LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Warning of a New York ‘exit’ of residents and capital if Zohran Mamdani wins City Hall, a New York congressman tied the candidate’s refusal to condemn “globalize the intifada” to rising antisemitism and public-safety fears, urged Republicans to keep extremists at the fringe, and credited President Donald Trump with advancing a Gaza ceasefire and striking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Rep. Mike Lawler said, in an interview for The Jerusalem Post, that Mamdani’s platform “will be a disaster for New York and a disaster for the country,” calling his “policy prescriptions for New York … the antithesis of America and what has made America the country that it is.”
He argued that Mamdani “engaged in these protests for years” and “refused to condemn ‘globalize the intifada,’” which Lawler described as a worldview that targets Jews well beyond Israel’s borders.
“He wants to eliminate the Jewish state. He does not believe in a Jewish state,” Lawler said. “When you hear his father speak and the things that his father is saying about Israel, clearly he was brought up in this mindset that Israel is an apartheid state, that it is committing genocide, that it is an oppressor. I mean, that is his worldview.”
A wave of departures from New York City
He added that it was “quite jarring” to hear Mamdani talk about “arrest[ing] the duly elected [Israeli] prime minister of our ally, while refusing to call on Hamas to lay down its arms.” Beyond rhetoric, Lawler predicted a wave of departures. “If he is the mayor of New York City, there’s going to be a mass exodus out of New York, and the people that can afford to leave will,” he said.
“New York is already the highest-tax state. It leads the nation in out-migration. The quality of life has declined because of crime and concerns about public safety. You add in antisemitism in the manner in which he has conducted himself, and I think you are going to see a lot of people leave.”
Some, he noted, will not go far. “Does that mean they are going to Florida? No. They go to Connecticut, they go to New Jersey, they go to the suburbs of New York. But they will leave New York City, and that will be a problem for the city.”
Lawler said investors are already gaming out contingencies. “Somebody has to pay for it,” he said of progressive proposals. “When you ‘tax the rich,’ the people that can avoid paying tax by moving or by shifting their business to a different state will do so. Some of them, by the way, have a big loss, because they understand it is part of the cost, but there is a limit.”
Asked why Republicans did not field a stronger citywide challenger, he pointed to the long odds and late-breaking dynamics. “It is very difficult in a city in which the enrollment is eight to one,” he said.
“People assumed that the race would be between [Mayor Eric] Adams and [former governor Andrew] Cuomo, and they made a bad assumption. Had people known that someone like Zohran Mamdani would be the Democratic nominee, I think you likely would have had other people consider it very strongly, including those with the financial wherewithal to do it.”
On national politics, Lawler said Jewish voters shifted toward the GOP as antisemitism surged “especially on college campuses” and as threats from “Iran and its proxies” grew.
“President Trump moved numbers all across the country in all different communities, including the Jewish community,” he said, arguing that “most people rightly believe that President Trump would be a stronger ally for Israel than Kamala Harris.”
He praised recent moves: “The president decid[ed] to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and negotiat[ed] this peace agreement,” calling the current ceasefire framework and hostage-release track “a positive step forward,” even if “there are going to be twists and turns and challenges.”
Inside the conservative movement, Lawler addressed concerns after the Heritage Foundation’s defense of Tucker Carlson drew criticism from some Republican Jewish Coalition attendees. “On the Republican side, I do think it is in the fringe,” he said of anti-Zionist and antisemitic currents. “However, if you do not combat it, if you do not aggressively push back against it, then it becomes a mainstream view.”
He drew a line on rhetoric about Jewish political organizing: “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” he said. “When you have people like Matt Gaetz or others saying, ‘Get that $7,000,’ they are not saying that about other groups. They are saying that about AIPAC, about the RJC, about entities of Jewish voters who organize and want to support candidates,” he said of an Israeli initiative working with influencers around the world.
“Somehow, exercising your right to partake in the electoral process is not okay for Jewish people. It oozes antisemitism when you are trying to say, ‘Oh, it is all about the money and the Jews,’” Lawler proclaimed.
He framed the debate as a test of leadership. “This is where leadership matters. Be clear-eyed and explain why these issues matter, why Israel is such an important ally.”
He contrasted global standards: “People who talk about the Jewish state being a problem seemingly have no issue with 57 Islamic states. They have no comment about it. But the one Jewish state, that is a problem. It makes no sense.”
Despite his dire warning about a New York exit under a Mamdani administration, Lawler said the city’s fate is not sealed. The outcome, he argued, will hinge on whether voters connect policy to lived reality. “From a tax standpoint, from a job-creation standpoint, from an economic standpoint, people will vote with their feet,” he said. “And they will leave if City Hall turns against them.”