The political differences between the two main candidates could have major implications for next year’s midterms
New Yorkers will find out the identity of their next mayor on Tuesday, in a race that will decide who will run, and defend, the US’s largest city at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to send military troops there.
Against that backdrop, New York has seen a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The race has become an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year’s midterm elections.
In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought international attention. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic New York governor now running as an independent – and benefiting from the backing of ultra-rich donors and corporations.
With days to go until election day, it is Mamdani, the one-time underdog who defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. Mamdani, who has run on a campaign of affordability and promised to freeze rent for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by double-digits in every poll conducted in October, and it is very much the younger man’s election to lose.
