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New Yorkers will learn the identity of their next mayor this election day, in a race that will determine who runs and protects the nation's largest city at a moment when Donald Trump has threatened to send military troops to the urban center.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democratic figures against each other. The contest has become an increasingly bitter showdown, laced with alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two leading candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has attracted global notice. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million city residents, has led Cuomo by double-digits in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, Cuomo, who resigned as the state's leader in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has made it clear he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has trashed Mamdani's objectives as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a slew of racial caricatures and showed Mamdani releasing a convicts.

It's been a rather grubby end to an race that could be critical to the path that the Democratic party, struggling in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

If Mamdani 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' frustration at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least a portion of Mamdani's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has created an enthusiasm within the party perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

However, if Cuomo, who had been expected to sail to victory in the June primary, achieve a surprising comeback victory, it could cement the party's current model of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a strategy that has infuriated grassroots members. A New York rejection of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is widely disliked across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually venture out and meet people in the city has attracted an force of more than 50,000 supporters, many of them young or new participants.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes stacked against him, the ex-leader has turned to ugly messaging in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might stick, Cuomo has narrowed his focus on attacking Mamdani personally. He has labelled Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and popped up on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It hit bottom last week, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and warned to take similar action to New York, has said about the progressive, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to get Cuomo elected, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should never have come to this point. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had heard of him, and in reality, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by comparison, eased his way into the contest in this year and became the immediate frontrunner. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the city's direction than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced difficulties in recent days, after video 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 influenced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a DSA gathering in 2023. Mamdani, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, Mamdani recalled how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his Muslim faith. It was a lesson, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been taught “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows of our city. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could express their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our faith.”

Addressing the actions of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd