🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will find out who will be their new city leader this Tuesday, in a contest that will decide who runs and defends the country's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democrats against one another. The contest has become an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has criticized Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

It's been a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be critical to the path that the party, floundering in its reaction to Trump's authoritarian grabs, takes in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of considered, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the stakes 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, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking the candidate directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed 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 radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack 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 Mamdani, and perhaps that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had known him, and in truth, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced some challenges in recent days, after video emerged suggesting him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in recent years. The progressive, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first ran for the legislature, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows 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 silence that we must set aside our faith.”

Addressing the actions of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has alleged Mamd