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Residents of the Big Apple will learn the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will determine who governs and protects the nation's largest city at a moment when the former president has threatened to deploy armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading candidates that could have major implications for how the 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 meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. On the establishment side is the former governor, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys conducted in October, and it is very much the progressive's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has criticized his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in recent days laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly conclusion to an election that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have declined to support his bid will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with voters' frustration at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, if the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, complete a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of considered, lackluster resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent during the race. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for New York and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the metropolis has drawn an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on attacking Mamdani directly. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and popped up on Fox Business for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo asserted the city “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and warned to do the same to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have urged the Republican candidate to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, launched his mayoral bid in last year, few had known him, and in reality, few even paid attention.

Cuomo, by contrast, entered smoothly into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who seemingly held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had married a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in 2011, seventeen years after his father, the former governor, left office from the same position.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has faced some challenges in recent days, after video emerged suggesting him implying the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was criticizing joint training exercises between the city police and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained empathy and backing, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been taught “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd