Some of New York City’s beloved bodega owners and community leaders are speaking out against Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, saying they feel betrayed by a bodega business leader who endorsed him.
“I don’t know how my friend got convinced to say that, when all of the bodega[s] together, they feel that they were betrayed by someone that’s supposed to represent [us] and they know the problem that we have been facing with the public safety. That’s our No. 1 concern that we have,” Bodega and Small Business Association President Francisco Marte said on “Fox & Friends First” Friday.
Marte’s comments followed the resignation of United Bodegas of America co-founder Fernando Mateo this week, after the group’s president, Radhames Rodriguez, publicly endorsed Mamdani on behalf of the organization.
After stepping down, Mateo announced he would be founding a new bodega coalition called the “Bodega Alliance.”
“We are not in any position to endorse anyone. We are in a position to expose what our concerns are and what we feel like government should treat us,” Mateo told the New York Post. “Radhames Rodriguez violated not only the trust of every bodega owner that we respect but the trust of the organization and the leaders of that organization.”
One of Mamdani’s main policy proposals, according to his campaign website, is to create a city “Department of Community Safety” designed to “prevent violence” by investing in mental health programs and crisis response teams.
“Remember, that [Mamdani] was the one who create[d] the problems that we are facing now with their own safety. He was the one that supported ‘defund the police,’ not prosecuting, not pressing charges to the criminals. So we’re gonna have huge problems,” Marte said.
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