🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will learn who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a contest that will determine who runs and protects the country's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to send military troops to the urban center.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democratic figures against each other. The election has turned into an acrimonious showdown, marked by accusations of racism and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two main contenders that could have major implications 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 progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about two million city residents, has led Cuomo by double-digits in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has made it clear he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has criticized his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a series of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby end to an election that could be key to the path that the party, floundering in its response to Trump's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his campaign will be compelled to address a message that has appealed to voters' anger at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

However, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable comeback win, it could cement national Democrats' current model of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are much more excited about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for New York and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them youth or new participants.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, 67, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the ex-leader has turned to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani personally. He has labelled Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what Trump, 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 shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, 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 powerful voices have urged Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the race in this year 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 a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, 17 years after his father, 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 commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in recent days, after video surfaced appearing to show him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive addressed Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member 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 taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows 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 seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

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