🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this election day, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the country's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to send military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has become an acrimonious face-off, marked by accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted 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 corporations.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a agenda of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about 2 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 election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid accusations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed Mamdani's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby end to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's power moves, takes in the near future.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with Americans' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an excitement within the party perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of considered, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has infuriated the party base. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of the city appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the metropolis has attracted an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young or new participants.

Personal Attacks

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

After spending months throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might resonate, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It hit bottom recently, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A set of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect the independent elected, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the race in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing free buses 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 rising criminal activity, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, the candidate has encountered some challenges in recent days, after video emerged suggesting him implying the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD 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 convention in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, the candidate seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his response to his opponent's escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been taught “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

Addressing the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd