Ali Najmi, an attorney, who is considered a prominent South Asian and Muslim community leader and top political advisor and longtime inner circle confidant to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, announced his endorsement of Raj Goyle for New York State Comptroller Feb. 18, 2026. Goyle is challenging long-time incumbent Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Credited with playing a key role in Mamdani’s victory, Najmi was appointed January 2, as Chair of the newly revitalized Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.
Najmi and Goyle have been politically aligned since 2015, when Goyle supported Najmi’s unsuccessful run for New York City Council in District 23. That race was also Mamdani’s first engagement with New York City politics.
“Najmi’s support signals a consolidation of the South Asian progressive movement, bridging the gap between the insurgent energy of the Legislature and City and now carrying momentum to Albany,” Goyle’s campaign contends.
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“Building a grassroots political movement for over a decade and helping Zohran Mamdani become mayor showed me how values-driven leadership can move policy forward, but serious change statewide requires a Comptroller with the right values and vision,” Najmi is quoted saying in the press release. “Raj Goyle helped me in 2015 when few were paying attention to our community’s potential—a campaign that also activated Zohran’s own journey into NYC politics. Raj has always organized and moved our community forward and strengthened our voices in the halls of power. Now, we need that same fighter’s spirit in the Comptroller’s office to ensure our tax dollars aren’t being used to fund the surveillance and deportation of our own neighbors.”
Goyle’s campaign has highlighted transparency in state finances, tackling the affordability, and long-term fiscal responsibility as core pillars of his campaign. “This responsibility includes fiduciary duty-driven investments while aligning with New York’s values, including divesting the incumbent’s portfolio of foreign bonds, fossil fuels, and any company aiding Trump’s ICE deportation machine, including a nearly half-billion-dollar stake in Palantir,” the campaign emphasized.
“Ali Najmi and I have been in the trenches together fighting for our communities and working families for over a decade,” Goyle said. “He saw the potential for South Asian political power in New York long before the establishment did. I am honored to have his support as we move from fighting for a seat at the table to ensuring that the table itself is accountable to the people. While Tom DiNapoli actively invests in Trump’s terror on New Yorkers, chases risky foreign bonds funding Netanyahu’s war crimes, and refuses to tackle rising utility rates, we’ll focus on working-class New Yorkers.”
Goyle is the founder of Phone Free New York and the former board chair of the NYC-based public policy think tank 5BORO Institute. A former Kansas State legislator, Goyle was one of the first Indian Americans elected to office in the country and flipped one of the reddest districts in the country.
He worked as a civil rights lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union and was CEO and co-founder of the technology company Bodhala which was acquired in 2021. He lives in New York City with his wife, two teenage daughters, mother, and mother-in-law.
Najmi was born and raised in New York and established an eponymous law practice (Najmilaw) in Downtown Manhattan. A civil rights and criminal justice attorney, Najmi began his career in law in 2009 when he was recruited to join the New York City Council as the Legislative Director to a New York City Council Member. He helped author legislation protecting civil rights and religious freedom during his time at the City Council, notes his biography on najmilaw.com.