Erika Kirk Says ‘Career-Driven’ Women ‘Look to the Government’ as a ‘Replacement’ for ‘Certain Things Relationship-Wise’

Erika Kirk is making her views on “career-driven” women — and on New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory — very clear.

The chief executive of Turning Point USA and widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrapped up a day of programming at the 2025 DealBook Summit in a wide-ranging conversation with DealBook editor-at-large Andrew Ross Sorkin.

During their discussion, Sorkin asked Kirk for her reaction to Democrat Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, went on to defeat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. His victory made him the first Muslim and democratic socialist leader of the nation’s largest city.

Sorkin noted that Mamdani had been “able to persuade the younger voter,” and added that his politics sit on “the complete opposite end, if you will, of where someone like Charlie would have been.”

Kirk, reflecting on her own time living in Manhattan, said, “I loved this city,” before shifting to how she sees the vote as a woman. She pointed out that “a high percentage of [Mamdani’s] voters were female.”

She argued that there is “a tendency, especially when you live in a city like Manhattan, where you are so career-driven, and you almost look to the government as a form of replacement for certain things, relationship-wise, even, so you see things a little bit differently.”

After a brief pause, Kirk added that she hopes young women in the city do not “look to the government as a solution to put off having a family or a marriage because you’re relying on the government to support you instead of being united with a husband where you can support yourself and your husband can support and you guys can all combine together.”

“But I just find it so ironic and so interesting that a heavy percentage of the individuals that voted for him were female,” she continued.

Mamdani won 75% of the votes from young voters (ages 18–29) in the New York City mayoral race, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.

Among young women, Mamdani secured 82% of the vote. He is scheduled to be sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1, 2026.