🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a race that will determine who governs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a moment when the former president has threatened to send armed forces to the urban center.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democrats against one another. The election has become an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits in every poll taken in October, and it is very much the progressive's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly conclusion to an election that could be key to the path that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

Should the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to voters' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to adopt at least a portion of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

Conversely, if the former governor, who had been predicted to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent during the race. The candidate's snappy videos on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the metropolis has drawn an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate personally. He has called his rival, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo asserted New York “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and warned to take similar action to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other powerful voices have urged the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Political Histories

For the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should not have reached to this point. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, launched his mayoral bid in last year, not many had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, left office from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage emerged suggesting him implying the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani 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 realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our faith.”

Speaking to the actions of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has alleged Mamd