🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will learn the identity of their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will decide who governs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious showdown, marked by accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the backing of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by significant margins in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has made it clear he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after sharing an AI-generated ad that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, takes in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his bid will be compelled to address a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to adopt at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, if Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement the party's current model of cautious, lackluster resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually get out and connect with voters in the metropolis has attracted an force of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

Yet, the former governor, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might resonate, the independent has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed 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 incident.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the military reserves to Washington DC and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that is expected. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in reality, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a brighter outlook of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage surfaced appearing to show him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

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

Emotional Response

As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. 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 security could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd