Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who’s often slammed as a far-left radical on Fox News, is launching a new TV ad campaign taking aim directly at the conservative network’s viewers, the Daily News has learned.
The ad, which urges viewers not to be “fooled by the noise” from the conservative outlet, will start airing Saturday morning, the first day of early voting in New York City, during popular talk show Fox & Friends.
Mamdani is headed into the general election with a double-digit lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent. Cuomo has sought to close that gap with appeals to the city’s conservative residents with appearances on right-wing talk radio show Sid & Friends on WABC and on Fox News.
The six-figure ad buy is an attempt by Mamdani to address those same conservatives. The battle for conservative votes comes amid efforts to push the GOP’s Curtis Sliwa out of the race as he continues to trail in the polls.
Mamdani’s 30-second spot begins with a flash of static and short clips from Fox News calling Mamdani a “communist.”
“I’m the actual Zohran Mamdani, not the guy they talk about on this channel,” the candidate says in the ad.
“My radical agenda? Turn the page on the billionaire backed politics of Andrew Cuomo make the city affordable, tackle government waste, keep New York safe and deliver on our promises.”
The campaign did not specify how much the ad buy was for.
Mamdani last week did an interview on Fox News, where he indicated he’d be willing to work with President Trump on affordability issues, but that he would “not be a mayor like Mayor Adams.”
