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Residents of the Big Apple will find out 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 time when the former president has vowed to send military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has pitted two very different Democratic figures against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious face-off, marked by accusations of racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have major implications for how the Democratic party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in recent years amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has trashed Mamdani's objectives as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

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

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to Americans' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an enthusiasm within the party arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, if the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, complete a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce the party's current model of considered, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Residents of the city appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the risks stacked against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani directly. He has labelled Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate 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.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that is expected. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have urged the Republican candidate to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this point. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had known him, and in truth, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had married a political dynasty member and served in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as 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 recently, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a brighter outlook of the city's direction than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage emerged appearing to show him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“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, filmed at a DSA convention in recent years. The progressive, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

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

Mamdani addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers 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 embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

Addressing the behavior of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd