Mamdani, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2020 after just three years in the workforce, has positioned himself as a champion of economic justice. “In the world’s richest city, making the minimum wage shouldn’t mean living in poverty,” his campaign platform reads. But business leaders say his plans would increase regulatory uncertainty, reduce investment, and stifle entrepreneurship.

One anonymous industry leader compared Mamdani to President Donald Trump, citing the unpredictability of his platform: “It’s almost like Trump in reverse, same chaos, different ideology.” While Mamdani’s support has surged, some in the business community are quietly rooting for Andrew Cuomo, describing him as “the devil they know.” Despite past controversies, many executives view the former governor as more experienced and pragmatic.

Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said it’s not unusual for business leaders to remain publicly quiet during Democratic primaries, where support from corporate interests can be politically toxic. “Many have some history with Cuomo,” Wylde noted, “and he was looking for their dollars, not their public endorsement.”

Zohran Mamdani, one of the Democratic primary challengers hoping to be New York City’s next mayor, was grilled by Stephen Colbert on Monday about his views on Israel.

Appearing on CBS’s The Late Show alongside fellow candidate Brad Lander, Mamdani, who has mounted a remarkable campaign to stop former state governor Andrew Cuomo from coasting to their party’s nomination, was confronted by Colbert over his opinions on Gaza and the Palestinian cause.

“Does the state of Israel have the right to exist?” the host asked him.

“Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist – and a responsibility also to uphold international law,” he answered.

Colbert then sought to address the “elephant in the room,” putting it to the candidate that his past criticism of Israel had left Jews in New York fearful of supporting him at a time of rising antisemitism at home and abroad.

“What do you say to those New Yorkers who are afraid that you wouldn’t be ‘their’ mayor, that you wouldn’t protect them?” he asked.

“I know where that fear is coming from,” Mamdani began. “It’s a fear that is based upon the horrific attacks we’ve seen in Washington, D.C, in Boulder, Colorado… and it’s a fear that I hear also from New Yorkers themselves.

“Just a few days after the horrific war crime of October 7 [2023], a friend of mine told me about how he went to his synagogue for Shabbat services and he heard the door open behind him and a tremor went up his spine as he turned around not knowing who was there and what they meant for him.”

The candidate went on to describe another incident in which an elderly Jewish man living in the Williamsburg section of the city had told him that he now locks a door at his property that he had previously kept open for decades.

“Ultimately, this is because we are seeing a crisis of antisemitism, and that’s why, at the heart of my proposal for a Department of Community Safety, is a commitment to increase funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800 percent because…”

His answer was interrupted by a round of applause from the studio audience.

“To your point, antisemitism is not simply something that we should talk about. It’s something we have to tackle,” Mamdani continued.

Mamdani speaking at a Democratic mayoral primary debate earlier this month (AP)

“We have to make clear that there’s no room for it in this city, in this country, in this world… There is no room for violence in this city, in this country, in this world and, what I have found also, from many New Yorkers, is an ability to navigate disagreement.

“I remember the words of Mayor [Ed] Koch. ‘If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me. Twelve out of 12? See a psychiatrist’.”

The quotation drew a laugh, after which he continued: “I know there are many New Yorkers with whom I have a disagreement about the Israeli government’s policies, and also there are many who understand that that’s a disagreement still rooted in shared humanity.

“The conclusion I’ve come to, they’re the conclusions of Israeli historians like Amos Goldberg. They are echoing the words of an Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who said just recently: ‘What we are doing in Gaza is a war of devastation.

“‘It is cruel, it is indiscriminate, it is limitless, it is criminal killing of civilians.’ These are the conclusions I have come to.”

That answer was also met with cheers and applause from Colbert’s audience.

Mamdani was rebuked by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last week after he expressed the opinion that the slogan “globalize the intifada” was a legitimate expression of Palestinian advocacy.

“The very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, which is a word that means ‘struggle’,” he said in defense of his position.

But the museum hit back by arguing that he had “exploited” the Uprising to “sanitize” the controversial chant, saying: “Since 1987, Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history.”

Despite the concerns voiced by Colbert on behalf of Jewish New Yorkers, Mamdani has secured the support of the influential Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, himself a Jew born in Brooklyn, who endorsed him by saying: “At this pivotal and dangerous moment in American history, status quo politics is not good enough.

“We need the kind of visionary leadership that Zohran is providing in this campaign. In my view, Zohran Mamdani is the best choice for Mayor of New York City.”

They want none of his business.

Big Apple business leaders are shaking in their boots that socialist Zohran Mamdani will pull off an upset win in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary and coast into Gracie Mansion, The Post has learned.

Frightened movers and shakers said that a Mayor Mamdani would be “disastrous” for New York City — with some loath to speak out publicly for fear of ticking off progressives and galvanizing the Queens assemblyman’s lefty, anti-business base.

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“It would be disastrous for the city,” said startup entrepreneur John Borthwick — who recently met the surging candidate during a Partnership For New York City meeting.

Mamdani, who spent just three years in the workforce between graduating college in 2014 and being elected to the state Assembly in 2020, struck Borthwick as out of his depth.

“He’s a very nice charming human who I think who has absolutely no idea what it would take to run a city government,” Borthwick, the CEO of Betaworks, said.

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3 Zohran Mamdani’s surge in the Democratic mayoral primary has some business leaders running scared. LP Media

“Given the challenges the city faces with the state budget and federal government, they will eat him for breakfast.”

The business community’s fear has been rising along with Mamdani’s standing in the polls — culminating with an Emerson College Polling/Pix 11/The Hill survey Monday shockingly finding him edging out former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in eight rounds of ranked-choice voting.

Mamdani’s surge in the polls has been driven by his unabashedly socialist, freebie-heavy platform promising free buses, city-run grocery stores and higher taxes on the rich.

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But many business leaders such as billionaire John Catsimatidis — who threatened to close his Manhattan-based grocery chain Gristedes if Mamdani wins — have claimed that the Democratic socialist’s proposals will lead to an exodus from the city.

3 Billionaire John Catsimatidis threatened to move his Gristedes grocery chain out of New York City if Mamdani wins. Stefan Jeremiah for New York Post

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis gleefully weighed in on the recent poll showing a Mamdani win by boasting of a boon for the Sunshine State — at least for the well-to-do.

“Just when you thought Palm Beach real estate couldn’t go any higher…” he wrote on X.

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Frank Garcia, national chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who lives in New York, bluntly said business leaders were very concerned about Mamdani getting elected.

“He’s like Bill de Blasio. He’s anti-business,” Garcia said.

One New York business industry leader, who spoke with The Post under the condition of anonymity out of concern that Mamdani may actually win, said the outspoken progressive would bring “uncertainty.”

“Uncertainty is never good for businesses, it’s never good for the market,” he said, even going so far as comparing Mamdani to President Trump and his erratic tariff policy.

“It’s almost like Trump in reverse,” he said.

One of Mamdani’s people-pleasing planks is a promise to raise New York City’s minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.

“In the world’s richest city, making the minimum wage shouldn’t mean living in poverty,” his campaign’s platform states.

Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said his borough’s merchants — of whom 90% have 10 or fewer employees — are worried about Mamdani’s promises.

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“A $30 minimum wage is unsustainable,” he said. “The average merchant can’t afford a minimum wage increase now. That would kill the bottom line. They’d have to cut employees.”

But other business leaders have publicly kept their concerns to themselves.

3 Kathryn Wylde, CEO for the Partnership For New York City, said business leaders have stayed silent in the Democratic primary because their “kind words” are not helpful. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Kathryn Wylde, CEO for the powerful Partnership For New York City nonprofit business group, said their silence isn’t necessarily unusual, noting they don’t typically comment on political races.

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“Plus, they are not plugged into social media, so few were forewarned about the possible far-left direction of the mayoral race,” she said.

“Many have some history with Cuomo — as some pundit put it ‘the devil they know’ — who was looking for their dollars but not for public endorsement in a Democratic primary, where kind words from the business community are not helpful.”

Voters in New York head to the polls Tuesday for the city’s mayoral and council primaries, with a tight race emerging between former gov. Andrew Cuomo and State Council member Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani, a progressive lawmaker, has surged in recent polls, prompting growing concern within the city’s Jewish and pro-Israel communities.

In a conversation with Ynet, Cuomo warned of the potential consequences of a Mamdani victory. “Zohran Mamdani is a silver spoon socialist who’s embraced a far-left, anti-Israel and defund-the-police agenda that has fallen out of favor with the majority of New Yorkers,” he said.

5 View gallery Andrew Cuomo ( Photo: AFP )

According to Cuomo, President Donald Trump would “cut through Mamdani like a hot knife through butter” and would treat the city as his own if Mamdani were elected mayor.

“New York City is in crisis, and it needs a leader with a proven track record of delivering real results. New Yorkers aren’t stupid — they know I’m the only candidate in this race who has served as federal housing secretary, attorney general and governor. I have the experience it takes to save this city and make it safer and more affordable,” he said.

“Every credible poll in this election — including two released last week — has shown me with a double-digit lead. And that’s exactly where this election will end tomorrow. Until then, we’re going to keep fighting for every single vote — just like I’ll fight for every New Yorker as mayor.”

Cuomo, who was forced to resign in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations that he flatly denies, has managed to return to the political spotlight by securing the backing of senior Democratic Party figures, including former president Bill Clinton and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mamdani, by contrast, is positioning himself as Cuomo’s opposite: a representative of the next generation, a passionate socialist and a digital-age activist with a past as a protest rapper and a viral TikTok presence.

