Education
As Trump Targets Universities, Schools Plan Their Counteroffensive
With a now-rescinded White House directive that threw millions of federal dollars for education and research into uncertainty, President Trump and his allies tried to prove they were not bluffing with their campaign threats to target universities.
But before President Trump even returned to office, many of the nation’s well-known universities were already preparing to fight back.
While few college presidents are especially eager to spar with Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance in public, schools have been marshaling behind-the-scenes counteroffensives against promises of an onslaught of taxes, funding cuts and regulations.
Some universities have hired powerhouse Republican lobbying firms. Others are strengthening, or rebuilding, their presences in Washington.
Many are quietly tweaking their messaging and policies, hoping to deter policymakers who know it can be good politics to attack higher education — even when they themselves are products of the schools they castigate on cable television. Rutgers University, for example, announced last week that it would cancel a conference on diversity, equity and inclusion, a focus of the new administration.
A spokeswoman for the university said the decision, which prompted criticism, was made after many speakers from a federally funded program withdrew from the conference, citing an executive order that targets the topic.
“There’s a concern among a lot of campuses,” said Kenneth K. Wong, a professor of education policy at Brown.
Some efforts to rehabilitate higher education’s reputation were already in the works, a response to attacks leaders in Congress made after campus protests over the war in Gaza. But now university officials are confronting an administration whose leaders have made clear their contempt for some wings of higher education. Mr. Trump has said schools are dominated by “Marxists, maniacs and lunatics,” and Mr. Vance has called them “insane.”
The ominous saber rattling from Mr. Trump and his allies includes threats to endowments, federal research funding, student financial aid, diversity initiatives and the potential deportation of roughly 400,000 undocumented students enrolled in U.S. schools.
Several major universities have responded by hiring lobbyists whom Republican leaders might view favorably. Harvard University has turned to a Capitol Hill heavyweight, Ballard Partners, the former firm of both Mr. Trump’s attorney general-designate, Pam Bondi, and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Columbia University signed up with BGR Government Affairs, which counts Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor and Republican National Committee chairman, among its co-founders.
Duke University, which has an in-house government relations effort, brought in DLA Piper as an adviser. One of the firm’s executives is Richard Burr, a Republican who represented North Carolina (where Duke is located) in the Senate for 18 years.
The University of Notre Dame recently registered its own lobbyists for the first time since Mr. Trump’s previous term. And Yale University is beginning its own theater of operations in Washington.
“The university decided to open an office in Washington, D.C. after conducting benchmarking among peer institutions,” Karen Peart, a Yale spokeswoman, wrote in an email, citing upcoming higher education “issues” on Capitol Hill.
The latest activity in Washington came after some other schools ramped up lobbying efforts.
As recently as 2022, Washington University in St. Louis paid $50,000 for its lobbying in the capital. The next year, it raised that spending to $250,000. That exploded to $720,000 in 2024, federal records show. A university spokeswoman did not comment.
Across the country, university officials and their allies said that they were somewhat more prepared for what to expect under Mr. Trump than they were when he first ascended to power in 2017. Eight years later, they said, they had a better sense of Mr. Trump’s approach to the presidency and have also looked for insights into his administration’s ambitions in the “Project 2025” plan, which is closely linked to many of his appointees.
The administration wasted no time in launching those plans with a flurry of executive orders in its first week. One seeks to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including those run by contractors that receive federal student aid funding — a category that includes virtually every campus.
Mr. Trump also ordered federal agencies to compile lists of “nine potential civil compliance investigations” of organizations, including higher-education institutions with endowments over $1 billion.
In a public conference call on Monday sponsored by DLA Piper, Mr. Burr said that while the rest of the Trump administration’s higher education policy was not yet entirely clear, “we believe that endowments are a target of revenue, potentially, in a tax bill.”
Few topics are as alarming to the leaders of the country’s wealthiest universities.
Endowments were largely exempt from taxation for years. But in 2017, during Mr. Trump’s first term, Republicans led a charge to impose a 1.4 percent excise tax on the investment income of large private university endowments. Now there are discussions of raising it to 14 percent, or even 21 percent.
As a senator, Mr. Vance was a leading proponent of increasing the endowment tax, proposing an increase to 35 percent for endowments of $10 billion or more. Despite his Yale law degree, funded partly by the university, Mr. Vance has previously called for an “attack” on universities.
“Why is it that we allow these massive hedge funds pretending to be universities to enjoy lower tax rates than most of our citizens, people who are struggling to put food on the table?” he said when he was a senator, adding: “It’s insane. It’s unfair.”
At least 56 schools were forced to pay the 1.4 percent tax in 2023, totaling more than $380 million, according to an analysis by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Records show that representatives of major universities were busy presenting their anti-endowment positions on Capitol Hill last year. In the fourth quarter, about 10 top schools, including Stanford and Cornell, lobbied on the tax.
They have often built their case around what they contend would be lost if universities had to pay more of the government’s bills: money that they use for research and tuition support, particularly for low-income students.
At Wesleyan University, for example, that amounted to $85 million last year that served 1,500 students, according to Michael S. Roth, Wesleyan’s president.
“So it’s real money,” Dr. Roth said, adding that a tax increase would make it harder for the university to support students. He added, “It means we will be serving fewer worthy applicants.” Dr. Roth said that Wesleyan would not be hiring outside lobbyists but, instead, would use that money to assist students.
Mr. Burr also said universities would be affected if the Trump administration targeted funds for research. He noted that the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had both recently issued directives to suspend public communications, research-grant reviews, travel and training for scientists.
On Monday evening, the administration also issued a sweeping pause on trillions in federal grant funding, which a federal judge blocked about 24 hours later — but only after a day of chaos and tumult for campus leaders.
Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,600 campuses nationwide, called it the “most irresponsible public policy” he had ever witnessed. The organization called for the order’s reversal; the White House backed away from the order on Wednesday.
The pause had been designed to give the administration time to determine whether grants align with Mr. Trump’s priorities. In the 2023 fiscal year, universities received close to $60 billion in federal funding for research.
Barbara Snyder, the president of the Association of American Universities, which includes dozens of the most prominent schools in the country, noted that the explosion of anger in Washington toward universities was not necessarily new.
“It’s more challenging than it was 20 years ago,” she said, but added: “I don’t think this has all been an overnight change.”
Even as universities muster defenses, no consensus has emerged among them about how best to approach the second iteration of Mr. Trump’s Washington.
“Our institutions,” Ms. Snyder said, “have their own ways of doing these things.”
new video loaded: We Charted the Decline in International Students to the U.S.
By Aatish Bhatia, Laura Bult and Laura Salaberry
November 3, 2025
Times Opinion convened a
panel of New Yorkers to
assess the mayoral candidates
for the Nov. 4 election.
Oct. 29, 2025
On a scale from 0-10, we asked panelists to rate each candidate’s potential to be a great mayor of New York City.
New York City has rarely had a mayoral election so transfixing, or with such critical stakes for its future. In the cross hairs of President Trump’s assault on America’s cities and facing an acute affordability crisis, voters will choose on Nov. 4 from a unique slate of candidates: Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, who surprised experts by winning the Democratic primary in June; Andrew Cuomo, the three-term governor forced to resign amid a wave of sexual misconduct accusations, now running as an independent; and Curtis Sliwa, a Republican making his second run for mayor.
Times Opinion brought together 14 panelists to assess the candidates and their ability to lead the city; 11 returned from the panel we convened for the Democratic primary in June. In particular, the panelists explored how Mr. Cuomo stacked up against Mr. Mamdani, who has maintained a steady lead in the polls after energizing a broad coalition of voters with a message laser-focused on the cost of living.
Some of the panelists who favored Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, in the June primary, embraced Mr. Mamdani’s vision for fresh approaches to seemingly intractable problems, while placing a bet that he would overcome his relative inexperience in government. “We’re riding on hope here,” said one. Many agreed with another panelist’s assessment that it was “time for a generational shift.” A few panelists spoke favorably about Mr. Cuomo’s long experience in government, but most felt he represented a tired and pugilistic style of politics and hadn’t done enough to change that dynamic.
The Choice was compiled by editors in Times Opinion using a brief questionnaire, material from a round-table discussion in early October and individual discussions. The material has been edited for length and clarity.
After one participant dropped out late in the process, Joseph Borelli was added to the panel, but not in time for the round-table discussion; He conveyed his views in an interview and in the questionnaire.
Eleanor Randolph Journalist and former Times editorial board member
It looks like Mamdani is going to win, but you never know absolutely what’s going to happen in an election. We’re riding on hope here because we don’t really know who this guy is, ultimately, but he’s doing a lot of the right things, like talking and listening to people in the business community as part of understanding how complicated this city is.
Caitlin Kawaguchi Nonprofit strategist and community representative in Brooklyn
I hear that we don’t know definitively how he will be as mayor, whereas with Cuomo, we have his background. But I think with Cuomo, his background is not good, right? We’ve seen that he rewards his donors. We’ve seen that he retaliates against folks who oppose him.
When he’s had a platform, he’s used it to his own personal gain.
Amit Singh Bagga Democratic strategist and former city official
On his core issues, Mamdani has stayed remarkably consistent. He’s had a laser focus on affordability and quality of life as it is experienced. And that is the No. 1 issue facing New Yorkers. Like Eleanor, I’ve been pleased and encouraged by what I have experienced as genuine and sincere outreach to corners of New York City society and economy that perhaps were very skeptical of him. And he has demonstrated a remarkable degree of openness that many politicians do not seem to have, a willingness to learn.
Neil Blumenthal Co-founder and co-chief executive of Warby Parker
This is effectively a two-way choice. On the one hand, you have somebody who has a wealth of experience, has been an attorney general, a governor, a cabinet secretary. And on the other hand, you have somebody who hardly has work experience. So that’s what it comes down to for me.
Joseph Borelli Republican former city councilman from Staten Island Andrew Cuomo will not be as conservative as I’d like him to be. I think he won’t be as progressive as others would like him to be. I think he’ll be more moderate by definition. And that, to me, is a better outcome than having someone who will almost always be looking to accelerate the progressive socialist agenda. Mamdani is running not just to fix the potholes. He’s running to implement a vision of government that is not shared by myself and not shared by a lot of New Yorkers.
Mitchell L. Moss Urban policy professor at N.Y.U.
I think Mamdani’s a compelling candidate with vast upside but much more downside than people recognize. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He is prepared to give up control of the school system, and that is a path to more education failure, not greater success. Policywise, he has a thin agenda. The rent stabilization that he proposes would not help people in NYCHA [the city’s public housing agency]. It doesn’t help people who rent in two-family homes. But it’s very attractive symbolically. Affordability is a great concept, but as for free buses, the buses aren’t actually under his control, but under an M.T.A. board.
Antonio Weiss Financial executive and former U.S. Treasury official
There’s a lot to unpack in what Mitchell said. Since the ’70s we’ve had the Financial Emergency Act, which calls for a balanced budget. And so the budget should also be thought of as a set of choices that the mayor and the City Council make about the allocation of resources. Mamdani has been clear about the priorities he would set in a way that this current administration has not done. And look, we’re going to be in a pitched battle next year with a federal administration that’s withholding funds.
New York State passed its budget as if none of this were happening. New York City passed its budget as if none of this were happening. And what Mamdani has shown us is he’s reaching out across the board. And yes, that’s a coalition to get elected. It’s also a coalition to govern.
Frederick A. Davie Senior executive vice president at Union Theological Seminary
I want to explore a little bit of an intangible. Mamdani has tapped into the way that a whole swath of this city that’s a lot younger than me understands and experiences life. And he’s able to not only grasp that, but give voice to a lot of what they’re feeling and offer solutions and directions that they can connect to. And I think there’s a genius in that we shouldn’t miss or dismiss. And I think that same genius can be brought to bear on governing the city. It’s probably time for a generational shift in leadership in this city.
Iwen Chu Former New York State senator representing South Brooklyn
Brad [Lander] was my choice in the primary, and then Brad now is not on the ticket. What option do I have?
For me, there are four factors. We look at the past for your record. We look at the future for your vision. We look at your team, your leadership. We look at your personal ethics. That’s how I ranked it.And I think Mamdani’s approach, how he handled police, public safety, education, Israel issues, business is all the same: He listens. So I think how he builds his team is crucial, to build the trust for the voters.
