🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will learn the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a race that will determine who governs and defends the nation's most populous metropolis at a moment when the former president has threatened to send military troops to the urban center.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. 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 main candidates that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors 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. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani releasing a group of criminals.

It's been a rather grubby conclusion to an election that could be critical to the path that the Democratic party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, takes in the coming years.

National Implications

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with Americans' frustration at economic disparity, inflation and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has generated an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has infuriated grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of the city appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent during the race. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

However, the former governor, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes stacked against him, the ex-leader has resorted 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 labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted the city “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It hit bottom recently, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy mirrors much of what Trump, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent elected, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should not have reached to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by comparison, entered smoothly into the contest in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held every edge. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as New York governor in over a decade ago, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the city's direction than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after footage emerged suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces 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 silence that we must set aside our faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd