🔗 Share this article

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

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has turned into an increasingly bitter face-off, marked by alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has run on a platform of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about two million city residents, has led his rival by significant margins across all surveys taken in October, 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 recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has criticized his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should Mamdani 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 Americans' anger at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, if the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' current model of cautious, lackluster opposition – a strategy that has infuriated the party base. A NYC rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Campaign Energy

Residents of New York seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

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.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might stick, Cuomo has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo asserted New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has sent the military reserves to the capital and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that is expected. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent elected, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, launched his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had heard of him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the contest in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held every edge. The classic political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and served in a Democratic presidency. He became the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment 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 pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced difficulties in recent days, after video emerged suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member advised 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 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 followers of Islam could express their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

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