When I started Moms First, people told me child care was too niche, too complicated, too expensive to ever become a top-tier issue.
Well — look at New York City now.
This week, Zohran Mamdani was elected Mayor of NYC, and one of his first priorities? Making child care affordable and universal.
That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because moms, business leaders, advocates — and a whole lot of tired, overworked caregivers — refused to sit quietly while the city made it impossible to raise a family.
If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to make child care a winning issue, let me take you behind the scenes. Because this is how we did it — and how we’ll do it again.
This Moment Was Years in the Making
Before I go any further, let’s be clear: this win didn’t start with us.
For decades, local advocates, early educators, and parent organizers across New York City have been doing the hard, often thankless work of fighting for affordable, quality child care. They’ve built the coalitions, pushed the policies, and kept showing up — long before the cameras were rolling or the headlines caught up.
What Moms First did was add fuel to that fire. Since our founding in 2021, we’ve brought new allies to the table — business leaders, policymakers, and our national network of moms — to amplify a national conversation about the cost of the child care crisis. And that narrative is what we saw take hold here in New York City.
Because real change doesn’t come from one campaign or one moment. It’s the result of years of persistence, and of people who’ve been in the trenches making this fight impossible to ignore.
When Business Shows Up, Moms Win
In September, Moms First partnered with the Partnership for New York City, the 5BORO Institute, and the Citizens Budget Commission to bring together the city’s top business leaders to talk about the future of child care and what’s at stake for New York’s economy.
Now, that may sound like your average panel-and-pastries kind of thing — but it wasn’t.
I said something that day that I’ll stand by forever: nothing moves without business. Child care is a workforce issue and you can’t fix a broken care system if the people who employ parents aren’t at the table.
By the end of our event, we had done what so many roundtable discussions never do: we found common ground. We agreed that reliable, affordable care isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s make-or-break for retention, productivity, and equity. When employers step up and businesses invest in child care solutions, it not only helps a company’s bottom line, it helps families thrive.
And because business leaders are essential allies in this work, I also teamed up with Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, to co-write the op-ed, NYC Needs Child Care That Is Affordable. Together, we made the case that when companies and governments treat child care as infrastructure, everyone wins: families, workers, and the economy.
Then We Got Loud
Our Child Care First NYC campaign mobilized thousands of parents and caregivers to sign petitions, share their stories, and demand that candidates make child care a defining issue in this election.
We armed moms with voter guides and pushed debate moderators to ask the one question every New Yorker deserves an answer to: What’s your plan for child care?
Our campaign and the stories behind it were featured in The New York Times, amNY, and The 19th, amplifying the pressure on every candidate to take a stand. The headlines said it all: the demand for affordable child care is rising, and voters are connecting the dots between care and the city’s affordability crisis.
The stories poured in — from parents juggling night shifts, to moms on the verge of quitting jobs they loved, to small business owners watching employees disappear because care costs more than they make.
These stories hit hard. And they made it impossible for the candidates to look away.
No One Wins Alone
If I’ve learned one thing doing this work, it’s that progress takes partners, on the ground and in high places. It’s about finding allies who can move the needle with us.
That’s exactly what we did.
New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul has been a real leader on family-friendly policies like paid leave and child care. In fact, we teamed up with the Governor’s office several years ago to launch the pilot of our tool PaidLeave.AI. So I knew we had an ally when it came to making child care a priority in New York City. And I was thrilled when she went on the record in a conversation with me at the Economic Club of New York that she would include child care investments in her 2026 state budget.
This is what real movement-building looks like: finding allies across sectors, connecting the dots between policy and lived experience, and proving that when we lead with care, progress follows.
The Result
On November 5, the candidate who made universal child care one of his top three rallying cries won the mayoral race.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s agenda calls for:
- Expanding universal child care
- Raising pay for child care providers
- Investing in equitable access for working families
Those are the very same policies Moms First and other advocacy groups across NYC have been fighting for year over year.
The Takeaway
This is what winning looks like.
When we organize across sectors — from playgrounds to boardrooms — we can move child care from the margins of political debate to the center of economic policy.
New York City just proved that the Moms First model works.
But this victory isn’t just New York’s. It’s part of a wave that’s reshaping what’s politically possible.
In New Mexico and Vermont, lawmakers have passed some of the boldest child care legislation in the country — from universal programs to major investments in affordability and access. And in races across the country, candidates like Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are showing that running on policies that support parents — that make families feel seen, heard, and valued — isn’t just good policy. It’s good politics.
This victory also belongs to every parent who’s written their story, every business that’s stepped up, every child care advocate who rallied at City Hall, and every policymaker who’s had the courage to act.
And if you’re reading this thinking, Could we do this in my city? — the answer is yes. We can. We will. And we already are.
Because if we can win in New York, we can win anywhere.
Action Center
Where We Go From Here
Even when we’re not in campaign mode, there are always ways to jump in.
Visit our Action Center for quick, meaningful ways to make an impact — from signing petitions to sharing your story to organizing in your own community.
And if you can, please consider fueling this movement. Every dollar helps us keep the pressure on — and turn moments like this into a national wave of change.
Donate now or explore the many ways you can make a contribution.
Making Headlines
Check out what people are saying about Moms First in the news:
- Dealing with the crushing costs of child care (CBS Sunday Morning)
- Op-ed: The next governor and Legislature must treat childcare as a core economic investment — here’s how they can (BINJE)
If this win made you hopeful, hold on to that feeling — and stay tuned because we’re just getting started.
Starting in a few weeks, we’ll be rolling out some powerful ways for moms and caregivers to help shape the future of motherhood, right where they live.
Because change doesn’t just happen in City Hall. It happens in backyards, classrooms, and around the kitchen island — and you’re part of it.
Onward and upward,
Reshma Saujani