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New Yorkers will learn who will be their next mayor this election day, in a race that will determine who governs and protects the nation's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to deploy 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 accusations of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party performs in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and enjoying the backing of ultra-rich donors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a agenda of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by double-digits across all surveys taken in October, and it is very much the younger man's race to throw away.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as governor in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in the final stretch laughed as a broadcaster made Islamophobic remarks about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, the independent was widely condemned as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that featured a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby end to an election that could be critical to the path that the party, struggling in its reaction to Trump's power moves, adopts in the near future.

Broader Consequences

If the progressive wins convincingly, the party establishment who have declined to support his campaign will be compelled to address a platform 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 the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the newcomer has generated an excitement within the party perhaps not witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the Democratic primary, complete a surprising comeback victory, it could cement the party's current model of cautious, lackluster opposition – a strategy that has angered the party base. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to stick to the political center – even as polls show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their choice than Cuomo backers, something that has been apparent throughout the campaign. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his optimistic vision for the city and his willingness 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 new participants.

Personal Attacks

However, Cuomo, 67, isn't giving up. And with the stakes against him, the ex-leader has resorted to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani 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 Indian parents, an “extremist”, and popped up on Fox Business for an interview with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed the city “will not survive” his opponent as city leader. It reached a nadir recently, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

This strategy echoes much of what the former president, who has deployed the national guard to Washington DC and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about the progressive, and maybe that is expected. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who contributed to Trump in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent into office, as other powerful voices have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are concerned, it should not have reached to this point. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had known him, and in truth, barely anyone even paid attention.

Cuomo, by contrast, entered smoothly into the contest in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The classic political insider, he had married a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He became New York governor in 2011, 17 years after his parent, the former governor, stepped down from the same position.

Mamdani, who was elected to the state legislature in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing no-cost transit and free childcare – along with the rent control promise – present a more positive vision of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, the candidate has faced some challenges in recent days, after footage surfaced appearing to show him suggesting the New York police department and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the IDF,” Mamdani said in the clip, filmed at a DSA gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the country is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was questioning cooperative programs between the NYPD and Israeli forces.

Emotional Response

As the race closes, Mamdani appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's escalating attacks.

The progressive responded to Cuomo’s terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate remembered how, when he first campaigned for the legislature, a family member 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 margins of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where followers of Islam could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to emerge from those shadows, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

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