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Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this election day, in a race that will decide who runs and defends the country's largest city at a moment when the former president has vowed to send armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democratic figures against each other. The contest has turned into an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with 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 party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has attracted global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary who is solidly positioned as the leading candidate. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by double-digits in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the younger man's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's objectives as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby conclusion to an election that could be key to the path that the party, floundering 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 party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House in 2016.

However, should Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a surprising comeback win, it could cement the party's current model of considered, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A NYC defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as polls show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York seem to prefer the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually get out and meet people in the city has attracted an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the risks against him, the former governor has resorted to ugly messaging in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on targeting the candidate directly. He has labelled Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo asserted the city “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style 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 group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get Cuomo elected, as other powerful voices have urged Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his mayoral bid in last year, not many had heard of him, and in reality, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in March 2025 and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held every edge. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a political dynasty member and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became the state's leader in over a decade ago, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a more positive vision 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, Mamdani has faced some challenges in recent days, after video surfaced suggesting him implying the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the police is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, filmed at a DSA gathering in recent years. The progressive, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was questioning joint training exercises between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

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

The progressive responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a family member advised to him that he did not have to tell people about his religion. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our city. That it is in those shadows 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 shadows that we must set aside our beliefs.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has alleged Mamd