Frederick A. Davie Senior executive vice president at Union Theological Seminary So Mamdani’s under no illusion that Trump’s going to make it easy for him. But he also knows it’s not a battle he has to fight alone, that he has the governor, state legislative leaders and members of Congress.
Christina M. Greer Political scientist and a host of the “FAQ NYC” podcast
I don’t trust Cuomo to protect New York City. I think that he will acquiesce to Donald Trump in ways that he says he won’t, but he’s a lot of bluster. I do agree with Mamdani in the sense that it will take Hakeem [Jeffries] and Chuck [Schumer] having a backbone and supporting him in a lot of ways. I do think we will be penalized — as a city economically, if not worse, with the National Guard and ICE agents.Is Mamdani an ideal candidate, 33 years old, who’s never been citywide elected? [Mr. Mamdani turned 34 after this discussion took place.] No. Are these the cards that we have and we’re going to play them? Yes. And I think I’m optimistic with him, sort of, getting people power to resist the Trump administration and the draconian policies that will come out of Washington, D.C.
Joseph Borelli Republican former city councilman from Staten Island
I think this issue has been framed to be one-sided. Why do we assume that Trump is going to come after New York when, in reality, Mamdani is going to benefit politically from going after the Trump administration, and being the leading far-left figure in American politics?
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
I think that Andrew Cuomo actually had a really good opportunity to push back on the Trump administration when they threatened to arrest someone — Mamdani — who won a Democratic contest for mayor. He didn’t. And I think that’s really indicative of who Andrew Cuomo is. To the extent he was an effective leader, it’s because he was a bully. He cannot deal with Trump, someone with more power than him.
Whitney Toussaint Co-president of Community Education Council 30 in Queens
On Trump, Cuomo has already sold out. He’s not really spoken out against the harmful things the Trump administration has already done. He’s courting many of the same kinds of voters.
Howard Wolfson Deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration I’ve been profoundly disappointed by the lack of conversation about education during the campaign from all the candidates. The Times recently published a story, 140,000 homeless students in New York. And I don’t hear the candidates really talking an awful lot about how to address what is, in my view, a really systemic crisis. I think the mayor should be running the school system. There should be a point of accountability. If parents feel like they have been shut out and Mamdani feels that way, too, he can bring them in.
Neil Blumenthal Co-founder and co-chief executive of Warby Parker
I think around a million students having a school system overseen by someone who has managed an office of five or so people and only has a few years of experience in the State Assembly — I think that is a major abdication of responsibility by us as voters to those kids, to put somebody in charge of them that has so little experience. And to layer on, he’s been against mayoral control of the schools, which is the single most important governance issue for our schools, and to ensure that we’re educating our kids.
Whitney Toussaint Co-president of Community Education Council 30 in Queens
On school control, the law is what the law is. He will still have to appoint a chancellor and members to the panel of education policy. The mayor still has to do that. But we do need to engage parents who are active.
Mamdani is listening to us on education. Cuomo is talking at us instead of including parents like me in these discussions. We are talked at. You know what Eric Adams called us? Professional parents. Well, damn it, I am.
Caitlin Kawaguchi Nonprofit strategist and community representative in Brooklyn
On housing, it’s a central issue to New Yorkers of all ages, especially renters. I think there’s a real need for not only a focus on building, which I think is crucial, but also deep affordability.
One thing that’s really resonating with folks, including myself, about Mamdani’s platform is that it feels like he’s willing to try new things and to push the envelope. Freezing the rent is something specific to rent-stabilized tenants, which is not all of New York. But I think it is emblematic of a commitment to thinking about solutions in a way that can be talked about and communicated.
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
Housing is not my first issue. But if it were, I think I’d be really excited about Zohran. It has been a big part of his affordability messaging. And just looking at how he’s prioritizing it, I can tell that he cares a lot about it.
Howard Wolfson Deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration Cuomo had the edge on this last time we met because he did not call for defunding the police. And he didn’t call them racists, which Mamdani did and has now walked back from. This was like five years ago, during the beginning of his political career.
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
And after George Floyd died, we saw 10 minutes of people actually caring about racialized policing. Now we’re seeing real retrenchment from that. I think that is why Cuomo was given so much unearned grace. Something that we haven’t really talked about here yet is that Mamdani is the first Muslim candidate who has a very real chance of becoming mayor. For most of his life, he is much more likely to have been profiled because of who he is than to be mayor, to be any elected official at all whatsoever. And so I don’t really like the fact that he walked those statements back. At the end of the day, is it reflective of policy? I actually am a little bit worried that it is.
A. Mychal Johnson South Bronx social justice advocate
Mamdani has talked about how policing alone cannot solve social issues happening on the street — trauma, mental health, housing. If the police are the first in, people in crisis end up in Rikers, not in care. That’s not the answer.
I’ve personally been stopped and frisked. Who else in this room has been? OK, only people of color. Mamdani’s approach here is, how do we do things a little bit differently? Andrew Cuomo wants to increase the police force. Is that the answer? I say no. We need police. Who doesn’t say we need police? But we also need the community care and infrastructure that actually make all of us safe. Cuomo hasn’t shown a willingness to do anything differently.
Joseph Borelli Republican former city councilman from Staten Island
I think Sliwa would be the best to deal with policing, but he’s not going to win. I think he has a more rational view: that there are bad people who need to be prosecuted, punished and put in jail.
Iwen Chu Former New York State senator representing South Brooklyn
Public safety and policing are totally different subjects. School safety, mental health, homeless issues: They’re all public safety.
But policing and the quantity of the police are not equal to public safety. Mamdani wants to hold the law enforcement accountable — that’s policing. How he can build a coalition and work with the law enforcement and make sure our law enforcement is functional — that’s a separate subject.
Eleanor Randolph Journalist and former Times editorial board member There’s another issue besides public safety. And that is how the police and the mayor are going to deal with the possibility of the president and his team sending up people to walk around the streets with their guns out and all that sort of stuff.
You can hear the drumbeat and you know he’s coming after New York. So how does that work with a police department and the way the next mayor operates?
Neil Blumenthal Co-founder and co-chief executive of Warby Parker
I think it’s important to look at the data. The data shows that more police officers in the subway, on the streets and on corners in high-crime neighborhoods can reduce crime. Between Cuomo and Mamdani, one is proposing expanding the police force and one candidate is not. When Mamdani claims that he wants to defund the police and then now claims to be an advocate and a champion for N.Y.P.D., are we supposed to believe that he’s going to be able to lead and inspire the nation’s largest municipal police force to do their best work?
Frederick A. Davie Senior executive vice president at Union Theological Seminary
Eric Adams was probably the most pro-police mayor that we’ve had in a while. And we’re still hemorrhaging police officers.
So I’m not sure that that in and of itself gets us to where we want to be. Could Andrew Cuomo have a better relationship with the N.Y.P.D. than Zohran Mamdani would or could? The answer to that is probably in the beginning, yes. But again, I think what we’re seeing with Mamdani is that what he understands is that he needs to aggregate around him people who have expertise in areas and places where he does not.
Howard Wolfson Deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration
Mamdani has energized an enormous number of people who were previously outside of the political process and did not see themselves as central to it. And to miss that would be an enormous mistake and, as a Democrat, completely foolish.
The flip side of that is that the Democratic establishment — of which, for better or worse, mostly, I’m something of a card-carrying member — utterly failed during this campaign. It attempted to elevate candidates that were deeply flawed, were unable to solidify behind people who would have been able to present an alternative to Mamdani.
Caitlin Kawaguchi Nonprofit strategist and community representative in Brooklyn
It’s not as if the establishment could have produced a Mamdani. The Democratic Party has not been engaging with folks who could be the next great electeds. And it’s not going to be just a person who presents in the same way as Mamdani. We’ve seen campaigns across the country who are looking to emulate his campaign by doing walking-style TikTok videos. But that’s not what was great about Mamdani’s campaign. It was great because it was connecting with everyday New Yorkers around issues that matter to them, that presented creative solutions.
Christina M. Greer Political scientist and a host of the “FAQ NYC” podcast I have some strong critiques of the Democratic Socialists of America still, but they have been using their network as a way to bring people into the political fold in a way that the parties haven’t. I think a lot of voters feel really disrespected by the establishment. Because the voters spoke on June 24 and said: We don’t want you, Andrew Cuomo. Go home.
