🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple 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 armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has become an acrimonious showdown, laced with alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, 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 Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the ex- Democratic New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the backing of wealthy contributors 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 leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about 2 million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by double-digits in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby end to an race that could be critical to the path that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a message that has appealed to voters' frustration at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to adopt at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has created an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

Conversely, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of considered, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has angered grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in New York appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the metropolis has attracted an army of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them youth or new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes against him, the former governor has resorted to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking the candidate personally. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo asserted the city “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 radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the military reserves to Washington DC and warned to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to Trump in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect Cuomo into office, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should not have reached to this point. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, entered smoothly into the contest in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became New York governor in 2011, 17 years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication 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 his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged appearing to show him implying the NYPD 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 influenced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the clip, 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 Gaza, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been taught “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 express their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

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