🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will learn who will be their new city leader this Tuesday, in a contest that will decide who runs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a time when the former president has vowed to send military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has become an acrimonious showdown, marked by alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of ultra-rich donors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced his rival by double-digits in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has criticized his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby end to an race that could be critical to the path that the party, floundering in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with voters' frustration at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party arguably not seen since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

However, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable comeback victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of considered, lackluster resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has drawn an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or new participants.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the risks against him, the ex-leader has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani directly. He has called his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed the city “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his mayoral bid in last year, few had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as New York governor in 2011, seventeen years after his parent, the former governor, left office from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in recent days, after video surfaced suggesting him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in 2023. The progressive, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was questioning joint training exercises between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, Mamdani appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered 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 local Muslims 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 Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd