Walden Urges Fellow Mayoral Candidates to Pledge to a Two-Way Race, Declaring NYC’s Independence from Socialism

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2025
(646) 705-3286
sara@jimfornyc.com

 

NEW YORK (July 3, 2025) —  Independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden on Thursday offered a plan to ensure that the November elections will be a two-way race, allaying the concerns of voters who do not want to turn NYC over to socialism. “A Pledge for Our Free Market” is Walden’s solution: setting up a two-way race in November that pits capitalism against socialism.

The pledge asks the four free-market candidates (Adams, Cuomo, Sliwa and Walden) to agree to back the frontrunner in a rigorous, independent poll conducted weeks before the race.  It typifies the commonsense approach of Walden, a prominent attorney who has used smart law to clean up the mafia, the Olympics, and lead paint in NYCHA public housing after securing $250 million.

“Socialism represents an existential risk to the city—politically, financially, and morally,” said Walden. “Defeating socialism is now central to this mayoral campaign.”

The proposal takes a page from the Democratic primary, where candidates cross-endorsed before the vote to ensure that Zohran Mamdani would defeat Andrew Cuomo, effectively engineering a socialist victory. Under Walden’s plan, the candidates losing the poll would endorse the winner and suspend their campaigns. This plan would require approval from the NYC Campaign Finance Board, since supporting another candidate generally triggers a requirement to repay public funds. The CFB did not apply this rule to the Democrats in the primary.

Walden’s stance against partisanship is attracting support from Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This week, the campaign received important endorsements from Cyrus Vance Jr., who served as Manhattan District Attorney for more than a decade, and Paul Massey, Republican mayoral candidate in 2017, who is now head of B6 Real Estate Advisors.

Walden’s mayoral campaign has broken new ground, raising $3 million after becoming the first citywide candidate to qualify for NYC’s generous matching funds.

For more information, see www.jimfornyc.com and @jimfornyc on X, Instagram and BlueSky.  For questions or interviews, please contact sara@jimfornyc.com  646.705.3286.