NYC voters choose next mayor as Mamdani faces Cuomo
As voters in New York City choose the next mayor to lead the nation’s largest city, they are deciding the outcome of a generational and ideological divide that will reverberate across the United States.
Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary in early 2025, faces former governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and perennial Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who is trying to cause a major upset.
A victory for the 34-year-old Mamdani would give the city its first Muslim mayor and its youngest leader in generations, while catapulting the democratic socialist to political stardom and making his brand of economic populism one of the most visible political positions in America.
If Cuomo comes out on top, he would have made a remarkable political comeback four years after resigning as governor amid sexual harassment allegations.
For Sliwa, creator of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group and one of New York’s longtime tabloid news anchors, the win would put a Republican at the helm of the nation’s largest city at a time when many New Yorkers are looking for a leader who can keep President Donald Trump at bay.
Mamdani and Cuomo voted Tuesday morning local time in Queens and Manhattan, respectively; Sliwa had already cast his vote during early voting.
The race made Mamdani a national figure and drew the ire of Trump and other Republicans who sought to portray her as the face of a new, more radical Democratic Party.
Trump also threatened to take over the city if Mamdani won and arrest and deport the state legislator, who was born in Uganda but is a U.S. citizen.
Trump reluctantly backed Cuomo on the eve of the election, saying Mamdani would bring “disaster” to the city and encouraging Sliwa supporters to vote for the former governor instead.
Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 following the attorney general’s report that concluded he sexually harassed at least 11 women.
Cuomo initially apologized for some of his behavior and said he did not comply with what is considered appropriate behavior in the workplace.
But in recent months he has been bold; He called his accusers liars and blamed his political rivals for his downfall.
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