Longtime Democratic donor joins NYC mayoral race, vows to upend 'radical left' agenda

Wall Street investor and longtime Democrat Whitney Tilson is vowing to cut the radical left agenda's rotten spot out of the Big Apple, as the field of candidates hoping to unseat Mayor Eric Adams takes shape.

"Look at what's happened to our city in the 11 years since he's [Mayor Michael Bloomberg has] been out and career politicians either holding or pandering to these radical left views… are sending our city in the wrong direction, and I'm determined to turn it around," Tilson told Fox News Wednesday.

Tilson, who describes himself as a "centrist" Democrat, was among the first in his party to call for President Biden to step down during the 2024 election cycle. He discussed his decision to hop into New York City's mayoral race on "Fox & Friends," calling out the current state of high crime and corruption afflicting the city and his party.

"I'm alarmed at what's happened in our party and especially in our city, where we've had one party rule [from] what I call the radical left. I'm a sensible, centrist leftist, sort of in the model of a great mayor, Mike Bloomberg," he said.

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If elected, Tilson's priorities would involve cutting crime by half, addressing the cost-of-living crisis, improving public schools, fixing spending by eliminating corruption and prioritizing citizens and legal residents in the allocation of city resources.

The migrant crisis has taken center stage in the Big Apple, with hotels across the city housing illegal migrants and creating a financial strain on local residents.

The city has forked out $6.4 billion to cover the more than 200,000 migrants who have flooded the city since 2022, numbers from the mayor's office show.

Such strains – and concerns over migrant crime – have fueled discussions about sanctuary cities nationwide. Co-host Lawrence Jones asked Tilson if he believes New York City should remain a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

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"The devil's in the details," he responded. 

"New York's been a sanctuary city going back to the 1970s and every mayor, even under Republican mayors like Giuliani, have maintained that in the sense that New York City has not cooperated with efforts to do mass deportations, something I opposed. But under de Blasio, in 2014, especially 2018, they doubled down and now, for example, police officers, if they arrest a migrant that is committing a serious crime, they should immediately turn that person over to ICE and that person should be on the next plane back to Venezuela or Mexico or wherever they came from if they're committing crimes, but that's not happening."

"That's Exhibit A of the kind of radical left views that have taken hold in New York that need to be rolled back to sensible, centrist views."

Mayor Adams is facing a crowded and competitive Democratic primary in 2025, with challenges from former Obama aide Michael Blake, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer.