🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will find out the identity of their new city leader this Tuesday, in a contest that will determine who governs and protects the nation's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has become an acrimonious showdown, marked by alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have major implications for how the party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the backing of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by double-digits across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that included a series of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani releasing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby end to an election that could be key to the path that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with Americans' frustration at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the party arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement national Democrats' current model of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to remain in the center – even as polls show the present version of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has attracted an force of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or new participants.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the stakes against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking the candidate personally. He has labelled Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and warned to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to Trump in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have pressured the Republican candidate to drop out from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the his team, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had heard of him, and in reality, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication 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 increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has faced difficulties in the final phase, after footage emerged appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

The progressive responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could express their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd