When a Billionaire Asked Me to Run for NYC Mayor, I Said No. Here’s Why I Regret It.
Guest post by Brandon Straka
In July, a billionaire donor approached me with an unexpected offer: to run for mayor of New York City. They promised to finance the entire campaign and insisted that I was the kind of candidate who could defeat Zohran Mamdani—a young challenger capable of inspiring voters in ways career politicians couldn’t.
I’m not a delusional person. I understood the magnitude of what they were proposing—and how unprepared I felt to lead the largest city in America. I tried to be respectful as I explained my hesitation, but they cut me off mid-sentence.
“You’re thinking you don’t know how to do it,” they said. “Do you think any of these people do? None of them do. You’ll have the right people around you.”
Their certainty didn’t calm my doubts. “If I jump in,” I told them, “I’ll be one of the most hated people in the country. The race is already overcrowded. I’d only make things worse.”
Eventually, I convinced them that my time and energy would be better spent mobilizing grassroots opposition to Zohran Mamdani’s campaign rather than entering the race myself. They agreed.
Looking back, I regret that decision.
At the time, my hesitation felt reasonable. But the past five months have changed how I think about what’s possible.
In my fight against Mamdani, I built a volunteer team composed largely of people who had worked for Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo. Over and over, we heard the same feedback: “You guys are more organized than the campaigns. You actually have a plan.”
We focused on building a movement—not endorsing a candidate—but naturally leaned toward helping Sliwa.His staff responded warmly at first, calling it “an honor to hear from you.” But after a few weeks of unreturned messages and unanswered invitations to rallies and debates, it became clear they lacked the judgment to recognize a rare opportunity to speak before thousands of New Yorkers, and reach millions more on my social media.
By September, I realized that Andrew Cuomo was the only candidate with a realistic shot at defeating Mamdani. I met with his team several times. They were understandably skeptical—after all, I run the #WalkAway movement—but I emphasized that saving New York City was a shared mission. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
We discussed strategies to rebuild voter trust. I urged them to have Cuomo sit for a one-on-one interview addressing the nursing home scandal and sexual harassment allegations—issues that defined his downfall and, according to many New Yorkers I’ve spoken with, kept them from supporting him despite their fear of Mamdani’s rise.
Cuomo’s team agreed in principle but never followed through.
Next, I invited Cuomo to participate in one of our campus debate events. After the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, fear swept through the movement- but my team kept going. We continued organizing open-mic debates across NYC, determined to show that preventing an anti-American socialist from becoming mayor of the world’s economic capital was worth every risk.
I told Cuomo’s team, ““If he shows up for one of these, he’ll look like a total badass—courageous, tough. The college kids will love that he’s showing up to take their questions. It’ll be a huge hit.” They agreed in principle, but again, nothing happened.
Still, Cuomo’s team was eager to tap into our ground network. I didn’t mind sharing data or helping however I could, but what struck me most was how a small volunteer-run operation like ours was more disciplined, responsive, and mission-focused than multimillion-dollar campaigns.
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s team dominated social media. His videos were sharp, emotional, and impossible to ignore. I knew that if we didn’t respond online, we’d already lost the narrative. So, I started creating my own content—writing, filming, and producing eight counter-videos in a single week. Four were made in one day, and the rest after returning from my brother’s funeral. Each video aimed to reveal the truth behind Mamdani’s socialist message and the real consequences of his ideas.
Within days, those videos reached over 5 million people across platforms. The response was overwhelming—proof that voters were hungry for an alternative voice. Yet Cuomo’s campaign never caught on. His TikTok account struggled to reach 15,000 followers while Mamdani’s soared to more than 2.9 million. The gap said everything: one campaign understood the future; the other didn’t.
In just five months, our small team launched a political action committee, organized dozens of rallies and debates, filmed interviews with Americans who escaped communism, distributed tens of thousands of flyers, and spoke directly to thousands of voters across New York. We built a movement—without consultants, lobbyists, or establishment backing.
This campaign season revealed what few outside politics understand—there’s no expertise behind the curtain. The big secret is that nobody knows what they’re doing.The political class projects authority, but in truth, most are scrambling behind a wall of donors and consultants. In the end, politics rewards whoever best fools others into believing they’re in control.
Every political campaign, I realized, is an extemporaneous performance.You don’t need funding or titles to make a difference. You need conviction, courage, and people who believe in the mission.
I turned down an offer to run a campaign—but I built something stronger: proof that citizens united by purpose can move an entire city. I learned that any of us can lead if we have the courage and conviction to step up.
Now I do.
And maybe, someday, my name will be on the ballot. The moment to lead is coming—and it’s closer than most people think.
-Brandon Straka
#WalkAway Campaign Founder
The post BRANDON STRAKA: When a Billionaire Asked Me to Run for NYC Mayor, I Said No. Here’s Why I Regret It. appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.