🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover the identity of their new city leader this election day, in a contest that will decide who governs and protects the nation's most populous metropolis at a moment when Donald Trump has vowed to send military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democrats against each other. The contest has become an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with accusations of racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have major implications for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the former 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 the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million New Yorkers, has outpaced his rival by double-digits in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, the former governor, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a rather grubby end to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's authoritarian grabs, adopts 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 message that has appealed to Americans' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, 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 reinforce the party's current model of cautious, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A NYC rejection of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of the city seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has attracted an force of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

Yet, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks stacked against him, the ex-leader has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting the candidate personally. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir last week, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and warned to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent elected, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had heard of him, and in truth, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by contrast, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as New York governor in over a decade ago, 17 years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the state legislature in recently, 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 – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Still, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in recent days, after footage surfaced appearing to show him implying the New York police department and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

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

The progressive responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their full identities, 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 actions of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd