00:01When a skeptic dared to dream again. Thank you.
00:10A new investigation has uncovered a complex network behind the political rise of Zoran
00:16Mamani, a 34-year-old socialist politician who is now considered a front-runner for mayor
00:21of New York City. The report describes Mamani's rise as engineered, the result of years of
00:28coordination between activist groups, political operatives, religious networks, and major
00:33philanthropic donors. According to the Fox News digital investigation, more than 110 groups
00:42worked to advance Mamani's career, including Muslim civic groups, socialist organizations
00:47affiliated with the Democratic Party, and labor unions. Two of the most prominent networks
00:53identified are Empower Change, founded by Palestinian-American activist Linda Sassau,
00:59and Image, a national Muslim-American advocacy group. Both organizations have received substantial
01:05funding from the George Shourash Open Society Foundation, which has provided nearly $2.5
01:10million to empower and engage in recent years. A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations
01:17told Fox News Digital.
01:18We fund civil society organizations that deepen civic engagement through peaceful democratic
01:24participation, counter-discrimination, and advance human rights. The funding came years
01:30before the mayoral race. We are a non-partisan organization that does not fund political
01:36candidates or their campaigns.
01:40The investigation traces the origins of this political machine to September 2017, when Linda
01:46Sassau, then a leading figure of the Women's March, posed for a campaign photo for city council
01:52candidate Kader Il team. Among the volunteers kneeling beside her was a young organizer, Zoran
01:59Mamani. That moment, the report says, marked the beginning of a deliberate political project
02:06that would propel Mamani from local organizer to national prominence in less than a decade.
02:11Empowering herself became the core of a tight inner circle of 30 ethnic and religious organizations,
02:20including CF Action, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Action Coalition,
02:26and the Yemeni American Merchants Association.
02:30Together, these groups have generated annual revenues of around $24 million in mobilized voters,
02:37volunteers, and social media activity in support of Mamani's campaigns.
02:43BO8ers credit this network with being successful in bringing the socialist goals of the Democratic
02:48Socialists of America, with which Mamani is involved, into the mainstream. Their influence
02:53now extends well beyond New York to elections in Virginia, Minnesota, Texas, and California.
03:00A Defend Advance campaign run by MGAG Superpark has Mdani and the late Virginia gubernatorial
03:06candidate Ghazala Hashmi as its primary candidates. The investigation also shed light on MGA's donors,
03:14including $175,000 from the Sterling Charitable Gift Fund, an organization once linked to a network
03:21raided by the FBI in 2002 as part of an investigation into funding Palestinian groups like Hamas.
03:29Federal prosecutors did not file charges against the fund or its officials.
03:33Over the past decade, the Mandani network has been backed by some of the country's largest
03:39philanthropists, including the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.
03:45Progressive activism, faith-based organizing, and professional campaign strategy, a rare synthesis,
03:52analysts say. To the casual observer, the rise of Zora and EMD might seem comodal.
03:58A tale of grassroots energy and demographic change, but the data, the money trail, and the connections
04:04tell a different story. The report traces Mdani's political journey from 2012, when he co-founded a
04:11Palestine Justice Student Association at Beaudoin College, to 2018, when he joined the Muslim Democratic
04:18Club of New York, co-founded by Sassour. The club became a springboard for his political career,
04:25providing access to donor lists, voter databases, and campaign infrastructure.
04:31Around the same time, Sassour founded Empower Change, a non-profit.
04:39Public records show that Empower raised at least $2.4 million between 2017 and 2024,
04:46including $1.125 million from the Shourosh Foundation to advance open society and $450,000
04:53from the MacArthur Foundation. It became a digital organizing hub for Sassour and Mdani,
04:59amplifying their political message.
05:03In parallel, Engage Action, also funded by the Open Society Network, expanded nationwide,
05:10receiving over $3 million from Shourosh-affiliated foundations between 2021 and 2024.
05:16Together, MP and Engage built what one analyst described as a financial and political ecosystem
05:23designed to promote candidates like Mdani under the banner of Muslim empowerment.
05:31Mdani won his first election in 2020, securing a seat in the New York State Assembly with the
05:37explicit support of Sassour and her network. He was soon featured at the Empower Change sponsored
05:44My Muslim Watt Summit and launched a campaign for mayor of New York City through 2025.
05:50But the report also draws attention to some of Mdani's ties to controversial religious figures.
05:56In January, he visited Imam Muhammad Alpa, who had previously publicly prayed for the destruction of
06:02Israel. In May, Imam Sir Wahaj, a Brooklyn cleric and community leader, donated $1,000 to a fund
06:10supporting Mdani's campaign. Wahaj has long been a polarizing figure, having once served as a
06:17character witness for blind slave owner Omar Abdul Rahman, who was convicted of the 1993 World Trade
06:23Center bombing. Wahaj has also made controversial statements over the years, calling U.S. policy a
06:30weapon of Islam and calling for a 10,000-man army to be deployed in New York City. Other clerics who
06:37support Mdani, including Imam Talib Abdul Rashid of Halen, have also defended individuals convicted
06:44of supporting extremist causes. Despite the criticism, Mdani's campaign has not distanced
06:50itself from these individuals. After Mdani posted a photo with Imam Wahaj on social media,
06:56Md faced backlash but soon received public support from Sasa Kaya and Engage Action.
07:02Sasa shared a selfie with Mamani and wrote, May Allah continue to bless and protect you.
07:10In a statement to his supporters, Well Owls, the executive director of Engage Action,
07:16defended the movement's work and said, We are in this for the long haul.
07:20Critics like Dalia Alakiti, who is running against Ilhan Ulma in Minnesota, meanwhile, say the pattern is
07:27clear. For more than a decade, Sasa and her allies have been building the Mdani machine piece by piece.
07:33The donors, the narrative, and now the candidate. His rise was not spontaneous. It was engineered.
07:41As Mdani's campaign gains momentum, the debate over his political network continues to heat up.
07:48Supporters see him as a symbol of Muslim-American empowerment and a progressive voice for change.
07:53Critics argue that his rise reveals a sophisticated alliance of political activism,
07:59ideology, and foreign-funded philanthropy. One thing is for sure,
08:04Zoran Mantani's path to power is anything but ordinary.
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