🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover who will be their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will determine who runs and protects the country's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has vowed to send armed forces to the urban center.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced 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 racism and Islamophobia, 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 midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about 2 million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as bigoted after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly end to an election that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to the former president's power moves, takes in the near future.

National Implications

Should Mamdani 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 voters' frustration at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable comeback win, it could cement national Democrats' current model of cautious, lackluster resistance – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the present version of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has attracted 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 former governor has turned to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

After spending months throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed the city “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

The line of attack mirrors much of what Trump, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had known him, and in reality, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had wed a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the city's direction than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has encountered some challenges in recent days, after video emerged appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD 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. The progressive, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the nation is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, the candidate seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

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