🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will discover who will be their new city leader this election day, in a contest that will decide who runs and defends the country's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to send armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious face-off, marked by accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two main candidates that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is the democratic socialist, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about 2 million city residents, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys conducted in October, and it is very much the progressive's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

It's been a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to Trump's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with Americans' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the June primary, achieve a surprising 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 progressive, positive message could convince party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent during the race. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for New York and his readiness to actually get out and meet people in the metropolis has attracted an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

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 stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani personally. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an "radical", and popped up on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump 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 withdraw from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in last year, few had known him, and in reality, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the contest 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 political dynasty member and served in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in 2011, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

The progressive, who was voted in to the state legislature in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after video surfaced 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 throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his response to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. 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 shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the behavior of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd