Mamdani-aligned political group Our Time loses almost all staff

Our Time for NYC was founded as a nonprofit political group after Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor by members of the Democratic Socialists of America hoping to maintain the organizing energy. 

But just five months later, Our Time has lost virtually all of its staff.

Emma Saltzberg, a member of Our Time’s board, confirmed that Executive Director Jeremy Freeman, Field Manager Magdalena Morańda and Organizing Director Sara Blazevic have all left the organization in recent months, and Deputy Director Divya Sundaram will be departing after this week. At that point, Communications Director Jesse Myerson, a former spokesperson for New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, will be Our Time’s only remaining full-time staffer. The group’s board has also undergone a reshuffling, with Saltzberg joining alongside new board members last month and one of the group’s two original board members stepping down last week.

Salzburg said the board is currently in the midst of a “thoughtful and intentional strategy reflection process,” which will hopefully result in a new strategic direction for Our Time. “We are in a moment of pausing, reflecting, adjusting to meet the moment,” she said. “I think we're all really committed to doing what the moment requires of us, and being as effective as possible in fighting for the New York that we deserve.”

Freeman also confirmed that he left his role as executive director. “I stepped down to pursue other opportunities. I continue to be excited about and confident in Our Time’s work to advance the affordability agenda,” he said in a statement to City & State.

Our Time was created with great fanfare in November, following Mamdani’s victory in the mayoral election. The 501(c)(4) nonprofit was founded by NYC-DSA members who worried that Mamdani’s 100,000-strong army of volunteers would be demobilized once the campaign ended. Although some in DSA argued that those volunteers who wanted to keep fighting for Mamdani’s agenda should just join DSA, there was concern that less politically engaged volunteers might not want to join an explicitly socialist organization.

“Throughout the late 20th and early 21st century, there has been a real reluctance to identify with the term ‘socialist,’” said Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA.

They underestimated the interest. NYC-DSA has continued its meteoric rise during the first 100 days of Mamdani’s administration. The group grew from 5,910 members in October 2024 (when Mamdani launched his campaign) to 9,650 members in June 2025 (when he won the Democratic primary) to 12,860 in November 2025 (when he won the general election) to 14,360 last month.

“It turns out that democratic socialism is more popular than we thought it was,” Saltzberg said.

“Zohran really embracing it, not only through the campaign, but also actively as mayor, I think, has made it a lot less kind of scary, alienating, esoteric as a term for many,” Mausser said. “So I mean, this is a positive development, from our perspective.

Mausser said DSA’s success may have sucked the wind out of Our Time. It’s not the case that all of Mamdani’s campaign volunteers joined DSA, but the most active ones did (if they weren’t already members) and the rest have proven more difficult than anticipated to mobilize. “I think we may need to figure out if the way Our Time was organizing itself was the best way to reach and activate those people,” Mausser said.

It doesn’t help that the Mamdani has kept his distance from the group aimed at appealing to his acolytes. Our Time acquired the Mamdani campaign’s list of volunteers, but that’s about it. While the mayor has repeatedly givenDSA shout outs, and City Hall representatives meet regularly with the socialist group’s leaders, the same is not true of Our Time. And when Our Time helped organize a massive “tax the rich” rally in Albany in February, Mamdani skipped it,to avoid complicating his ongoing negotiations with Gov. Kathy Hochul. Turnout was much lower than anticipated. It’s difficult to mobilize pro-Mamdani volunteers when Mamdani doesn’t even show up.