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Despite their high salaries, some tech workers, lawyers and financiers are concerned by New York’s rising cost of living, and are betting on Zohran Mamdani for mayor.
Sept. 21, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
Zohran Mamdani’s continued strength in New York City’s race for mayor has bewildered many business leaders who have tried to paint the democratic socialist as too extreme for the city.
But the success of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign has not surprised many young professionals at tech start-ups, law firms and investment companies, who, despite earning well above the New York’s median household income of about $81,000, feel that living in the city is harder than it should be. They believe the upstart candidate has the best ideas for improving affordability.
These Gen Z and Millennial white-collar workers are proving to be a significant source of Mr. Mamdani’s support.
During the Democratic primary in June, Mr. Mamdani, 33, overwhelmingly won the votes of young, high-earning voters. In wealthy precincts where the median income is at least $200,000, Mr. Mamdani won 67 percent of the vote where the median age was 45 or under, including precincts in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and Williamsburg, and the Financial District in Manhattan. In those precincts where the median age was more than 45, including most of the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan, he took only 45 percent of the vote.
Mamdani did best in areas with younger voters, including among the city’s wealthiest precincts
Precincts with a median household income of …
$200,000 or more
Less than $200,000
Sources: N.Y.C. Board of Elections, U.S. Census Bureau
Notes: The share of votes for Mamdani is the percentage of the final-round tally in each precinct that went to Mamdani. Mamdani precincts are those where Mamdani received more than 50 percent, and Cuomo precincts are those where Mamdani received less than 50 percent.
By Christine Zhang
Since the primary, individual donations to Mr. Mamdani’s campaign have surged, while funding to his chief rival in the race, Andrew M. Cuomo, the former New York governor, has lagged.
