🔗 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 governs and defends the nation's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the urban center.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democrats against each other. The election has turned into an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with accusations of racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of economic justice and promised to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby conclusion to an election that could be key to the path that the Democratic party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with Americans' 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 a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could cement the party's existing approach of considered, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the metropolis has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

Yet, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to ugly messaging in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate directly. He has called his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and popped up on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed the city “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what Trump, who has sent the military reserves to the capital and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent elected, as other powerful voices have urged the Republican candidate to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced difficulties in the final phase, after footage emerged suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the clip, filmed at a DSA convention in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. 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 city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

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