New Yorkers will discover who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a contest that will determine who runs and defends the country's most populous metropolis at a moment when the former president has vowed to deploy armed forces to the urban center.
Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democratic figures against each other. The contest has become an increasingly bitter face-off, marked by alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party performs in next year's midterm elections.
On the left side is the democratic socialist, the young democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has attracted 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 big business.
With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a platform of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about two million city residents, has led Cuomo by double-digits across all surveys conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.
However, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racial caricatures and showed his opponent releasing a convicts.
It's been a rather grubby end to an election that could be key to the path that the party, floundering in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the near future.
Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has created an enthusiasm within the party arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.
However, should the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.
Residents of New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.
However, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks stacked against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.
Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani personally. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on conservative media for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.
The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to get Cuomo into office, as other influential figures have pressured the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.
As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should not have reached to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in last year, few had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even noticed.
The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and served in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, left office from the identical role.
The progressive, who was voted in to the state legislature in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.
Still, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage surfaced suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were connected.
“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 recording, filmed at a DSA gathering in 2023. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the NYPD and Israeli forces.
As the race closes, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.
The progressive responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, he said, that many local Muslims had been taught “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. 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 seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our faith.”
Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd
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