🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will discover who will be their new city leader this Tuesday, in a race that will determine who governs and defends the country's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to deploy armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democrats against one another. The election has become an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has attracted international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of economic justice and promised to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has outpaced his rival by significant margins in every poll taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who stepped down as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has made it clear he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly end to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, struggling in its reaction to the former president's power moves, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his bid will be compelled to address a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a surprising comeback win, it could cement the party's current model of considered, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has angered the party base. A New York rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the metropolis has attracted an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, 67, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the former governor has turned to ugly messaging in the final days.

After spending months throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on attacking the candidate personally. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the military reserves to the capital and threatened to do the same to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have pressured the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, launched his mayoral bid in last year, few had heard of him, and in reality, few even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who seemingly held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as New York governor in 2011, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, left office from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the state legislature in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a brighter outlook of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged appearing to show him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a DSA convention in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his response to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd