🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover the identity of their new city leader this election day, in a race that will determine who governs and defends the nation's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has threatened to send armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two main candidates that could have major implications 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 progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has run on a platform of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as racist after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be critical to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to Trump's power moves, takes in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

If the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with Americans' frustration at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the party perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

Conversely, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement national Democrats' current model of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has angered the party base. A New York defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually get out and meet people in the city has attracted an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

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

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani directly. He has labelled Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate asserted the city “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir recently, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have pressured the Republican candidate to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential 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, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, 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 – offer a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, the candidate has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after footage surfaced suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a DSA gathering in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a lesson, Mamdani 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 shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd