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New Yorkers will discover the identity of their new city leader this election day, in a race that will determine who governs and defends the nation's largest city at a time when the former president has threatened to send military troops to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has matched two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against each other. The contest has turned into an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racial bias and Islamophobia, but it is the ideological divide between the two leading contenders that could have major implications for how the Democratic party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Rising Progressive

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and people-powered movement has attracted international attention. Representing the old guard is the former governor, the former New York governor now campaigning independently – and enjoying the support of ultra-rich donors and big business.

With days to go, it is Mamdani, the former longshot who beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has run on a agenda of affordability and pledged to freeze rent for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by double-digits in every poll taken in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in recent years amid allegations of sexual harassment, has stated clearly he will fight to the end, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has criticized Mamdani's goals as unachievable, and in recent days laughed as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Two weeks ago, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani freeing a convicts.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an election that could be key to the path that the party, floundering in its response to Trump's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

Should Mamdani secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be compelled to address 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 Hakeem Jeffries 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 witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president in 2016.

However, should the former governor, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the Democratic primary, achieve a surprising comeback win, it could reinforce national Democrats' current model of considered, lackluster resistance – a strategy that has infuriated the party base. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's optimistic platform could persuade party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the Democratic party is widely disliked nationwide.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in New York appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are far more enthusiastic about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. The candidate's snappy videos on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his readiness to actually get out and connect with voters in the metropolis has attracted an army of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, Cuomo, in his late sixties, isn't giving up. And with the stakes stacked against him, the ex-leader has turned to negative campaigning in recent weeks.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might resonate, the independent has concentrated on attacking the candidate directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an discussion with a rightwing host, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” Mamdani as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when the former governor laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another 9/11-style attack.

Political Landscape

The line of attack echoes much of what Trump, who has sent the national guard to the capital and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about the progressive, and maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of billionaire New Yorkers, including some who donated to Trump in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent elected, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the contest.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this. When Mamdani, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had known him, and in truth, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, entered smoothly into the contest in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in Bill Clinton’s administration. He assumed office as New York governor in over a decade ago, seventeen years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

Mamdani, who was elected to the state legislature in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication 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 rising criminal activity, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Recent Challenges

Nevertheless, Mamdani has faced difficulties in the final phase, after footage surfaced appearing to show him implying the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the candidate said in the clip, recorded at a DSA gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was questioning joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani seems to have gained sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first ran for the legislature, a family member advised to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. 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 community. That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must set aside our faith.”

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