Mamdani Posts Another Video Asking for Money: ‘We Have to Keep Paying Our Incredible Team’

MAMDANI: “It’s been two weeks since we won the election. We’ve been pretty busy.”

[Clip starts]
TAPPER: “CNN projects Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani...”
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MAMDANI: “Too often, this is a time of just celebration as opposed to preparation. We want to make it both.”
[Clip ends]

MAMDANI: “A lot of these things are new, but one of them is pretty old: funding. But why are we fundraising? Well, we have less than 50 days until we take office, and we have a lot to do. We have to vet the 50,000 resumes we’ve received. Thank you. We have to keep paying our incredible team. Thank you. And we have to plan not just our inauguration, but our policy implementation. Now, unlike the campaign, transitions do not get public matching funds from the city. So, that 8:1 match — gone. It’s up to us to raise the money. Usually, campaigns take that as an opportunity to rely on wealthy donors, but that’s not us. You’ve already been incredible. We’ve raised more than a million dollars in just 2 weeks. Our average donation is around $77, and more than 12,000 of you have donated so far, which is much lower than the last administration’s transition. But we’re still asking for your help because we need to raise $4 million in total, so January 1st can be the day we start to deliver, not start to prepare. I hope very soon not to have to ask you for money, but until then, I’m asking for you to go to transition2025.com and give whatever you can to help build a New York that everyone can afford. This is your city and I can’t wait to get to work.”
UNKNOWN: “[inaudible] to go, man?”
MAMDANI: “No, no, I’m good. I’m good. I’m good. (Laughs) Thank you, guys. Thank you.”