🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will determine who runs and protects the nation's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to send armed forces to the urban center.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democratic figures against each other. The contest has turned into an increasingly bitter showdown, marked by accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. On the establishment side is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – 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 leading candidate. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has outpaced his rival by significant margins across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed Mamdani's objectives as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

This represents a rather grubby end to an race that could be critical to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

If the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been predicted to win easily in the June primary, achieve a remarkable comeback victory, it could cement national Democrats' current model of considered, lackluster opposition – a strategy that has angered grassroots members. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his readiness to actually get out and meet people in the city has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or new participants.

Negative Tactics

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the stakes against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

After spending months launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on attacking Mamdani personally. He has called his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to the capital and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, left office from the same position.

The progressive, who was elected to the state legislature 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 – offer a more positive vision of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in the final phase, after video surfaced suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, the candidate seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

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