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Residents of the Big Apple will find out 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 Donald Trump has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has pitted two very different Democratic figures against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious face-off, laced with 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 party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and promised to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, the former governor, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has criticized his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani releasing a group of criminals.

This represents a rather grubby end to an race that could be key to the path that the party, floundering in its response to Trump's authoritarian grabs, takes in the near future.

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 platform that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least a portion of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016.

However, if the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could cement national Democrats' existing approach of considered, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A NYC rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them young 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 turned to ugly messaging in the final days.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom recently, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack mirrors much of what the former president, who has sent the military reserves to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo into office, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa 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 Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a political dynasty member and served in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in over a decade ago, 17 years after his father, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the state legislature in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the future than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced some challenges in the final phase, after video surfaced suggesting him implying the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to his opponent's escalating attacks.

The progressive addressed Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our faith.”

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