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New Yorkers will learn who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a contest that will determine who governs and protects the nation's largest city at a moment when the former president has threatened to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The contest has become an acrimonious showdown, laced with accusations of racism and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide 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 progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted international attention. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat his opponent in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has outpaced Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to lose.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after sharing an artificial intelligence video that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an election that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, floundering in its response to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

Should Mamdani secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a platform that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least a portion of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016.

However, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a remarkable comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' existing approach of considered, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's progressive, positive message could persuade Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to remain in the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York 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 apparent during the race. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually get out and meet people in the city has drawn an army of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them youth or new participants.

Negative Tactics

However, Cuomo, 67, continues to fight. And with the stakes against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this point. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had known him, and in truth, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, 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 identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the city's direction than Cuomo’s pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in recent days, after footage surfaced appearing to show him suggesting the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in recent years. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the country is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a family member suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

Speaking to the actions of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd