Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign held a huge Get Out the Vote rally in front of a packed and energized Forest Hills Stadium on Sunday evening, joining co-headliners and prominent democratic socialists U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to call for a final push from volunteers ahead of election day on Nov. 4.
Mamdani, the frontrunner in the ongoing mayoral election, hoisted the arms of Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders aloft at the end of the three-hour rally before 13,000 highly energized voters at the iconic Queens venue. The event reiterated three central platforms of his campaign: free buses, universal childcare, and a rent freeze for the roughly one million rent-stabilized units in the city.
A long list of labor, political, and religious leaders spoke at the rally, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, a more moderate Democrat who got an earful from a crowd that chanted “tax the rich” while she addressed them. Mamdani has sought a tax increase on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations to fund much of his economic agenda.
The rally was by far the biggest of Mamdani’s political career to date, and he sought to emphasize that the race for mayor is far from over. Most polls have him ahead of independent former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the three-way contest — but in most surveys, Mamdani does not have majority support.
The Democratic nominee and Queens Assembly member pleaded with his supporters to give him “more” before Election Day on Nov. 4.
‘Forget about the polls’
Mamdani may be double-digit leads in the polls, but he has consistently reminded his supporters that his opponent Andrew Cuomo enjoyed a similar lead in the polls ahead of the Democratic primary in June.
“When you read the articles that tell a post-election story of triumph while we are amidst early voting… know this, you are reading the same things that Andrew Cuomo read when he went to sleep each night in June,” Mamdani told his supporters Sunday night. “We cannot allow complacency to infiltrate this movement.”
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez emphasized a similar message during earlier speeches after receiving a raucous welcome from the big crowd.
Sanders called on Mamdani supporters to campaign as if they were “five points behind” during the final days of the race and urged attendees to “forget about the polls.”
He said Cuomo’s campaign has a substantial war chest and urged supporters not to underestimate any of the opponents in the race.
“None of us want to wake up the day after the election and find that we lost this election because our opponents outworked us,” Sanders said. “That must not happen.”
Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, gave an impassioned speech in support of Mamdani, stating that New York City is standing on the “precipice of hope.” She added that Mamdani’s election would send a “loud message” to President Donald Trump, who she described as an authoritarian leader and a fascist.
“Our future will be determined not in a house built by slaves, but in a city built by free men, in a city built by unionists and immigrants,” she said.
Sanders similarly described Mamdani’s candidacy as Trump’s “worst nightmare,” stating that the Mamdani campaign has united people from all walks of life to “take on the oligarchy.”
Hochul hears ‘tax the rich’ appeal from Mamdani crowd
Trump formed a recurring theme in speeches throughout Sunday’s rally, with Gov. Kathy Hochul also invoking the president’s name during her speech earlier in the event, stating that Trump had taken a wrecking ball to American values.
But Hochul’s speech was notable not for her criticisms of Trump, but for the lengthy and persistent chants of “tax the rich” that erupted during her address.
Hochul endorsed Mamdani in September, though she publicly opposed his calls to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents to fund his platform of free buses and universal childcare, among other initiatives.
As the governor expressed the need for universal childcare during Sunday’s rally, another round of whistles and “tax the rich” erupted around the stadium, the message finally appeared to sink in.
“I can hear you,” Hochul told the crowd to huge cheers.
As she criticized the federal government for sending ICE agents to “flood our streets,” a number of attendees sporadically shouted “pass New York for All,” referencing a proposed bill in the state legislature that prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
Mamdani eventually made what appeared to be an unscheduled on-stage appearance to rescue Hochul from the partisan crowd, greeting the governor at the end of her address.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was also heckled with calls to “tax the rich,” albeit at a much more modest volume than Hochul. Like the governor, however, Heastie told the crowd that he could “hear” them.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins described Mamdani as a “historic figure” and urged the crowd to canvass in the final days of the election to ensure he is elected mayor.
“It’s in your hands. You have the power,” Stewart-Cousins said. “We can’t miss this chance.”
Lander blasts Cuomo’s tactics
It was City Comptroller Brad Lander who drew the biggest cheer of the evening — apart from the two co-headliners and Mamdani himself — reflecting Lander’s shift from being Mamdani’s opponent in the Democratic primary to one of his biggest cheerleaders.
Lander, who cross-endorsed with Mamdani prior to the primary in June, said he did so because of the need to defeat Cuomo, drawing a huge cheer from the crowd.
“I said it on [primary] night, and I can’t wait to say it again next Tuesday, good f***ing riddance,” Lander said to a chorus of cheers.
Lander also blasted the “outrageous Islamophobia” that has taken place in the final days of the mayor’s race in an apparent reference to Cuomo’s Oct. 23 appearance on WABC Radio, where far-right host Sid Rosenberg claimed that Mamdani would cheer if there was another 9/11 while he was in office, drawing a chuckle from Cuomo.
“Andrew Cuomo and his billionaire donors have sought to exploit both antisemitism and Islamophobia for his political gain. It’s gross, and we won’t stand for it,” Lander said.
Sunday’s rally also featured an appearance from Imam Khalid Latif of the Islamic Center of New York City, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and Rev. Charles O’Galbraith of the Alliance Tabernacle, who all issued support from Mamdani’s campaign and expressed solidarity with people of all religions and no religion.
Mamdani similarly accused Cuomo and his allies of doing “everything they could” to make the mayor’s race one of fear by painting New York City as a “dystopian hellhole.”
“They do not represent the future,” Mamdani said. “All they possess is the playbook of the past.”
