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New Yorkers will learn the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will decide who runs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a time when the former president has threatened to deploy armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democrats against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading candidates that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

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 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 Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about 2 million city residents, 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 resigned as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a series of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be key to the path that the Democratic party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's power moves, takes in the near future.

National Implications

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be compelled to address a platform that has appealed to Americans' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to adopt at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce national Democrats' existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has infuriated grassroots members. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the present version of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has drawn an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the stakes stacked against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani personally. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an "radical", and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. 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.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the military reserves to Washington DC and warned to do the same to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had known him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a political dynasty member and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – offer a brighter outlook of the city's direction than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has faced some challenges in the final phase, after video emerged suggesting 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,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a DSA convention in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, Mamdani appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

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