Dave Portnoy Suggests He’ll Run Against Mamdani and Asks, ‘Can I Win Here?’

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy floated a challenge to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but expressed skepticism as to whether he could actually defeat him.

Portnoy appeared on Monday’s Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, where the host slammed the democratic socialist mayor and the candidates Mamdani endorsed who won primaries last week.

On Tuesday, former NYC comptroller Brad Lander crushed Rep. Dan Goldman to earn the nomination in the 10th district. Union organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th district. And state Rep. Claire Valdez trounced Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the 7th district. All three districts are solidly blue, and so the Mamdani-backed candidates are expected to win.

“What would you do about it?” Jesse Watters asked as the chyron read, “Commie wave hits New York City.”

“So I’ve always thought I would never get involved in politics, but I think you can do more in the private sector,” Portnoy replied. “What is going on has actually made me pause that thought. I was saying to you that old Plato quote, if you don’t do your public service and run for office, you’re doomed to be run by basically dummies. And right now I feel like that’s what’s happening. Now, not everyone’s getting out to vote. I think what the Democrats have done is they’ve let the fox into the henhouse.”

Portnoy said that it is “a scary time” to live in New York and added, “I do feel like it’s my duty. I can’t turn away. I feel like I could make a change, maybe a do run in politics. So I don’t know.”

“You might run against Mamdani?” Watters asked.

“If I was going to run, it would be here,” he responded. “Can I win here? I have no idea. I don’t the demographics, whether I’d get enough votes. There’s a lot of people who like me in New York City. I know that. I’ve done a lot of good in New York City when I wasn’t thinking about politics, whether it was the Barstool Fund, pizza places. So, it wasn’t for show. I’ve had a real job. I’ve done real things unlike these clown politicians who have never had a job and never been in the real world for a day. But the people voting for these people that just won are these young, white, like, Ivy League-ish, elite-ish, women. It’s like, who are they? Like, they’ll never vote for me. They’ll never believe in common sense.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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