Days stand between a 34-year-old socialist, a disgraced former governor, and a cat-obsessed crime prevention leader, and a chance to lead the United States’s largest city.
The race has been the most highly anticipated municipal campaign of the year. Little in the race has been unoriginal.
State assemblyman and self-professed socialist Zohran Mamdani broke out to capture the Democratic nomination earlier this year, snatching it away from former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was the polling frontrunner.
Cuomo had emerged from a political slumber after he resigned as the state’s governor in 2021 following a sexual harassment scandal. And then there is Republican Curtis Sliwa, who is considered a long shot to win. He lost to incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in 2021 decisively.
Mamdani’s affordability message has long trumped the public safety-centered campaigns of Sliwa and Cuomo. As the Democratic nominee, he’s the leader in the polls and is favored to win.
But Cuomo was favored to win the primary before Mamdani stunned him with a double-digit loss. The socialist’s movement will face one last test to determine its place in history.
Here are the candidates vying to be mayor of New York City.
State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D)
The 34-year-old Democratic socialist phenom has risen from a politically unknown state legislator to a party superstar in less than a year. His progressive movement, powered by the Democratic Socialists of America and thousands of volunteers, took a foothold earlier this year and never let go.
Mamdani’s explosive social media presence helped propel him to prominence. A viral campaign video released when Mamdani’s campaign launched in October 2024 is still pinned to his X page and has more than 7 million views.
The video encapsulates the socialist’s top promises: fast and free buses, free childcare, and freezing the rent. It delivered the messages in a one-minute, 40-second video set to a catchy, bouncy beat.
“Every politician says, ‘New York is the greatest city on the globe,'” he said, mirroring a comment by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “But what good is that if no one can afford to live here?”
All of it worked to capture Mamdani’s affordability message and deliver it to voters. He rose in the polls with much of the same viral social media content before he upset Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
His perceived charisma helped too. Democratic strategists have called him a “generational communicator.”
Now, as the Democratic nominee, he has all the chips on his side. The New York Democratic establishment slowly embraced him (with some holdouts), including Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY).
Mamdani’s campaign also hit the fundraising cap in September, allowing it access to more than $12 million in campaign matching funds as part of the city’s finance system.
Those tailwinds will help Mamdani keep his polling lead, which has leveled at a double-digit lead over Cuomo in several recent surveys. There’s some signs his momentum is lagging — a Quinnipiac University poll had him with a +10 polling lead, his lowest lead in a poll since the summer.
The lagging came not long after Cuomo received the endorsement of Adams after he dropped out of the race. Some of his supporters could have flocked to the former governor.
Given the uncertain circumstances, Mamdani has urged his supporters to finish the race strong.
“Nothing is inevitable. Effort is everything. Ignore the polls and run through the tape,” he wrote on X.
If Mamdani does win, he’ll be the city’s first Muslim mayor and a minted-top Democratic Party power player.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (I)
Cuomo stood on the outskirts of New York City’s mayoral race until March, launching his campaign after months of speculation. He immediately became the frontrunner with wide name identification among New York voters.
The former New York governor, scantily in the public eye since he resigned in 2021 following sexual misconduct he has denied, decided to run on his previous experience. He wanted to clean up the city streets.
“The city just feels threatening, out of control, and in crisis. These conditions exist not as an act of God but rather as an act of our political leaders, or more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders,” he said in an announcement video.
“But New Yorkers know the simple answer of what to do when there’s a crisis: You lead, you act, you do.”
But past scandals drummed up considerable opposition from other Democrats in New York City’s ranked-choice Democratic primary. Mamdani worked with other Democrats like city comptroller Brad Lander to sink Cuomo, which they did successfully with Mamdani’s win.
Cuomo said after his loss that he felt his campaign played it too safe.
“I did not run a good campaign, I admit it,” he said.
“And it was very uncharacteristic for me, because all my life, I’m too aggressive, too difficult, too hostile, he’s so tough. And then I run a very nonaggressive campaign, because in the campaign, all the geniuses said I was way ahead for the entire campaign. So the campaign played it safe,” he added.
As a now-Independent candidate, Cuomo faces significant obstacles. He’ll have to draw voters from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, independents and a good portion of Republicans to beat Mamdani.
He’s tried to consolidate support in the race, calling for Adams to drop out successfully. Sliwa has been much more resistant, and doesn’t appear to be wavering despite fellow GOP’ers and friends asking him to drop his bid.
Cuomo’s campaign has tried to associate any vote for Sliwa as a vote for Mamdani himself.
“A Vote for Silwa is a Vote for Mamdani… #VoteforCuomo,” he wrote on X Wednesday.
The money behind Cuomo will undoubtedly help his mayoral bid. Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently endorsed Cuomo and donated $1.5 million to a Cuomo super PAC, and associated super PACs have raised more than $40 million for Cuomo since his mayoral bid began.
He made one of his closing arguments in an ad, “New Day.” He pledged to hire 5,000 new police officers, help the homeless off the street, and to build more affordable housing.
“Life in New York is tough right now,” he said, walking to stay in frame much like many of Mamdani’s ads. “Candidates who need on-the-job training can’t fix it. I see a new day just over the horizon.”
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa (R)
Sliwa is eccentric by almost any political standard. He proudly owns several cats, leads a crime prevention organization called the Guardian Angels, and readily speaks about the time he got shot in the back of a yellow cab by mobsters in 1992.
As the Republican in the race, Sliwa’s chances of winning in New York City have remained slim. The city didn’t elect him in 2021 against Adams, and hasn’t elected a Republican since Bloomberg. The polling and energy around Sliwa hasn’t signaled a Republican is set to lead the city.
There was some optimism from the Sliwa camp after Mamdani won the Democratic primary — with hopes Cuomo and Mamdani would split the Democratic vote, opening the way for Sliwa to ride Republicans to Gracie Mansion. But Sliwa has remained the favorite to finish third.
The main role for Sliwa appears to be one of a spoiler, his detractors and Cuomo supporters have said.
“You may like Curtis Sliwa, but he can’t win, he can only be a spoiler, making a vote for him a vote for Socialist Zohran Mamdani and his anti-public safety, pro-prostitution agenda that will also destroy our education system,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told Newsweek.
With the Democratic support behind Mamdani, Cuomo will need Sliwa supporters to win. Cuomo has repeatedly urged him to step away, but Sliwa hasn’t budged. He’s said Cuomo should be the one to drop out of the race. He explained his unwillingness to step away from the race as part of a scathing rebuke of billionaire Bill Ackman, who backs Cuomo.
He believes telling his supporters to vote for Cuomo is unrealistic, and believes Democrats should own Mamdani’s candidacy.
“Let’s say people come to the conclusion if somehow I lose and we know Andrew Cuomo’s lost. He’s already tossed in the towel. ‘Oh, it’s because of you, Curtis.’ Because really, it’s because of the Democrats. Wait a second. Who created Zohran Mamdani? Who embraced him? Who nourished him? Who supported him?” Sliwa said.
“And how dare you, people who know nothing about politics, suggest that everybody who’s going to vote for me is suddenly going to be reborn. ‘We love Andrew Cuomo.’ He killed all these elderly. He’s a sexual harasser. He told conservatives and Republicans in 2014, ‘If you’re a conservative and you believe in right to life and the Second Amendment, you have no place in New York. You need to leave.’ This is the result of the Democrat self-destruction. So, I’m supposed to help them. How come they don’t help themselves?” he concluded.
CUOMO WARNS TRUMP WILL ‘TAKE OVER NEW YORK CITY’ IF MAMDANI ELECTED MAYOR
Mamdani endorsed Sliwa’s message.
“It’s genuinely positive for our democracy that there’s another candidate in this race who believes NYC voters should pick their next mayor, not billionaires who mostly live somewhere else,” he wrote on X.
