Daughter of billionaire hedge fund founder donates $250,000 to socialist NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani super PAC

Philanthropist and daughter of billionaire hedge fund founder Jamie Simons, Elizabeth Simons, has donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. 

The super PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has raised nearly $2 million from around 300 separate donations so far, and Simons' contribution marks the largest made to the PAC, which is independent from Mamdani's campaign, so far, per the New York Post. 

Elizabeth Simons co-founded the Heising-Simons Foundation alongside her husband, Mark Heising, and serves as the group’s chairwoman of the board of directors.

Her father, James Simons, died in 2024 and his net worth was estimated at $31.4 billion. The elder Simons founded Renaissance Technologies. He and his wife, Marilyn, donated $1 billion to Stony Brook University, where he served as a math professor and from which Marilyn graduated. 

Mamdani has stated that he believes there should not be billionaires, telling NBC’s Meet the Press in June, "I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country." Mamdani’s platform includes city-run grocery stores, rent freezes, a $30 minimum wage, and other progressive causes.

Prominent business leaders have warned of a mass exodus of businesses from the city if Mamdani wins in November. John Catsimatidis, the 76-year-old billionaire owner of Gristedes Supermarkets said he would consider selling his grocery store business and moving the headquarters of his other business to New Jersey. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said, "it only takes a handful of successful people to leave to decimate the city's tax base."