🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will determine who runs and defends the nation's largest city at a moment when the former president has vowed to deploy armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious face-off, marked by alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and promised 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 race to lose.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after sharing an artificial intelligence video that included a series of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

It's been a particularly ugly conclusion to an election that could be critical to the path that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

If the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

However, should Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' existing approach of considered, lackluster resistance – a tactic that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their choice 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 readiness to actually get out and meet people in the city has drawn an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or new participants.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the stakes against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on targeting the candidate directly. He has called his rival, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate asserted the city “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the military reserves to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that is expected. A set of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was voted in to the state legislature in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a brighter outlook of the future than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, the candidate has faced some challenges in recent days, after footage emerged suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a DSA convention in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate recalled 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 community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our beliefs.”

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