🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will discover the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will determine who governs and protects the country's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the urban center.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The election has become an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with accusations of racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have significant consequences for how the party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and promised to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has led his rival by double-digits in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, the former governor, who resigned as the state's leader in 2021 amid accusations 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 unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby end to an election that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to the former president's power moves, takes in the near future.

National Implications

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with voters' frustration at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the party perhaps not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, if the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of considered, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has infuriated grassroots members. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as polls show the present version of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

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

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate directly. He has labelled his rival, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on conservative media for an discussion with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the military reserves to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, 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 influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his mayoral bid in last year, few had known 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 quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his father, Mario Cuomo, left office from the same position.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged suggesting him implying 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 neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a DSA convention in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, the candidate appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims 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 faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has alleged Mamd