🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will learn who will be their new city leader this Tuesday, in a contest that will determine who runs and protects the nation's most populous metropolis at a moment when the former president has threatened to send military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democrats against each other. The contest has become an acrimonious face-off, marked by alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has led his rival by double-digits across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly end to an election that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with voters' anger at economic disparity, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could reinforce national Democrats' current model of considered, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the political center – even as polls show the present version of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of the city seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for the city and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has attracted an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them young or new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the stakes stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to ugly messaging in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might resonate, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has labelled his rival, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the military reserves to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had known him, and in reality, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a political dynasty member and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down 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 rent control promise – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged appearing to show him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani 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 committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, 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 followers of Islam could express their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

Speaking to the behavior of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd