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New Yorkers will find out who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a contest that will decide who runs and defends the nation's most populous metropolis at a time when the former president has vowed to deploy armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has become an increasingly bitter face-off, marked by accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading candidates that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and corporations.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed Mamdani'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 AI-generated ad that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

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

National Implications

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with voters' anger at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of Mamdani's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an enthusiasm within the party arguably not seen since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a surprising comeback victory, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince party leaders that the wisest course 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 appear to favor the progressive agenda. Polls 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 social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his readiness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has drawn an force of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks against him, the ex-leader has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, the independent has concentrated on attacking the candidate directly. He has called his rival, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where Cuomo asserted New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to get Cuomo 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 concerned, it should not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of 150 state legislators, 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 March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held every edge. The classic political insider, he had married a Kennedy and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in 2011, seventeen years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced difficulties in recent days, after footage emerged suggesting him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a DSA gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his reaction to his opponent's escalating attacks.

The progressive addressed Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. 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 shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd