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Last year, well<\/span> before DoorDash\u2019s $131.5 million settlement with New York City for underpaying 264,000 delivery workers was announced Tuesday, the company spent around $1.4 million on the campaign to stop Zohran Mamdani, who oversaw the historic settlement, from becoming mayor.<\/p>\n At the time, DoorDash\u2019s campaign contributions in the run-up to the 2025 mayoral election<\/a> were considered unusually large \u2014 it made a single $1 million gift to a super PAC that, at the time, was the largest donation in the race<\/a> \u2014 and faced criticism<\/a> from other candidates in the race. The food delivery giant\u2019s settlement agreement, the largest worker settlement in the city\u2019s history, brings further scrutiny to those donations.<\/p>\n Through that election cycle, DoorDash spent around $1.4 million against Mamdani and in favor of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The company was one of the top donors to the biggest outside spender in the election, a virulently anti-Mamdani super PAC<\/a> called Fix the City.\u00a0<\/p>\n While on the campaign trail, Mamdani had promised to regulate<\/a> delivery apps and further protections for delivery workers, proposals that earned him the support of delivery worker groups.<\/p>\n At the time, DoorDash\u2019s large spending raised eyebrows. Now, the company has to pay its workers around 100 times the amount it spent attempting to influence the election, owing to a mayoral administration that refused to overlook concerns with the company\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a contribution, it\u2019s an investment, with the donor or investor expecting something in return,\u201d said Greg Coleridge, a former co-director of Move to Amend, an advocacy group that seeks stringent regulations against corporate money in elections. \u201cHere is an instance where organized money from a company that was trying to avoid being responsible and accountable, was unsuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n Announcing the new settlement, Mamdani said<\/a>, \u201cThe size of this settlement shows the damage done to workers by wage theft. But it also shows that enforcement matters.\u201d<\/p>\n In a public statement about the settlement, DoorDash said<\/a>, \u201cSimply put, we screwed up. Our mistakes meant some Dashers were underpaid or paid late. While these mistakes weren\u2019t intentional, that doesn\u2019t make them okay.\u201d (DoorDash did not respond to a request for comment on its campaign contributions.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DoorDash contributed $1 million to Fix the City, a super PAC that spent $31 million in the mayoral election, accounting for close to half of the total outside spending in the race, largely funded by big corporations and billionaires. DoorDash made the payment in May 2025, at a time Mamdani\u2019s campaign was gaining significant momentum ahead of the mayoral primaries in June.<\/p>\n Fix the City ran a barrage of ads, phone calls, text messages, and other forms of political communication seeking to prevent a Mamdani victory and portraying him as a politician with \u201cradically dangerous ideas<\/a>\u201d and \u201ca risk New York can\u2019t afford<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The group artificially altered Mamdani\u2019s beard in a campaign mailer and made it appear longer and darker, an act that the Muslim mayoral candidate had called out<\/a> as \u201cblatant Islamophobia.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of video ads by Fix The City, a campaign finance disclosure in small text at the bottom of the screen read, \u201cThe top three donors to the organization responsible for this advertisement are Michael Bloomberg, DoorDash, John Hess.\u201d<\/p>\n DoorDash also gave $1.8 million to Local Economies Forward NY, a super PAC that contributed more than $360,000 to Cuomo\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n Aided by corporations like DoorDash and billionaires like Bloomberg, the overall independent spending by super PACs seeking to defeat Mamdani was more than eight times what was spent in his favor, according to The Intercept\u2019s analysis of data published by the NYC Campaign Finance Board.<\/p>\nThe Smear Campaign Against Mamdani<\/strong><\/h2>\n