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Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this election day, in a contest that will determine who governs and defends the country's most populous metropolis at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to deploy 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 face-off, laced with alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is the democratic socialist, the young progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought global notice. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a platform of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by double-digits in every poll taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

This represents a particularly ugly end to an race that could be critical to the path that the party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's authoritarian grabs, takes in the coming years.

National Implications

Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has appealed to voters' anger at economic disparity, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

However, should the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable comeback win, it could reinforce the party's current model of cautious, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has angered the party base. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the metropolis has drawn an army of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks stacked against him, the former governor has turned to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might resonate, the independent has concentrated on targeting Mamdani personally. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on conservative media for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and threatened to take similar action to New York, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this point. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, launched his mayoral bid in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in reality, barely anyone even noticed.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The classic political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, left office from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

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

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the clip, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was questioning joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

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

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a realization, 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 express their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd