By: Russ Spencer

In a dramatic reshaping of New York City’s mayoral race, billionaire hedge fund magnate Bill Ackman has publicly thrown his considerable weight behind former Mayor Eric Adams, calling on other centrist contenders — including Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa — to bow out for the sake of electoral unity. The endorsement, first reported by the New York Post and  analyzed by VIN News, signals a growing alarm among the city’s financial elite over the progressive surge represented by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

Ackman, the Pershing Square Capital founder known for his activist investment strategies and outspoken political commentary, had previously backed Cuomo with a $500,000 donation in a bid to halt Mamdani’s momentum. However, with Adams now mounting an independent campaign following the dismissal of federal charges against him, Ackman is urging a realignment of centrist forces.

“Bill thinks the only thing that works is for Adams to run and everyone else to drop out,” a source close to Ackman told the Post. The logic is clear: any division of the moderate vote could pave the way for a Mamdani victory — an outcome Ackman and other business leaders view as a dire threat to the city’s economic stability.

As reported by VIN News, the Ackman endorsement reflects a broader, deepening anxiety among New York’s business class, particularly on Wall Street, where Mamdani’s platform — which includes aggressive rent control, tax hikes on high earners, and the establishment of city-run grocery stores — is viewed as a frontal assault on free enterprise.

Boaz Weinstein, founder of Saba Capital, and investment educator Whitney Tilson have also raised alarms. Tilson warned that a Mamdani administration could “poison the business environment” and drive high-net-worth individuals and corporate offices to lower-tax jurisdictions like Florida or Texas.

VIN News has documented this growing fissure between the city’s progressive political momentum and its historically finance-driven economic model. While Manhattan’s real estate and investment sectors helped fund Adams’s initial mayoral bid in 2021, the current race exposes just how fragile that coalition has become.

One figure unpersuaded by Ackman’s calculus is Guardian Angels founder and conservative radio host Curtis Sliwa, who has been vocal in his refusal to abandon his campaign.

“The only way I drop out is if I’m in a pine casket,” Sliwa quipped to the Post, reaffirming his intention to carry the populist, law-and-order banner through to Election Day. While his polling numbers remain modest, his presence in the race could complicate efforts to consolidate the anti-Mamdani vote — a factor that has Ackman and others deeply concerned.

As the VIN News report noted, Sliwa’s continued participation draws attention to the difficulty of forging a united front in a city as ideologically fractured as New York. Though Sliwa appeals to working-class conservatives and outer borough traditionalists, his voter base overlaps only partially with the centrist professionals Adams is trying to recapture.

Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old State Assembly member from Queens, clinched the Democratic nomination with 43.5% of first-choice votes in a ranked-choice field, buoyed by a grassroots army of volunteers and high-profile endorsements from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. If elected, Mamdani would become New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor — a historic milestone that resonates with many in the city’s immigrant and youth-driven communities.

But as VIN News has reported in recent weeks, Mamdani’s campaign is not merely symbolic. His policy agenda represents a seismic shift away from Adams-era pragmatism and toward a far more radical vision of municipal governance. Critics argue that his proposals — including municipalizing food distribution and instituting aggressive wealth redistribution — could alienate investors and businesses already reeling from pandemic-era disruptions and regulatory uncertainty.

For Adams, who only recently re-entered the political fray following the collapse of a federal investigation into campaign fundraising, the road ahead remains uncertain. Yet with Ackman’s endorsement — and growing pressure on Cuomo and Sliwa to clear the field — the former NYPD captain and Brooklyn Borough President may yet have a path to reclaim City Hall.

Adams has not commented directly on Ackman’s call for a centrist consolidation, but insiders suggest his campaign is quietly lobbying moderate leaders and donors to follow the hedge fund titan’s lead. As the VIN News report observed, Adams’s positioning as a stability candidate — a buffer between the excesses of progressive populism and the unpredictability of conservative activism — could prove increasingly appealing in a city craving economic recovery and public order.

The 2025 New York City mayoral race now hinges on a critical question: can the city’s fractured center-right marshal enough discipline to unify behind a single candidate, or will internal divisions hand victory to the most progressive nominee in modern city history?

As the VIN News report framed it, this is not merely a contest of personalities — it is a referendum on the city’s political soul, and on the future of urban liberalism in a post-pandemic, post-George Floyd era. Whether Adams can emerge as the consensus alternative remains to be seen. But with billionaires, bankers, and small business owners sounding the alarm, one thing is clear: the stakes have rarely been higher.