🔗 Share this article

New Yorkers will find out who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will determine who runs and protects the country's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to send military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democratic figures against one another. The election has become an increasingly bitter showdown, marked by alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading candidates that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and corporations.

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. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced his rival by significant margins across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who resigned as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as bigoted after sharing an AI-generated ad that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

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

National Implications

If the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with voters' anger at economic disparity, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an enthusiasm within the party perhaps not witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

However, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a remarkable comeback victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of considered, lackluster resistance – a tactic that has angered the party base. A New York rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent during the race. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has attracted an army of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the stakes against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking the candidate personally. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It hit bottom recently, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and warned to take similar action to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that is expected. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to withdraw from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in October 2024, not many had heard of him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the race in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The quintessential political insider, he had married a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present 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, Mamdani has encountered difficulties in recent days, after footage emerged appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, recorded at a DSA gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, indicated he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, the candidate seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

The progressive responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been taught “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 express their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our beliefs.”

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