Last year, well
before DoorDash’s $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.
At the time, DoorDash’s campaign contributions in the run-up to the
2025 mayoral election
were considered unusually large — it made a single $1 million gift to a super PAC that, at the time, was the
largest donation in the race
— and
faced criticism
from other candidates in the race. The food delivery giant’s settlement agreement, the largest worker settlement in the city’s history, brings further scrutiny to those donations.
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
called Fix the City.
While on the campaign trail, Mamdani had promised to
regulate
delivery apps and further protections for delivery workers, proposals that earned him the support of delivery worker groups.
At the time, DoorDash’s 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’s conduct.
“It’s not a contribution, it’s an investment, with the donor or investor expecting something in return,” said Greg Coleridge, a former co-director of Move to Amend, an advocacy group that seeks stringent regulations against corporate money in elections. “Here is an instance where organized money from a company that was trying to avoid being responsible and accountable, was unsuccessful.”
Announcing the new settlement, Mamdani
said
, “The size of this settlement shows the damage done to workers by wage theft. But it also shows that e
