🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will learn 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 time when Donald Trump has vowed to send armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democrats against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious showdown, laced with accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic 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 former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has run on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by double-digits in every poll taken in October, and it is very much the progressive's race to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after sharing an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its response to Trump's authoritarian grabs, takes in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with Americans' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least a portion of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an enthusiasm within the party arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016.

Conversely, if the former governor, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' current model of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the present version of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's snappy videos on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has drawn an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, continues to fight. And with the stakes stacked against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani directly. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom recently, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to the Republican 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 race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in last year, few had heard of him, and in truth, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held every edge. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, 17 years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, left office from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was questioning joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, Mamdani appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a realization, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

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