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New Yorkers will learn the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the nation's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy armed forces to the urban center.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democrats against one another. The contest has turned into an increasingly bitter showdown, marked by alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the backing of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the progressive's election to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has made it clear he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an election that could be critical to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at economic disparity, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement the party's existing approach of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has angered the party base. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to stick to the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an force of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

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

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might resonate, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani personally. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted the city “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack mirrors much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and warned to do the same to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent elected, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had known him, and in reality, few even noticed.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The classic political insider, he had married a Kennedy and served in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, left office from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the state legislature in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – offer a more positive vision of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after footage emerged appearing to show him suggesting the NYPD 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 Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in recent years. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the country is committing genocide in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows 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 silence that we must set aside our beliefs.”

Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd