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New Yorkers will learn the identity of their new city leader this election day, in a contest that will determine who governs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a time when the former president has vowed to deploy military troops to the city.

In this context, New York has witnessed a race for mayor that has pitted two distinctly opposing Democratic figures against one another. The election has turned into an acrimonious face-off, marked by alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the ideological divide between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's midterm elections.

The Progressive Challenger

In the progressive corner is the democratic socialist, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. On the establishment side is the former governor, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and corporations.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the former longshot who beat his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has run on a platform of economic justice and pledged to halt rent increases for about two million New Yorkers, has led his rival by significant margins in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the progressive's race to lose.

The Controversial Campaign

However, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the end, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unachievable, and in the final stretch chuckled along as a radio host made Islamophobic remarks about Mamdani, who is Muslim. Two weeks ago, the independent was strongly criticized as racist after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a slew of racist stereotypes and showed Mamdani releasing a convicts.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an election that could be critical to the path that the Democratic party, struggling in its response to the former president's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the coming years.

National Implications

If Mamdani secures a clear victory, the party establishment who have declined to support his bid will be forced to reckon with a platform that has resonated with Americans' frustration at economic disparity, inflation and the political elite. It would be difficult for the Senate leader and the House leader not to embrace at least a portion of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has created an excitement within the party arguably not witnessed since the Vermont senator ran for president eight years ago.

Conversely, if Cuomo, who had been expected to win easily in the June primary, achieve a remarkable comeback win, it could cement the party's current model of considered, lackluster opposition – a tactic that has angered grassroots members. A NYC defeat of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could convince party leaders that the wisest course is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the present version of the party is deeply unpopular nationwide.

Campaign Energy

Voters in the city appear to favor the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their choice 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 the city and his readiness to actually get out and connect with voters in the city has drawn an force of over fifty thousand volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

However, the former governor, in his late sixties, continues to fight. And with the stakes against him, the former governor has turned to negative campaigning in the final days.

After spending months throwing basically everything at his opponent to see what might stick, Cuomo has concentrated on attacking Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an “extremist”, and appeared on conservative media for an interview with a rightwing host, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Political Landscape

This strategy mirrors much of what Trump, who has deployed the national guard to the capital and threatened to take similar action to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to the Republican in the last presidential race, have pumped millions into trying to get the independent elected, as other powerful voices have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

As far as the his team, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this point. When Mamdani, one of 150 New York state assembly members, started his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had heard of him, and in truth, barely anyone even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held all the advantages. The classic establishment figure, he had married a political dynasty member and served in Bill Clinton’s administration. He became 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 state legislature in 2020, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – offer a more positive vision of the future than his opponent's dire warnings about “mayhem” and unfettered crime, and his promise to hire more police officers.

Campaign Controversies

Still, Mamdani has encountered some challenges in recent days, after video emerged suggesting him suggesting the New York police department and the Israel Defense Forces were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” the candidate said in the recording, filmed at a Democratic Socialists of America gathering in recent years. Mamdani, a vocal opponent of Israel who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to his opponent's increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an heartfelt recording. In it, the candidate recalled how, when he first campaigned for state assembly, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a lesson, Mamdani said, that many local Muslims had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the margins of our city. That it is in those shadows 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 beliefs.”

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