Union Electioneering Machine Went All in For Zohran Mamdani
In late 2024, socialist ideologue Zohran Mamdani was a political unknown, serving as one of the least distinguished of the New York State Assembly’s 150 members.
But on January 1, just a few weeks after this edition of the National Right to Work Newsletter goes to press, Mr. Mamdani will be sworn in as the mayor of New York City, the financial capital of the U.S. and the world.
The driving forces behind Mr. Mamdani’s stunning and decisive wins in the July 2025 Democrat mayoral primary and the 2025 general election were powerful union bosses and the so-called “Working Families Party.”
The WFP was founded in 1998 by a coalition of Big Labor officials and far-left activists. In the Democrat primary, Mr. Mamdani was facing off for the first time against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as a number of other seasoned candidates.
Mamdani Scheme to Make Big Government Far Bigger A Bonanza For Union Dons
The then 33-year-old, still widely regarded at that time as a political lightweight, already had the enthusiastic backing of AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, National Nurses Union, UNITE HERE, United Auto Workers, Teamster, and other Big Labor bosses, as well as the WFP.
National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented:
“All of the significant Democrat candidates in last July’s Big Apple mayoral primary, most definitely including Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo, were die-hard foes of Right to Work and supporters of compulsory unionism.
“What gave Mr. Mamdani the edge with key union bigwigs and the WFP were his proposals for dramatically higher spending of taxpayers’ money on child care, health care, transportation, and government schools.
“He even campaigned on a proposal to create a network of taxpayer-funded, government-owned grocery stores!
“In the Empire State, government employees are 5.5 times as likely to be subject to union monopoly control as private-sector employees. A mindboggling 68.5% of them are unionized.
“Making New York’s already extraordinarily big government far bigger will mean far more dues money and coercive power for statewide and national union officials as well as local ones.
“That was an irresistible selling point for many union bosses, even when Mr. Mamdani seemed to be a long-shot candidate for the Democrat nomination.”
Big Government Agenda Will Surely Hurt Workers, Small Business Owners
In the November 4 general election, massive Big Labor assistance helped Mr. Mamdani prevail over Mr. Cuomo, running as an Independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
The mayor-elect summed up his radical “politicians know best” stance in one extraordinary sentence in his victory speech: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”
Mr. Mix responded: “The reality is that Zohran Mamdani’s Big Government agenda, no matter how beneficial it is for a small handful of union bigwigs, will hurt workers, their families, and small business owners. These are the very people he claims to care most about.
“For example, many workers will surely lose their livelihoods if Mr. Mamdani is able to implement his scheme to bring to the Big Apple California’s disastrous A.B.5 law, which reclassified most independent contractors as payroll workers so they could be corralled into unions.
“According to a January 2024 analysis conducted by the nonpartisan Mercatus Center, self-employment in California fell by 10.5% and overall employment fell by 4.4% in the wake of A.B.5.
“Similarly, owners of New York’s many small grocery stores, commonly called ‘bodegas,’ will face grossly unfair and potentially ruinous competition from stores that don’t have to pay property taxes or rent if the Mamdani scheme to establish government-owned supermarkets takes effect.”
Scourges of Socialism, Forced Unionism ‘Arise From the Same Fallacy’
Mr. Mix added:
“The fact is, openly socialist American politicians like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders [IVt.], U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-N.Y.], and now Zohran Mamdani also turn out to be rabid advocates of corralling workers into unions.
“The scourges of socialism and forced unionism arise from the same fallacy. “As the great 20th century free-market economist Ludwig von Mises explained adeptly in his 1944 book Omnipotent Government, both totalitarian socialism as practiced in countries like the now-defunct U.S.S.R. and putatively ‘democratic’ socialism assume individual citizens don’t know what’s good for them.
“As Mises put it, the ‘thesis’ of ‘democratic socialism,’ which he called ‘etatism,’ is that ‘the members of the government and its assistants are more intelligent than the people, and they know better what is good for the individual than he himself knows . . . .’
“Of course, proponents of compulsory unionism, both in the 20th century and today, have the same ‘thesis’ with regard to Big Labor politicians, union bosses, and the individual worker.
“The individual worker, in their view, can’t be trusted to do what is best for himself or herself.
“Whether it’s applied to socialism generally or compulsory unionism specifically, this thesis is, to quote Mises again, ‘pure nonsense.’”
Socialist Elected Officials An ‘Inevitable Consequence’ Of Compulsory Unionism
Mr. Mix noted that, in addition to the close ideological kinship between full-fledged socialism and compulsory unionism, public policies that empower union bosses to force employees to fork over money to a union, or be fired, have paved the way, again and again, for the election of socialist politicians.
“Elected officials like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani are an inevitable consequence of compulsory unionism,” said Mr. Mix.
“In fact, early endorsements and forced dues-fueled cash infusions from UAW General President Shawn Fain and other union bosses were clearly key factors in Mr. Mamdani’s primary victory.
“And subsequent endorsements and massive ‘in-kind’ support from big New York City unions like SEIU 1199 and 32BJ were critical in bringing about his general election victory.
“As a consequence of federally-imposed compulsory unionism,” continued Mr. Mix, “Mr. Fain and his cohorts were able to spend substantial sums of money extracted from workers’ paychecks to elect a radical socialist who is also an obsessive hater of Israel and a Hamas sympathizer.”
Rank-and-File Autoworkers Who Reject Socialism Just Helped Elect Zohran Mamdani
“In other words,” he added, “unionized autoworkers who reject socialism and/or regard Israel as America’s ally just helped Zohran Mamdani, through their forceddues payments, become the mayor of America’s largest city.
“This is a scandal.
“Of course, the ultimate counter to the union bosses’ forced-dues power and its attendant abuses is H.R.1232/S.523, otherwise known as the National Right to Work Act.
“The Committee and its 2.8 million members have marshaled strong Capitol Hill support for this legislation.
“Introduced in the House by Congressman Joe Wilson [R-S.C.] and in the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul [R-Ky.], H.R.1232/S.533 now has a total of 135 congressional sponsors.
“This legislation would reform federal labor law by removing all provisions that authorize and promote the extraction of forced union dues and fees from employees as a job condition.
“An America with this law on the books will be a country with far more individual freedom — and far less socialism — than we have today.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
To support our cause and help end forced unionism, go here to donate.