Alex Karp, the billionaire CEO of creepy defense contractor Palantir, has taken a side in New York’s closely watched mayoral race. Karp, who once bragged that his company kills people, recently gave a large sum of money to a Super PAC that is supporting the campaign of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo is currently running against Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman for the city’s 36th district in Queens. The race between the two candidates has become a referendum on New York’s future, with both candidates offering drastically different visions for housing and economic policy. Mamdani has described himself as a democratic socialist, while Cuomo is campaigning on a promise to bring sensible centrism back to the city after the fiasco that has been Eric Adams’s administration.
Politico notes that Karp recently donated $90,000 to Fix the City, which is backing Cuomo’s campaign. The contribution further cements a picture of Karp’s politics that leans rightward, though Karp has, in the past, referred to himself by a variety of political labels—even calling himself a “socialist” or a “neo-Marxist.” We can surely call BS on that now, since Karp is currently using his money to defeat an actual socialist.
Indeed, Karp is just one of several billionaires who are pouring money into Cuomo’s campaign in an apparent effort to stave off a more populist form of government in the city. Despite Cuomo’s promise to fight Trump, a number of MAGA fixtures, like Trump fan Bill Ackman, have thrown their support behind the former governor. Cuomo’s campaign has rested on a series of vague promises about improvements for city services and the bragging point that he “knows how government works.” Of course, NYC is a city where Republicans have a tough time in modern politics, so the Democratic primary is where the action is.
Mamdani, meanwhile, has championed many leftist economic policies, including the establishment of government-owned and operated supermarkets to bring down food prices. He has also championed rent freezes in a city where the cost of living just keeps going up. His critics have noted that Mamdani has substantially less government experience than Cuomo and, prior to his political career, was a rapper for several years known as “Mr. Cardamom.”
Cuomo notably served as the governor of New York from 2011 until 2021, when his administration combusted as a result of several scandals, including allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him by former female aides. A criminal case against Cuomo was brought over the allegations, but the charges were dropped in January of 2022, with authorities citing a lack of evidence.
Palantir, meanwhile, has increasingly wedded itself to the Trump administration and is assisting the government with its deportation efforts, as well as in a controversial data centralization effort that has drawn criticism from privacy and civil liberties advocates.