Penn student group hosts New York politician Curtis Sliwa for speaker event

Former New York mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa reflected on his time in politics to an audience of Penn students on Friday.

Sliwa highlighted the importance of free expression during his visit, criticizing what he called political “corruption” among recent leaders in Washington. The Sept. 4 event drew roughly 75 undergraduate students and was hosted by Pi Lambda Sigma, Penn’s pre-governmental fraternity.

“Whether it’s on the far right or the far left, free speech is the antidote to hate speech,” Sliwa said. “Not limiting speech, not claiming that things are hate speech. This is one of the few places in the world where that can exist. You must question authority.”

Sliwa — who ran as the Republican nominee for mayor of New York in 2021 and 2025 — described himself as an “individual free agent who is curious about all aspects of political life.”

“I’ve been to communist meetings, socialist meetings, MAGA meetings, Tea Party meetings, DNC meetings, RNC meetings — and believe it or not, I attended an anarchist conference when I was a teenager,” he said.

In a conversation with The Daily Pennsylvanian after the event, Sliwa discussed the relationship between the federal government and higher education. He pointed to the Trump administration’s recent move to strip tax exemptions from schools offering aid to minority students.

“I call it the white-out effect,” Sliwa said. “It’s what they’re trying to do: just white-out colleges, eliminate people of different color, different backgrounds, different creeds, different beliefs. They’re trying to homogenize it.”

Trump graduated from the Wharton School in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics.

Sliwa also weighed in on November’s midterm elections, arguing that Republicans “don’t have much of a track record to run on, especially since we got involved in this stupid war in Iran.”

“Democrats are fighting internally,” he told the DP. “But then again, Republicans — the few who are not MAGA, like me — we’re fighting against MAGA.”

Sliwa encouraged younger generations to “organize and mobilize” to advance their interests.

“Young people are rightfully angry about it, but they got to do more than just be angry,” he said.

During the event, Sliwa advocated for “speaking up” against the “totalitarian” actions of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I am ashamed of what our country is doing now under the so-called guise of ICE,” Sliwa said.

In 1979, Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit group that works to counter crime on the New York City Subway. In recent years, the group has shifted to also conduct wellness checks on the city’s homeless population.

After the event, College first year Taleen McOmber said she appreciated Sliwa’s effort to “advocate for politicians in their individuality, not just in their political party factions.”

College first year Linda Chen, who attended the event, similarly described Sliwa as “pretty nonpartisan.”

“I think a lot of his ideology broke the binary of what we expect to be Democrat or Republican,” Chen added.

Last year, Sliwa lost the New York mayoral election to Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani, garnering around 7% of the vote. During the event, Sliwa said that the Democrat Socialists of America — or, as he described them, “Zohranistas” — were “always out there.”

“They were out morning, noon, and night,” he said. “They’ve they’ve pinpointed how a minority can beat a majority.”

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