November 4, marks the final day of 2025’s historic mayoral race. With three candidates competing to clinch the title, the results of this race are far from decided. Current polling has Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as the clear front runner, leading Cuomo by about 10 points with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in a well established third place.

The election comes after a turbulent primary. Current New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, was expected to have an easy path to reelection as the incumbent candidate, but in September 2024, he was federally indicted and charged with bribery, fraud, and soliciting foreign campaign donations. Seizing the opportunity, numerous Democratic candidates joined the primary race in the hopes of becoming the Democratic nominee. In February, a month after Trump took office, the Department of Justice ordered the charges to be dropped, but Adams dropped out of the running in September anyway furthering the already tumultuous mayoral race. 

As a result, eleven Democrats raced in the primary, with former New York Governor Cuomo as the predicted winner. On election night, the tables quickly turned and Cuomo lost substantially to 34 year old Zohran Mamdani, a New York Assembly member representing neighborhoods in Queens. Cuomo has maintained his candidacy, running as an independent candidate in the general election.This unprecedented win has set the stage for a historic mayoral election with the potential to starkly diverge from previous precedent.

Cuomo, the previously favored winner, is running a campaign focused on his past experience as New York Governor. Before Mamdani emerged as the Democratic primary winner, Cuomo was widely regarded as being the one to inevitably receive the Democratic nomination. He is backed by most major power brokers in the city and was projected to win in nearly every poll. Cuomo’s campaign and his rampant powerful supporters have outspent Mamdani by millions of dollars; his campaign is backed by centrist endorsements from prominent political names such as Bill Clinton, who are worried about Mamdani’s lack of experience especially in running a city with a $115 million budget and more than 300,000 municipal workers. Although having many powerful allies, Cuomo’s political history is marred by sexual harassment allegations in 2021, that have cast significant doubt on his character.. 

Straying from the beaten path, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is running as a self proclaimed “Democratic socialist” emphasizing policies such as making public busing and child care free, freezing rent, building a form of public supermarkets, and launching a department of community safety. His campaign further differs from Cuomo, through its “wave of grassroots support and a bold left-wing platform.” Zohrans campaign ,instead of being backed by such prominent political faces, is powered by “by tens of thousands of volunteers” and “hundreds of thousands of unique donors” , a rare occurrence in local New York primaries. Despite running an immensely successful campaign, Mamdani flaunts few allies in the business and real estate world or endorsements from well established centrist Democrats, though Former President Barack Obama recently called Mamdani in support of his campaign. 

Additionally, others are continuing to campaign, the most prominent being Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, though he trails behind in third place, significantly behind Cuomo. Resultedly, the race is largely believed to be between Cuomo and Mamdani, with Mamdani continuing to beat Andrew Cuomo in the polls by varying amounts, though roughly amounting to him being 10 points ahead of Cuomo. Although this may seem like a large margin, the race is watched closely, as polling in the primary vastly underestimated Zohrans Mamdani’s support, highlighting there is plenty of room for error in the general election polling. 

Interestingly, the debates surrounding the New York Mayoral election are the same ones that were prominent in the presidential race between President Trump and Former Vice President Kamala Harris. For the Democratic Party especially, divided between centralist Candidate Andrew Cuomo and leftist Zohran Mamdani, this current race reflects the current attitudes dividing the political party.  The issues dividing the party are the same ones dividing the nation and the results of this race will not only speak volumes about the opinions of New York Democratic voters, but those across the country, as the Democratic Party struggles to unite in combatting the Republican-controlled government.