🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will find out who will be their new city leader this Tuesday, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the country's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democrats against each other. The election has become an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has run on a platform of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by double-digits across all surveys taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who stepped down as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that included a series of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

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

National Implications

Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has appealed to voters' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an enthusiasm within the party arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of considered, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has angered the party base. A NYC rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could convince party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the present version of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has attracted an force of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the stakes 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 resonate, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking the candidate directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and popped up on conservative media for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate claimed the city “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the military reserves to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had known him, and in reality, few even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who seemingly held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the state legislature in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a brighter outlook of the city's direction than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after video surfaced suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those shadows 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 his opponents, who has alleged Mamd