🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will find out the identity of their new city leader this Tuesday, in a contest that will decide who governs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a moment when Donald Trump has threatened to send armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious showdown, marked by alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the support of wealthy contributors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has made it clear he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after sharing an artificial intelligence video that included a series of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's power moves, takes in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

Should 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 appealed to voters' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an enthusiasm within the party perhaps not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has angered the party base. A New York defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could convince party leaders that the wisest course is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the present version of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

However, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the risks stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani personally. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

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 shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to get Cuomo elected, as other powerful voices have urged Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held all the advantages. The classic political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, 17 years after his father, the former governor, left office from the identical role.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has encountered difficulties in the final phase, after video emerged 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 police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the clip, filmed at a DSA gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

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

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been taught “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out 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 alleged Mamd