Dave Portnoy turned a blog about bar bets into a media empire millions of people check every single day.
Jesse Watters asked him Monday night if he'd put that empire on the line against Zohran Mamdani.
Portnoy didn't say no.
Watters Put The Question Directly To Portnoy
Jesse Watters didn't ease into it.
Sitting across from Dave Portnoy on Jesse Watters Primetime, the host laid out exactly what socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his handpicked candidates had just done to the Democratic Party in New York.
A trio of Mamdani endorsed candidates swept their primaries days earlier. Two-term Congressman Dan Goldman lost by roughly 32 points. Five-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, fell to a 32-year-old democratic socialist nobody outside Manhattan had heard of a year ago.
The chyron behind Watters said it plainly: Commie wave hits New York City.
Watters wanted to know what Portnoy planned to do about it.
"What is going on has actually made me pause that thought," Portnoy said, referring to a lifetime spent staying out of politics.
He didn't stop there.
Portnoy Said The Quiet Part About Democrats Out Loud
Portnoy told Watters he always figured he could do more good from the private sector than from public office.
"I think what the Democrats have done is they've let the fox into the henhouse," Portnoy said.
He called it a scary time to live in New York.
"I do feel like it's my duty," he said. "I can't turn away. I feel like I could make a change."
Watters leaned in and asked him directly if he'd run against Mamdani.
"If I was going to run, it would be here," Portnoy answered.
Can I Win Here
Portnoy didn't dress it up with false confidence.
"Can I win here? I have no idea," he said. "I don't know the demographics, whether I'd get enough votes."
He pointed to two decades of actual receipts instead, the Barstool Fund that bailed out small businesses during COVID lockdowns and years of throwing money at pizza shops across the five boroughs.
"It wasn't for show," Portnoy said. "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."
Then he named the problem directly.
"The people voting for these people that just won are these young, white, Ivy League-ish, elite-ish women," Portnoy said. "They'll never vote for me. They'll never believe in common sense."
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2071754928159346931“>https://x.com/Acyn/status/2071754928159346931
This Isn't Portnoy's First Shot At Mamdani
Portnoy has been circling Mamdani for over a year, and the timeline tells its own story.
He's mocked Mamdani's politics since before the mayor took office, accused him of grandstanding off the Knicks' championship run, and floated moving Barstool's headquarters out of the city entirely once Mamdani was sworn in.
None of that stuck the way Monday night did.
New York has flirted with socialist politics before and always pulled back from the edge. A socialist nearly won the mayor's office in 1917 before voters chose the Tammany Democrat instead. A century later, the brakes have come off entirely.
Democrats In Washington Are Already Running Scared
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries backed both Goldman and Espaillat. Both lost anyway, and not by a little.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has stayed publicly silent while Mamdani's chosen candidates clear out the party's old guard one primary at a time. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler put it bluntly: the party belongs to Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders now, whether Jeffries wants to say so or not.
Portnoy weighing a run isn't some random celebrity musing. It's a multimillionaire with one of the largest media followings in the country watching the Democratic establishment in his own city get steamrolled and deciding the joke isn't funny anymore.
Whether he actually files paperwork is beside the point. A guy who swore off politics his whole life seriously entertaining a mayoral run tells you everything about how far left Mamdani has dragged New York.
Sources:
- Mike LaChance, "Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports Says He's Thinking of Running for Mayor of New York City to Oppose Mamdani and the DSA," The Gateway Pundit, June 30, 2026.
- "Winners and losers emerge after 'socialist earthquake' rocks NYC primaries," Fox News, June 25, 2026.
- "Mamdani-backed candidates sweep NYC Democratic primaries," Fox News, June 25, 2026.
- "All 3 Mamdani-backed candidates projected to win NY primaries," CBS News New York, June 23, 2026.
