🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will learn who will be their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will decide who runs and protects the country's largest city at a moment when the former president has vowed to deploy armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, 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 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and corporations.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of economic justice and promised to freeze rent for about 2 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

Yet, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has made it clear he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has criticized his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

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

National Implications

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with voters' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' current model of cautious, lackluster resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent during the race. The candidate's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the metropolis has attracted an army of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

However, the former governor, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani personally. He has labelled his rival, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo asserted the city “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect Cuomo into office, as other powerful voices have urged the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a political dynasty member and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – offer a brighter outlook of the future than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage surfaced appearing to show him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF 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 clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a family member advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

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