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Residents of the Big Apple will find out the identity of their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will determine who governs and protects the country's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to deploy military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The contest has turned into an acrimonious face-off, marked by accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two main candidates that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who beat his opponent in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a platform of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about two million city residents, has led Cuomo by significant margins in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's election to lose.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, the former governor, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent releasing a convicts.

This represents a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, struggling in its response to the former president's power moves, takes in the coming years.

National Implications

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his bid will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with voters' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, if the former governor, who had been expected to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement the party's existing approach of considered, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has angered the party base. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the wisest course is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the present version of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness 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 new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes stacked against him, the ex-leader has turned to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting the candidate personally. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and popped up on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed the city “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 9/11-style incident.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the military reserves to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to elect the independent into office, as other powerful voices have pressured the Republican candidate to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

For the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The classic political insider, he had married a political dynasty member and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the state legislature in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced some challenges in recent days, after footage emerged 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 throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, indicated he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

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

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd