Republicans Examining Ways to Block Mamdani From Taking Office

After Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election—making him the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect—Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., signaled plans to try to block him from taking office.

President Donald Trump has accused the 34-year-old Ugandan-born politician of being a communist, after previously warning that he would withhold federal funding from New York City if Mamdani won. Mamdani secured his win last week with a decisive margin, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo by nearly 10 percentage points, though Mamdani barely won a majority of votes overall.

But some Republican lawmakers have vowed to block him from taking office. Some Republican lawmakers have demanded investigations into Mamdani’s naturalisation process, calling for him to be stripped of his US citizenship and deported. They have accused him of involvement in communist and “terrorist” activities and figures linked to terrorism.

“If Mamdani lied on his naturalisation documents, he doesn’t get to be a citizen, and he certainly doesn’t get to run for mayor of New York City. A great American city is on the precipice of being run by a communist who has publicly embraced a terroristic ideology,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said in an October 29 news release, after asking US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the mayor-elect, the Economic Times reported.

“The American naturalization system REQUIRES any alignments with communism or terrorist activities to be disclosed. I’m doubtful he disclosed them. If the information is confirmed, put him on the first flight back to Uganda,” Ogles added.

Meanwhile, a campaign finance watchdog has filed two criminal referrals against Mamdani, accusing the leftist socialist of taking illicit donations from overseas contributors.

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation sent the recommendations to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office last week. They say that Mamdani may have broken the Federal Election Campaign Act and the New York Election Code.

The recommendations were made after the New York Post reported earlier this month that Mamdani’s campaign got about $13,000 in donations from at least 170 people who live outside the US, including one from his mother-in-law in Dubai.

“These are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,” Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, said in a statement.

“This was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a New York City mayoral race which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules,” Backer added. “Mamdani’s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.”

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation has previously filed complaints against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee.

The watchdog told Bragg and the DOJ to look into and arrest Mamdani for the campaign cash that may have come from Australia, Turkey, France, Canada, Germany, and other countries.

The group said that Mamdani’s campaign had shown a “systematic failure to comply” with the rules about campaign money.

The Federal Election Campaign Act says that it is against the law to “accept or receive” donations from people who are not US citizens in any federal, state, or local election.

People who knowingly accept donations from other countries could face big fines and jail time.

“The law is crystal clear that foreign nationals may not participate in American elections, and that includes making contributions,” Backer continued. “Yet Mamdani’s campaign repeatedly accepted donations from individuals abroad, some even tied to regions and individuals openly sympathetic to hostile actors.”

“Whether through negligence or intent, this conduct undermines the integrity of the democratic process.”

Mamdani’s campaign for mayor of New York City sent back about $9,000 in donations from people outside the U.S., the Post reported.