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New Yorkers will discover who will be their new city leader this election day, in a contest that will determine who runs and protects the country's largest city at a time when the former president has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The election has become an acrimonious face-off, laced with accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party performs in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million city residents, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an race that could be critical to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be compelled to address a message that has appealed to Americans' anger at economic disparity, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches win, it could cement the party's current model of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A NYC rejection of Mamdani's optimistic platform could convince 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 deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for New York and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the city has drawn an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks against him, the former governor has turned to ugly messaging in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate directly. He has labelled his rival, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate asserted the city “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist 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 perhaps that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the contest.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his mayoral bid in last year, not many had known him, and in reality, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who seemingly held every edge. The classic establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became New York governor in 2011, seventeen years after his father, Mario Cuomo, left office from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced some challenges in recent days, after video surfaced suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your throat, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a DSA convention in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Powerful Moment

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

The progressive addressed the independent'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 tell people about his Muslim faith. 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 community. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

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