🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will learn the identity of their new city leader this election day, in a race that will decide who governs and protects the country's largest city at a moment when the former president has threatened to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democrats against each other. The election has become an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading candidates that could have major implications for how the party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by double-digits across all surveys conducted in October, and it is very much the progressive's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a particularly ugly end to an race that could be critical to the path that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with voters' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

However, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of cautious, lackluster opposition – a strategy that has angered the party base. A New York rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to stick to the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident during the race. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the metropolis has drawn an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

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

After spending months launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on attacking the candidate directly. He has labelled his rival, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed the city “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what Trump, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have urged the Republican candidate to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in reality, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the state legislature in recently, 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 – present a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in the final phase, after video emerged suggesting him implying the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, the candidate seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

The progressive responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. 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 disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, he said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins 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 set aside our beliefs.”

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