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
I have to think that a lot of the refusal to support Mamdani is Islamophobia. And I think that there’s going to be a real reckoning with that at some point.
Iwen Chu Former New York State senator representing South Brooklyn
I lost my election last year because Democrats don’t know how to address cost of living. When the primary result came out, it was like: What am I going to do as a voter, as an immigrant? I looked at Mamdani’s policies again. Sure, I do want those city-run grocery stores down my block. Do I want free buses? Yes, I do. New York State actually can afford statewide universal free lunch, school lunch. It’s just about priorities. We don’t have a shot if we don’t try. We need to try.
Antonio Weiss Financial executive and former U.S. Treasury official
Democrats have to embrace winning and be a bit more fearless about that. As important or more important than this election is that, once elected, Mamdani succeeds, and the Democrats abandon their approach of disqualifying and discouraging winning candidates and instead start investing in their success.
A. Mychal Johnson South Bronx social justice advocate
Mamdani is running like he wants to serve. It’s not like he’s running for a job or for power. And we too often have candidates who are about power and control, not community.
Amit Singh Bagga Democratic strategist and former city official Some of his promises are achievable independently at the city level; others require real partnership with Albany. Overall, these fresh ideas are proxies for goals that he wants to achieve because they are the core issues that people face every day.
Joseph Borelli Republican former city councilman from Staten Island
I think the city was ripe for new ideas. The problem is, some of those ideas aren’t really practical or financially feasible. We can talk about free buses, but what happens when you take, you know, $800 million out of the fare box of the M.T.A.? How do we make up for that shortfall? How does this affect the need to raise tolls and congestion pricing down the road? These are all scary things.
Whitney Toussaint Co-president of Community Education Council 30 in Queens
The universal child care that he’s proposing. He wants families of newborns to get baby baskets, something they do around the world. You don’t realize how expensive these things are until you have to go shopping for a baby.
And I’m going to bring it back to what Mychal said, because I love what you said. He is running like someone who wants to serve.
Mitchell L. Moss Urban policy professor at N.Y.U.
We basically have hope versus despair. Cuomo is despair. Each one has different strengths. But my students are working for Mamdani. And I mean of every race and income.
Howard Wolfson Deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration
On Israel, I believe his views are deeply felt.
I happen to be in very strong disagreement with him in this area. There was a real effort post-primary to encourage him to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” To his credit, he met with and spoke with many people who shared their very strong concerns about that. And I believe that he was sincerely listening. In the end, where he landed was he was going to discourage people from using it.That was a really long time to brew some really weak tea. I think it was indicative of a very strongly held set of beliefs on his part that are very much at odds with my set of beliefs and the set of beliefs of many of my friends and neighbors.
Mitchell L. Moss Urban policy professor at N.Y.U. I think that we have to appreciate that he’s not changing. This is a belief. And when you buy the mayor, you buy the belief.
Mitchell L. Moss Urban policy professor at N.Y.U.
We should recognize the lunacy of voting for Sliwa. I’m not saying he’s not going to get votes, but it’s a wasted vote.
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
I would vote for Sliwa before Cuomo.
Amit Singh Bagga Democratic strategist and former city official
So would I.
Jared Trujillo Law professor and former defense lawyer
That’s saying a lot. To be clear, Sliwa is not the lovable eccentric some make him out to be — he’s not a serious candidate. His platform is riddled with proposals that a mayor can’t actually enact, like rolling back the 2019 state tenant protections that only Albany can touch. Other parts of his agenda veer into the downright Orwellian. He’s not even a Bloomberg Republican. On policy, he’s Trump in a red beret.
That said, I do think he’s genuinely committed to ending the inhumane practice of horse-drawn carriages. He is the most qualified candidate for equine liberation, and that is it.
Christina M. Greer Political scientist and a host of the “FAQ NYC” podcast I think Sliwa will do better than expected. There’s going to be some people who are like: This 33-year-old kid and some of these ideas are just maybe a bridge too far for me. [Mr. Mamdani turned 34 after this discussion took place.] And Cuomo is an absolute no. And there are some people who will never be able to vote for a nonwhite person.
Mitchell L. Moss Urban policy professor at N.Y.U.
I admire the way in which Mamdani has framed his belief that we can make the city better. His work in political campaigns has been terrific. The evidence that he’s a great manager is the great campaign he ran. But running for office and governing are opposite skills. One is performance art. The other is a day-to-day job of distributing not just joy and benefits, but pain, too.
Antonio Weiss Financial executive and former U.S. Treasury official
Mamdani’s appointments, if he wins, will matter a lot. Who’s going to be the first deputy mayor? Is there going to be a deputy mayor charged with figuring out how to integrate the Department of Community Safety with the N.Y.P.D.? Every indication is that he’s going about not just his campaign but his transition with the intent of providing convincing answers to all of that.
Neil Blumenthal Co-founder and co-chief executive of Warby Parker
There’s just a big difference between running a campaign and running one of the largest cities in the world. Experience matters for the second most important job in America.
A. Mychal Johnson South Bronx social justice advocate
I’m just hearing all these comments about Mamdani’s relative lack of experience, but the ones who had experience didn’t deliver for the people who mobilized behind Mamdani. These are people and communities who have been left behind for decades.
Christina M. Greer Political scientist and a host of the “FAQ NYC” podcast Well, we’ve got someone who has the most important job in America who has zero experience. Take a chance.
About our panel These 14 local leaders assessed the candidates independently, as individual voters, not on behalf of their organizations. Joseph Borelli was unable to attend the round-table discussion and provided his comments in separate interviews. Some panelists made donations to candidates; that information is disclosed in their biographies.
Amit Singh Bagga is a Democratic strategist who runs a political consulting firm and a veteran of New York State, city and federal government. While in city government, he helped lead the 2020 census campaign. In 2021 he made an unsuccessful bid to represent City Council District 26 in Queens.
He has contributed $100 to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.
Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-chief executive of the New York-based eyewear company Warby Parker. Since 2015, the company has partnered with New York City agencies and organizations to provide free eyeglasses to students. Mr. Blumenthal also serves on the boards of Robin Hood, Tech:NYC and the Partnership Fund for New York City.
Joseph Borelli is a Republican former city councilman who represented the South Shore of Staten Island for nearly 10 years. He was the council’s minority leader from 2021 to 2025 and chaired its Committee on Fire and Emergency Management. He served in the New York State Assembly for three years and currently works as a political strategist.
Iwen Chu is a former state senator from South Brooklyn and a former State Assembly aide and community education council member. During her two years in office, she helped secure funding for schools and Asian American community organizations. Ms. Chu was the first Asian American woman to serve in the State Senate.
Frederick A. Davie is a senior executive vice president at Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights. He helps lead community and civic engagement with social and economic justice organizations. He also has served in New York City administrations since the 1990s. He was deputy borough president of Manhattan in the mid-1990s and was chair of the board responsible for civilian oversight of the New York Police Department from 2017 to 2022. Christina M. Greer is a political scientist at Fordham University who studies Black politics, mayors, elections and public opinion. She writes a weekly column for The Amsterdam News and co-hosts the podcast “FAQ NYC,” about city politics and culture.
A. Mychal Johnson is a South Bronx community leader focused on economic and social justice for working-class communities of color through grass-roots organizing and policy advocacy.
Caitlin Kawaguchi is a co-founder of the nonprofit consultancy Parkes Philanthropy and the former president of New Kings Democrats, a grass-roots organization in Brooklyn. She has served on the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s County Committee since 2018 and is an appointed member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 1.
Mitchell L. Moss is a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University and an expert on cities and technological change. He has advised city and state governments on infrastructure policy and economic growth. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed him to a committee shaping policy on transit, open space and equitable opportunity to guide New York’s economic goals.
Eleanor Randolph is a journalist who managed city and state political endorsements as a member of the New York Times editorial board from 1998 to 2016. In 2019 she wrote “The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg.” Whitney Toussaint is a co-president of Community Education Council 30 in western Queens. She has collaborated with the City Council and other local leaders on the construction of schools in Hunters Point and Court Square.
Ms. Toussaint has contributed $100 to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.
Jared Trujillo is a professor at CUNY School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law and critical race theory. He is a chair of the New York City Bar Association’s L.G.B.T.Q. Rights Committee and a former president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.
Antonio Weiss is a partner in the investment firm SSW, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former official at the U.S. Treasury, where he led the domestic finance department. He is a trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission and a former chair of an independent budget panel advising the city.
He contributed $2,100 to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign during the primary and has contributed $2,500 to a group that supports Zohran Mamdani. Howard Wolfson is a Democratic strategist who heads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ education work. He was a deputy mayor under Michael Bloomberg from 2010 to 2013, overseeing collaboration among the city, state and federal governments.
About our panel
These 14 local leaders assessed the candidates independently, as individual voters, not on behalf of their organizations. Joseph Borelli was unable to attend the round-table discussion and provided his comments in separate interviews. Some panelists made donations to candidates; that information is disclosed in their biographies.
Amit Singh Bagga is a Democratic strategist who runs a political consulting firm and a veteran of New York State, city and federal government. While in city government, he helped lead the 2020 census campaign. In 2021 he made an unsuccessful bid to represent City Council District 26 in Queens.
He has contributed $100 to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.
Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-chief executive of the New York-based eyewear company Warby Parker. Since 2015, the company has partnered with New York City agencies and organizations to provide free eyeglasses to students. Mr. Blumenthal also serves on the boards of Robin Hood, Tech:NYC and the Partnership Fund for New York City.
Joseph Borelli is a Republican former city councilman who represented the South Shore of Staten Island for nearly 10 years. He was the council’s minority leader from 2021 to 2025 and chaired its Committee on Fire and Emergency Management. He served in the New York State Assembly for three years and currently works as a political strategist.
Iwen Chu is a former state senator from South Brooklyn and a former State Assembly aide and community education council member. During her two years in office, she helped secure funding for schools and Asian American community organizations. Ms. Chu was the first Asian American woman to serve in the State Senate.
Frederick A. Davie is a senior executive vice president at Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights. He helps lead community and civic engagement with social and economic justice organizations. He also has served in New York City administrations since the 1990s. He was deputy borough president of Manhattan in the mid-1990s and was chair of the board responsible for civilian oversight of the New York Police Department from 2017 to 2022.
Christina M. Greer is a political scientist at Fordham University who studies Black politics, mayors, elections and public opinion. She writes a weekly column for The Amsterdam News and co-hosts the podcast “FAQ NYC,” about city politics and culture.
A. Mychal Johnson is a South Bronx community leader focused on economic and social justice for working-class communities of color through grass-roots organizing and policy advocacy.
Caitlin Kawaguchi is a co-founder of the nonprofit consultancy Parkes Philanthropy and the former president of New Kings Democrats, a grass-roots organization in Brooklyn. She has served on the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s County Committee since 2018 and is an appointed member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 1.
Mitchell L. Moss is a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University and an expert on cities and technological change. He has advised city and state governments on infrastructure policy and economic growth. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed him to a committee shaping policy on transit, open space and equitable opportunity to guide New York’s economic goals.
Eleanor Randolph is a journalist who managed city and state political endorsements as a member of the New York Times editorial board from 1998 to 2016. In 2019 she wrote “The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg.”
Whitney Toussaint is a co-president of Community Education Council 30 in western Queens. She has collaborated with the City Council and other local leaders on the construction of schools in Hunters Point and Court Square.
Ms. Toussaint has contributed $100 to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.
Jared Trujillo is a professor at CUNY School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law and critical race theory. He is a chair of the New York City Bar Association’s L.G.B.T.Q. Rights Committee and a former president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.
Antonio Weiss is a partner in the investment firm SSW, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former official at the U.S. Treasury, where he led the domestic finance department. He is a trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission and a former chair of an independent budget panel advising the city.
He contributed $2,100 to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign during the primary and has contributed $2,500 to a group that supports Zohran Mamdani.
Howard Wolfson is a Democratic strategist who heads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ education work. He was a deputy mayor under Michael Bloomberg from 2010 to 2013, overseeing collaboration among the city, state and federal governments.
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