Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s propensity for making pie-in-the-sky Marxist campaign promises dates back to his high school days, when he promised “fresh juice” daily to classmates if they elected him vice president.
Mamdani, a 2010 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, also tried to win votes with the pipe-dream promise of free gym credits for just attending sporting events.
He couldn’t come through on either promise — and got his “ass whooped” in the race, he confided in a 2017 podcast.
Mamdani — who is polling second among NYC Democratic mayoral candidates — delivered the pledges through rap songs he wrote and performed, he told AirGo podcast host Daniel Kisslinger while promoting himself as a rapper named Mr. Cardamom.
“I promised fresh juice for everyone — every day, using locally sourced fruits,” says Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and son of Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. “There was a supermarket like four minutes away.”
“Oh, that’s what you mean by local? Not that we didn’t grow the oranges [at the high school], but we pop by FineFare [supermarket]?” Kisslinger jokes back.
“I promised that! I promised credits for going to after-school games instead of having to go to gym,” says Mamdani, laughing.
“Those were like two concrete promises that I had done no viability study on.”
Mamdani claimed “a lot of people enjoyed” his rapping delivery, but admitted one teacher advising, “I just don’t think this was the right decision.”
Mamdani’s mayoral campaign promises reads like something out of the Politburo with vows of free bus service, government-run grocery stores and freezes on the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. Critics say he’s yet to outline where the money to pay for any of this will come from.
“While I continue to believe in the importance of access to fresh fruits and produce—and am proud to be the only mayoral candidate with an evidence-based plan to make groceries cheaper, there is little else that my run for Bronx Science student body vice president (go Wolverines) has in common with our surging campaign for mayor to deliver New Yorkers a city they can afford,” Mamdani said in a statement.