5 View gallery Zohran Mamdani ( Photo: Yuki Iwamura / POOL / AFP )

He has received endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and is seen by many as her male counterpart. He surpassed Jewish candidate Brad Lander, once considered the leading progressive in the race, and has benefited from favorable coverage by The New York Times, even though the paper has not formally endorsed any candidate.

The latest Emerson College poll shows Cuomo leading with 35% of the vote, closely followed by Mamdani at 32%—a sharp drop from earlier this month, when Cuomo held a 12-point lead. The poll also found that roughly 11% of voters remain undecided, a group likely to determine the outcome.

Under New York’s complex ranked-choice voting system—where voters rank candidates by preference and votes for eliminated contenders are redistributed—Mamdani pulls ahead of Cuomo in the eighth and final round, with 51.8% to Cuomo’s 48.2%.

Despite concerns among Jewish voters about Mamdani’s positions, a recent poll found that about 20% of Jewish voters support him—a notable figure that reflects a shift in traditional voting patterns and the growing strength of the city’s progressive bloc.

If Cuomo represents the political establishment—with institutional backing, a gubernatorial record and an image as the “responsible adult”—Mamdani is the insurgent voice of a younger generation: a candidate with roots in minority communities and a more radical approach to government. If elected, the 67-year-old Cuomo would become the oldest mayor in New York history. Mamdani, 33, would not only be the youngest, but also the city’s first Muslim mayor.

5 View gallery Zohran Mamdani ( Photo: AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool )

Early voter turnout this week has been lower than expected, and the Cuomo campaign has expressed concern about a possible late surge of younger voters aligned with Mamdani, particularly amid heightened attention to the war in Gaza. In recent days, Cuomo has stepped up efforts in neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx, home to black and immigrant communities that have not traditionally been his base of support.

Meanwhile, Mamdani’s campaign is reporting momentum on the ground, with a surge in volunteers, hundreds of street-level campaign events and a sense of mission among young activists, many of whom are participating in politics for the first time.

The war between Israel and Iran, along with the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, deepened the divide between the two candidates—yet also united them against a common adversary: Donald Trump.

Mamdani sharply condemned the military action, accusing the Trump administration of prioritizing war over welfare. “While Donald Trump bears immediate responsibility for this illegal escalation, these actions are the result of a political establishment that would rather spend trillions of dollars on weapons than lift millions out of poverty, launch endless wars while silencing calls for peace and fearmonger about outsiders while billionaires hollow out our democracy from within,” he said.

Cuomo, by contrast, expressed support for the operation’s objectives, arguing that a nuclear-armed Iran poses a threat not only to Israel but also to the United States and the world. Still, he cautioned about the potential security implications for New York City and criticized the way the strikes were carried out, without congressional authorization. “I believe this is more of the same: This is Trump saying I don’t have to follow the rules,” Cuomo said.

He also used the moment to take a swipe at his younger rival. “Who do you want in charge in that situation?” he asked. “Who’s handled situations like Hurricane Sandy and COVID and terrorist threats? This is not a job for on-the-job training.”

5 View gallery US President Donald Trymp ( Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria )

Concerned by Mamdani’s surge in the polls, Jewish and Israeli rabbis, business leaders and community activists have launched a get-out-the-vote campaign in support of Cuomo. The effort includes street posters, dedicated WhatsApp groups and synagogue sermons.

“This is a state of emergency for our community,” said Leah, a mother of four from the Upper West Side who hosted a virtual voting seminar in support of Cuomo. “That bastard is a danger to our values and to our sense of security. This isn’t just politics—it’s about survival.”

One participant in the seminar, Yehuda from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said, “This isn’t only about foreign policy. Someone who can’t condemn attacks on Jews abroad won’t protect them here either.” Many expressed a growing sense of alienation from the Democratic Party. “The party we grew up with is changing before our eyes,” Yehuda said.

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Regardless of the outcome, Mamdani has become a symbolic figure of generational and ideological shift in the city: a younger, more critical voice on Israel, wary of political institutions and active in grassroots local politics.

The winner of the primary will face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November. Adams is now running as an independent, having severed ties with the Democratic Party. Once popular among the city’s Jewish voters, Adams has seen his support dwindle amid corruption investigations and his closeness to Donald Trump, including a presidential pardon he received. In the latest Emerson poll, he garnered just 15% of the vote.

Meanwhile, voters are also casting ballots on Tuesday in City Council races. One of the most contentious is unfolding in a key Brooklyn district—home to approximately 200,000 residents, including Senator Chuck Schumer. The incumbent, Muslim councilwoman Shahana Hanif, has faced criticism from Jewish constituents over her participation in campus protests and her muted responses to antisemitism in the city.

5 View gallery Maya Kornberg (center) ( Photo: Courtesy )

Challenging her is 33-year-old Maya Kornberg, daughter of a family of Nobel laureates, a former resident of Kibbutz Shoval in Israel and now a Brooklyn mother married to an Israeli husband and raising their 8-month-old son Liam. Kornberg has drawn support from both moderate and progressive voters, along with enthusiastic backing from the city’s conservative media, most notably the New York Post, which has regularly promoted her campaign.

The race between the two women underscores the political rift in Park Slope—a neighborhood once considered a bastion of progressive politics, now one of the city’s flashpoints in the debate over Israel and Gaza.

“Too many people in District 39 do not feel heard or represented,” Kornberg told Ynet. “From not taking seriously the concerns about rising antisemitism to not answering basic constituent service requests, District 39 deserves better, and people are hungry for change.”

Jewish leaders urged late night talk show host Stephen Colbert to grill Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” and his other strident anti-Israel views.

Mamdani and fellow mayoral candidate Brad Lander were set to get the star treatment on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Monday night — on the eve of the Democratic primary election.

But in a letter sent to Colbert early Monday, activists called on the talk show host not to treat Mamdani and Lander, the current city comptroller, with kid gloves, noting his show airs in New York, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

5 Mamdani and Lander were set to get the star treatment on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Monday night. Instagram/@zohrankmamdani

“For nearly two years, since the massacre of October 7th, 2023, our community has faced a terrifying tide of rising antisemitism, and fear for our safety and our future in the most Jewish of cities,” states the letter, obtained by The Post.

“Over the last several days, Mr. Mamdani has repeatedly refused to condemn calls to ‘globalize the intifada,’ incendiary language in which he has publicly trafficked for at least a decade,” the missive notes.

“To Jews and most mainstream authorities, this is an exhortation of violence against Jews, referring directly to two waves of violence from the late 1980s to the turn of the millennium in which nearly a thousand Jews were murdered by terrorist bombings in cafes, nightclubs and bus stops.”

5 Jewish leaders urged Stephen Colbert to grill Mamdani over his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” CBS via Getty Images

The letter was signed by Elisha Wiesel, the son of the late Holocaust survivor, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Wiesel.

Elisha Wiesel, during a Post interview quoted his dad, saying: “I learned to trust the threats of enemies before the promises of friends.”

Other signatories included: former Anti-Defamation League president Abraham Fox, American Jewish Congress President Daniel Rosen and Andres Spokoiny, president and CEO of The Jewish Funders Network.

5 Elisha Wiesel quoted his dad, saying: “I learned to trust the threats of enemies before the promises of friends.”

Also signing on was Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, Rabbi Yaakov Berman of the Jewish Future Alliance, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, Rabbi Daniel Sherman of The West Side Institutional Synagogue and Rabbi Binyamin Krauss of the SAR Academy.

The Jewish rights advocates told Colbert that Mamdani, as a young rapper, also “glorified and “sent love to” the so-called Holy Land Five, five individuals convicted by courts of funneling at least $12 million to Hamas, a designated terror organization responsible for hundreds of attacks on Israel, including the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

5 The Jewish rights advocates told Colbert that Mamdani, as a young rapper, also “glorified and “sent love to” the so-called Holy Land Five. Instagram/@zohrankmamdani

“We strongly call on you in no uncertain terms to ask Mr. Mamdani about his use of the term globalize the intifada’ and his 2015 use of the phrase the third intifada looms,’ and his praise of the Holy Land Five,” the letter states.

“To fail to do so as you provide him with a platform to promote his candidacy would be a grave error and an affront to millions of Jewish Americans.”

Colbert also shouldn’t let Lander, who is Jewish, off the hook, the activists wrote. Mamdani and Lander have cross-endorsed each other in Tuesday’s ranked-choice voting primary.

5 Mamdani and Lander have cross-endorsed each other in Tuesday’s ranked-choice voting primary. Instagram/@zohrankmamdani

Lander has said that “globalize the intifada” means calling for an “open season on Jews to him,” but still supports Mamdani.

Mamdani, during an interview Monday morning on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show,” again refused to condemn the anti-Israel rallying cry “globalize the intifada” — saying it wasn’t his job to be the language police, though it’s not a phrase he uses.

He said the slogan has “a variety of meanings to a variety of people,” adding, “that is not language I use.”

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“I do not believe it’s the mayor’s position to be policing language in a manner we are seeing in this moment,” said Mamdani, the first Muslim candidate for New York City mayor.

The Queens assemblyman said he understood the fears and concerns of Jewish New Yorkers and vowed to insure their safety, if elected, because there is a “real crisis of antisemitism.”