DoorDash Spent $1.4M Trying to Stop Mamdani from Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why

DoorDash spent roughly $1.4 million in the 2025 New York mayoral cycle to oppose Zohran Mamdani’s rise, including a $1 million payment to the super PAC Fix the City, which ran a broad anti‑Mamdani campaign alongside other corporate donors and billionaires. Those outside expenditures - Fix the City spent about $31 million total - attacked Mamdani’s platform of stronger regulation for delivery apps and amplified negative messaging, even altering his image in a mailer that he called Islamophobic. DoorDash also funneled money to other pro‑establishment groups backing former governor Andrew Cuomo. Delivery worker advocates had supported Mamdani because he promised enforcement and protections for gig workers.

Once Mamdani took office, his administration’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection investigated DoorDash and secured a historic $131.5 million settlement after finding the company had deliberately underpaid or failed to pay thousands of Dashers. The settlement includes about $115 million in worker restitution, more than $16 million in penalties, three years of monthly compliance reporting to the city, and worker‑shared monitoring. The payout dwarfs DoorDash’s election spending - roughly 100 times the amount spent opposing Mamdani - and follows prior New York settlements over tip misuse and hiring practices, reinforcing organizers’ argument that corporate political spending was an attempt to avoid regulatory accountability.