What the New York mayor’s race will reveal about the Democratic party | New York

New Yorkers will learn the identity of the next mayor on Tuesday in a race that will decide who will lead and defend the largest city in the United States at a time when Donald Trump is threatening to send military troops there.

In this context, New York witnessed a mayoral election in which two very different Democrats faced each other. The race has escalated into an increasingly bitter confrontation linked to alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have significant impacts on the Democratic party’s performance in next year’s midterm elections.

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who has gained international attention with her meteoric rise and grassroots campaign. Representing the old guard is former Democratic New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who now runs as an independent and enjoys the support of ultra-rich donors and corporations.

With only a few days left until election day, Mamdani, the once underdog who defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary, is firmly in the front row. Mamdani, who ran an affordable campaign and promised to freeze rents for nearly 2 million New Yorkers, gave Cuomo a double-digit lead In every survey conducted in Octoberand it is more the young man’s choice who will lose.

But Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, made clear that he would fight to the end and would not overdo it. He trashed Mamdani’s goals as unachievable and chuckled when a radio host recently made Islamophobic remarks about Muslim Mamdani. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was widely condemned as racist after airing an AI-generated ad that included a number of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals (Cuomo’s campaign said the video was posted by mistake).

It was a rather sordid end to an election that could be key to the direction the Democratic party will take in the coming years as it falters against Trump’s authoritarian moves.

If Mamdani wins convincingly, establishment party leaders who refused to support her campaign will have to come to terms with a message that appeals to Americans’ anger at inequality, rising prices, and the establishment. It would be hard for veteran Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries not to embrace Mamdani’s ambitious ideas, at least on affordability, given that the newcomer has generated enthusiasm within the party not seen since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

However, if Cuomo, who is expected to cruise to victory in June’s Democratic primary, pulls off a significant riches-to-poverty win, it could reinforce national Democrats’ current pattern of thoughtful, uninspiring opposition; This is a tactic that infuriates the party’s rank-and-file members. The rejection of Mamdani’s progressive, positive message in New York could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick with the center — even if polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is trending the same way extremely unpopular nationwide.

Voters in New York appear to support Mamdani’s vision. Polls show Mamdani supporters are much more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo supporters; this was evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani’s lively videos on social media, her optimistic vision of New York, and her willingness to actually go out and meet people in the city have attracted an army of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of whom are young or first-time voters.

But Cuomo, 67, isn’t giving up. And because of the risks to him, the former governor has turned to nasty messaging in recent weeks.

After months of throwing everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo narrowed his focus to attacking Mamdani personally. He tagged Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents. an “extremist”and appeared on Fox Business report Along with right-wing Trump supporter Maria Bartiromo, Cuomo claimed that New York “could not survive” with Mamdani as mayor. Last week reached Cuomo’s lowest point. we laughed together and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-like terrorist attack. (Cuomo’s campaign said it did not believe Mamdani would celebrate a terrorist incident.)

The line of attack mirrors many of Trump’s attacks, which has deployed the national guard to Washington, D.C. threatened to do the same Here’s what he told New York about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A number of billionaire New Yorkers, including those who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, pumped millions He tried to elect Cuomo while other influential figures pressured Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the race in the hope that his voters would switch to the Cuomo camp. (Sliwa in the voting process about 15%He flatly rejected this idea.)

For the Cuomo camp and its billionaire backers, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 members of the New York state assembly, launched her mayoral campaign in October 2024, few people had heard of her and few actually noticed.

By contrast, Cuomo slowly entered the race in March 2025 and took first place. It seemed that he was the big beast that had all the advantages. One of the most important figures in politics, he was married to a Kennedy, specifically Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sister (the two divorced in 2005), and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became governor of New York in 2011, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, left the same post.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state legislature in 2020, does not have the same political legacy. But his pledge to freeze rent, as well as provide free buses and free child care, offers a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “unrest” and rampant crime and his promise to hire more police officers.

Still, Mamdani has faced some difficulties in recent days after images emerged suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We must make it clear that you are tied down by the IDF while the NYPD has its boot on your neck,” Mamdani said in the clip, shot at the Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023. Mamdani, who has long criticized Israel and said the country committed genocide in Gaza, claimed that he criticized the joint training exercises between the NYPD and the IDF.

But as the race draws to a close, Mamdani appears to have gained sympathy and support for her response to Cuomo’s escalating rhetoric.

Mamdani responds to Cuomo’s 9/11 comments an emotional video. In this article, Memdani recalled that when he first ran for state legislature, a Muslim uncle told him that he did not have to explain his Muslim faith to people. Mamdani said it’s a lesson many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught “over and over again”: “That safety can only be found in the shadows of our city. It’s only in those shadows that Muslims can embrace their full identity, and if we’re going to emerge from those shadows, then we must lay our faith in those shadows.”

Speaking about the actions of Cuomo and Sliwa, who claimed Mamdani supported “global jihad”: “While my opponents in this race have brought hate to the forefront, this is just a glimpse into what so many in this city have to endure every day. And while it’s easy for us as a city to say that’s not who we are, we know the truth. That’s who we allow ourselves to be.”

The video has been viewed more than 25 million times on X alone. This led some to compare Mamdani’s speech to Barack Obama’s landmark speech 2008 address on the race. It was welcomed by Muslims in New York and elsewhere and hailed by liberal commentators. After months of a bitterly bitter election, the youngest man in the room has shown that he may be the best candidate to lead the largest city in the United States.