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New Yorkers will learn who will be their new city leader this election day, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the nation's largest city at a moment when the former president has threatened to deploy military troops to the urban center.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has turned into an increasingly bitter face-off, marked by accusations of racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is the democratic socialist, the young progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has attracted international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of economic justice and promised to halt rent increases for about two million city residents, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

Yet, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in 2021 amid accusations of sexual harassment, has made it clear he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair manner. He has criticized his opponent's objectives as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its reaction to the former president's authoritarian grabs, takes in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have refused to endorse his campaign will be forced to reckon with a platform that has appealed to voters' frustration at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be difficult for Chuck Schumer and the House leader not to embrace at least some of the candidate's ambitious ideas about affordability, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party perhaps not seen since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

However, should Cuomo, who had been predicted to win easily in the June primary, achieve a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's current model of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the wisest course is to remain in the center – even as surveys show the present version of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city appear to favor the Mamdani vision. Polls show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than Cuomo backers, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's snappy videos on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his willingness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the risks stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

Following extensive throwing basically everything at Mamdani to see what might stick, Cuomo has concentrated on targeting Mamdani personally. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an discussion with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” Mamdani as city leader. It hit bottom recently, when the former governor chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style incident.

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 wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his wealthy backers, are worried, it should never have come to this point. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in October 2024, few had heard of him, and in truth, few even paid attention.

The former governor, by comparison, eased his way into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential establishment figure, he had married a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became the state's leader in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, left office from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020, does not have the comparable background. But his commitment to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – offer a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his vow to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has faced difficulties in the final phase, after video surfaced suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the pressure of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, filmed at a DSA convention in 2023. The progressive, a vocal opponent of the Israeli government who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, indicated he was questioning joint training exercises between the city police and IDF.

Emotional Response

With the election nearing, Mamdani appears to have won empathy and backing, however, for his reaction to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, he said, that many local Muslims had been taught “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could express their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

Speaking to the actions of his opponents, who has claimed Mamd