Bill Kristol Says He Would Vote For Zohran Mamdani for New York City Mayor

"Going back to Cuomo" would be "ridiculous," said Kristol.

Bill Kristol at Arizona State University in 2017. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In an interview with The Forum on October 9th, Bill Kristol told Dhriti Jagadish and Shiv Parihar that he would vote for Zohran Mamdani if he were a resident of New York City. He referred to the alternative of “going back” to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as “ridiculous.”

Kristol, the son of famed conservative intellectual Irving Kristol, was born and raised in New York City. He served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle from 1989 to 1993. In 1994, he founded political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol broke with the Republican Party in 2016 over the candidacy of Donald Trump and, in 2018, co-founded The Bulwark, where he now serves as editor-at-large. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Salvatori Center at CMC, which hosts The Forum. 

Zohran Mamdani is a democratic socialist and candidate for mayor of New York City. He rose to prominence earlier this year, winning the New York City Democratic Mayoral primary in June. Mamdani has received endorsements from various figures on the American left, but Kristol’s statements may mark the first show of support from the Never-Trump Republican movement. 

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. 

Snippet: Interview with Bill Kristol

0:00

Bill Kristol: I think a lot of the younger Democrats are quite impressive. Uh, I wish—

Dhriti Jagadish: —Any names [in Democratic politics] stand out to you?

Bill Kristol: Yeah, well, I’d say both. I live in Virginia. So, Abigail Spanberger, who I think will win in November, is really excellent. It might be Sherrill, actually, in New Jersey, excellent. And so, part of my core praise for Mamdani has been that, you know what, if we elect three Democrats who win in November—the three big races, really—and it’s Spanberger or Sherrill and Mamdani? That’s okay.

You know, New York City gets to have a left-wing mayor. It’s not the first time, and it’s different from the rest of the country. I wish they were a little less, you know, tolerant of certain things—on Israel, and so, against Israel and all that. But some of the economic stuff, I think, is just silly, but I don’t think it’s going to matter.

Shiv Parihar: Do you think you would vote for him [Mamdani] if you were voting in New York? 

Bill Kristol: You know, I think so. I really can't think—the idea of going back to Cuomo is just, I think, ridiculous. I think if it had been the first round, I would’ve voted for someone else and maybe wouldn't have even ranked Mamdani and would've had other people who were more centrist, liberal types. 

It was very disappointing. All these big shot, you know, finance types in New York, they couldn't get behind anyone except for Andrew Cuomo. It's really pathetic, in my opinion. So now they're rallying to Cuomo with some of them, but I don't have that much sympathy for that. 

And I also just think, practically speaking, New York is a huge city. He's not going to destroy it, I don't think. He’s gonna set up five silly government-run grocery stores, I guess. I don't think he even will do that [inaudible]. And so they'll be fine. So there'll be some grocery store somewhere and it won't be as good as the privately run ones, and it will go out of business in three years and it'll be a little bit of a waste of taxpayer money, you know? Or it'll be harmless, you know? And so people—I do think the right’s reaction to Mamdani has been a little hysterical. He's a very impressive politician. I don't know that he’s going to be a very good mayor. He's 33 years old, he's never run anything. They're good people who could work for him though, in New York.

So, who knows? I don’t know.

Listen to The Forum’s full interview with Bill Kristol here.