In a conference room in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams and Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager, met with other business leaders and political brokers to discuss how to stop the rise of Zohran Mamdani and possibly bolster Mr. Adams’s re-election campaign.
The business leaders were impressed that Mr. Adams was already staging a public fight against Mr. Mamdani, several people familiar with the meeting said. Earlier in the day, during an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Adams called Mr. Mamdani a “snake-oil salesman.”
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman from Queens, on Tuesday shocked the New York political establishment by outperforming Andrew M. Cuomo, the former New York governor, in the Democratic primary for mayor. Mr. Cuomo is now considering whether to run as an independent in the general election, or end his campaign altogether.
Should Mr. Cuomo withdraw, Mr. Mamdani is poised to face off against Mr. Adams, who is running as an independent; Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels; and Jim Walden, a lawyer also running as an independent.
The prospect of Mr. Mamdani’s campaigning as the Democratic standard-bearer in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one has sent shivers down the spines of many New York business leaders, who recoil at his plans for expansive new government programs funded with tax increases on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers. Some have quickly begun to throw their support behind the incumbent mayor, despite the scandals that have tarnished his tenure.
Andrew Epstein, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, said the businessmen at the meeting were simply scared of “our plan to tax them a little bit more to fund an agenda to lower the cost of living and improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers.”
Mr. Loeb, an outspoken proponent of charter schools, has a long history of supporting Mr. Adams and other centrist Democratic candidates in local New York races. In 2021, he donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Adams’s successful bid for mayor. He donated $350,000 to a super PAC supporting Mr. Cuomo in this year’s primary. On Wednesday, after Mr. Mamdani appeared triumphant in the race, Mr. Loeb posted to social media, “It’s officially hot commie summer.”
The previously unreported meeting between Mr. Loeb, Mr. Adams and others was one of several discussions among business leaders after Tuesday’s primary about how best to stymie Mr. Mamdani’s rise.
Scott Rechler, one of the city’s biggest landlords, on Wednesday told The New York Times that if the race pitted Mr. Mamdani against Mr. Adams, he would back the incumbent.
“You want to have leadership that speaks to what New York is,” Mr. Rechler said. “It’s the capital of capitalism.”
The meeting on Wednesday was both a venting session that touched on Mr. Cuomo’s campaign — seen as low-energy by several in the room — and an opportunity to discuss a path forward for Mr. Adams. Frank Carone, Mr. Adams’s former chief of staff and a key supporter of his campaign, was in attendance.
Shayne Coplan, the chief executive of Polymarket, a website that lets users gamble with cryptocurrency, was also present, according to two people familiar with the gathering. Mr. Adams is a noted cryptocurrency booster and planned to speak at a “tokenization” conference on Thursday afternoon.
Also in attendance were Rob Wiesenthal, the chief executive of Blade, the aviation company; Michael Lorber, a real estate agent; Whitney Tilson, the former hedge fund executive who ran in the Democratic primary for mayor; and the real estate developer Meyer Orbach, whom the group surprised with a birthday cake.
After Mr. Adams was indicted on federal bribery and fraud charges last fall, Mr. Tilson called for Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove him from office, and he has described the mayor’s efforts to get in President Trump’s good graces as a “disgrace.”
But in a text message, Mr. Tilson said he was committed to stopping Mr. Mamdani, whom he called “totally unqualified to be mayor of one of the world’s largest, most complex cities” and a “Trojan horse” for “the extremist, dangerous ideology of the Democratic Socialists of America.”
“The question is, who can stop him?” Mr. Tilson continued. “One option is Mayor Adams.”
He described Mr. Adams at the meeting on Wednesday as “very charming,” but said he was still trying to figure out who was best positioned to defeat Mr. Mamdani.
The challenges the group discussed included fund-raising and the slow start Mr. Adams has had in organizing a campaign.
Four months ahead of the general election, Mr. Adams still lacks a campaign manager. The city’s Campaign Finance Board has barred him from the city’s generous matching funds program. And his job approval numbers among New York voters have hit historic lows.
Mr. Adams’s reputation among Democrats remains stained by his alliance with the Trump administration.
In April, President Trump’s Department of Justice successfully sought the dismissal of the corruption charges against the mayor, a move that the judge overseeing the case said smacked of “a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
A spokesman for Mr. Adams’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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