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Residents of the Big Apple will learn the identity of their new city leader this Tuesday, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the nation's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to send military troops to the urban center.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The election has become an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with accusations of racial bias and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two main candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who beat Cuomo in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, the former governor, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid accusations of sexual harassment, 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 unachievable, and in the final stretch laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as bigoted after sharing an artificial intelligence video that included a series of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a group of criminals.

This represents a particularly ugly conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the Democratic party, struggling in its response to Trump's authoritarian grabs, takes in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

Should Mamdani wins convincingly, the party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to Americans' frustration at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has created an excitement within the Democratic ranks arguably not seen since Bernie Sanders ran for president eight years ago.

However, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a surprising comeback win, it could cement the party's existing approach of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked across the country.

Campaign Energy

Residents of New York appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that Mamdani supporters are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. Mamdani's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York 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, the former governor, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the risks against him, the former governor has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, the independent has concentrated on attacking Mamdani personally. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the military reserves to the capital and threatened to do the same to NYC, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to Trump in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to elect Cuomo elected, as other powerful voices 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 not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had known him, and in truth, few even noticed.

The former governor, by comparison, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who seemingly held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had married a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became the state's leader in 2011, 17 years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was voted in to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his commitment to providing no-cost transit and affordable child services – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced some challenges in recent days, after footage emerged appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a DSA convention in 2023. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, Mamdani appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed the independent's 9/11 remarks 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 disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the margins of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could express their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

Addressing the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd