Business leaders from Bill Ackman to Andrew Yang react to Mamdani’s NYC mayoral race win

Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, poured $1.25 million into pro-Cuomo and anti-Mamdani groups since June, giving $1 million to Defend NYC and $250,000 to Fix the City. That’s on top of the $500,000 he gave to Fix the City before the primary.

On Tuesday night, Ackman wrote on X: “Congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.”

Ackman has been a vocal opponent of Mamdani and publicly encouraged Sliwa to drop out of the race.

Mamdani singled out Ackman on the stump, naming him among the billionaires who oppose his candidacy. He has also mocked the hedge fund manager for his “1000-word tweets.”

Ackman is worth $8.44 billion, per Bloomberg.

In a statement on Tuesday night, James Whelan, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said: “We congratulate Mayor-elect Mamdani on his victory.”

He added: “REBNY is prepared to work with the next mayor to address the issue of housing affordability and other challenges facing our city.”

Among his proposals, Mamdani plans to address the city’s housing crisis by tripling its production of publicly subsidized, rent-stabilized homes, at 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.

The plan would benefit households that make less than $70,000 a year, and it would cost the city $100 billion over the next decade.

He also plans to freeze rent for the city’s one million rent-stabilized units.

Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate and the CEO of Noble Mobile, wrote in a post on X on Tuesday night: “Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect of New York City – and the hard part almost certainly lies ahead.”

In an edition of his newsletter published at the end of June, Yang said he predicted a “walkover” for Mamdani in the November election. He added that he met the mayor-elect before his campaign, and wrote: “I found him to be a good person who wants good things for people. He’s a sincere and talented messenger. He is positive and not the least bit hateful or corrupt.”