🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will discover who will be their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will decide who governs and defends the country's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious showdown, marked by accusations of 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 party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a rather grubby end to an race that could be critical to the path that the party, floundering in its response to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a platform that has appealed to Americans' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, if the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable comeback win, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of considered, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince party leaders that the wisest course is to stick to the center – even as polls show the present version of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident during the race. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the metropolis has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

After spending months launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting the candidate directly. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It hit bottom recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to the capital and warned to do the same to NYC, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to drop out from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

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 New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, left office from the same position.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in the final phase, after video surfaced appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a DSA gathering in recent years. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was criticizing joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Emotional Response

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

The progressive addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

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