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Residents of the Big Apple will discover 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 time when the former president has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a race for mayor that has matched two very different Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two leading candidates that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent 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 support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who beat his opponent in the party primary who is solidly positioned as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by significant margins in every poll taken in October, and it is very much the progressive's election to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, the former governor, who stepped down as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's objectives as unachievable, and in recent days chuckled along as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani releasing a convicts.

This represents 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 authoritarian grabs, takes in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If Mamdani wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to voters' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the establishment. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to adopt at least a portion of Mamdani's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not witnessed since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House in 2016.

Conversely, if the former governor, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, achieve a surprising riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of considered, lackluster opposition – a strategy that has angered grassroots members. A NYC rejection of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of the city seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident during the race. The candidate's engaging content on social media, his optimistic vision for the city and his readiness to actually get out and connect with voters in the metropolis has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them young or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, continues to fight. And with the risks against him, the former governor has turned to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might resonate, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate directly. He has labelled Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on Fox Business for an discussion with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It hit bottom last week, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

The line of attack mirrors much of what Trump, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to do the same to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that is expected. A group of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to elect Cuomo into office, as other powerful voices have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are concerned, it should never have come to this. When Mamdani, one of 150 state legislators, started his mayoral bid in last year, not many had known him, and in truth, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in 2011, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

The progressive, who was voted in to the state legislature in recently, 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 – offer a brighter outlook of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Still, the candidate has encountered some challenges in the final phase, after footage surfaced suggesting him implying the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, suggested he was questioning 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 escalating attacks.

Mamdani addressed the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to tell people about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could express their true selves, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

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