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New Yorkers will find out who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a race that will decide who runs and protects the country's most populous metropolis at a moment when Donald Trump has threatened to send armed forces to the city.

Against that backdrop, New York has witnessed a mayoral election that has matched two distinctly opposing Democrats against one another. The election has become an acrimonious showdown, laced with alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two leading contenders that could have significant consequences for how the Democratic party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Progressive Challenger

On the left side is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old progressive candidate whose rapid ascent and grassroots campaign has brought global notice. Representing the old guard is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- Democratic New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

As the election approaches, it is the progressive, the one-time underdog who defeated his opponent in the party primary who is firmly installed as the leading candidate. Mamdani, who has campaigned on a agenda of affordability and pledged to halt rent increases for about 2 million New Yorkers, has led Cuomo by significant margins in every poll conducted in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

Yet, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will fight to the finish, and not necessarily in an above-the-belt manner. He has criticized Mamdani's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days laughed as a radio host made anti-Muslim comments about the candidate, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was widely condemned as bigoted after posting an artificial intelligence video that included a series of racist stereotypes and showed his opponent releasing a group of criminals.

It's been a particularly ugly end to an election that could be key to the direction that the party, struggling in its response to the former president's power moves, adopts in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

If the progressive secures a clear victory, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be forced to reckon with a message that has appealed to voters' frustration at inequality, soaring price rises and the political elite. It would be hard for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least some of the candidate's progressive proposals about affordability, given the fresh face has generated an excitement within the Democratic ranks perhaps not seen since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, if Cuomo, who had been predicted to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches victory, it could reinforce the party's existing approach of cautious, uninspiring opposition – a strategy that has angered grassroots members. A New York rejection of Mamdani's progressive, positive message could convince party leaders that the best plan is to remain in the political center – even as surveys show the current iteration of the party is deeply unpopular across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Residents of New York seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that Mamdani supporters are much more excited about their candidate than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident throughout the campaign. Mamdani's engaging content on social media, his hopeful outlook for the city and his readiness to actually get out and meet people in the city has attracted an army of over fifty thousand supporters, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Negative Tactics

However, the former governor, 67, continues to fight. And with the stakes against him, the ex-leader has turned to ugly messaging in recent weeks.

Following extensive launching various attacks at his opponent to see what might resonate, the independent has narrowed his focus on attacking the candidate directly. He has called Mamdani, who was of Ugandan origin to Indian parents, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where the candidate asserted New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir recently, when Cuomo laughed along and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said Mamdani would “cheer” another terrorist attack.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has sent the national guard to Washington DC and warned to do the same to New York, has said about Mamdani, and maybe that is expected. A group of wealthy residents, including some who contributed to Trump in the last presidential race, have invested heavily into trying to get the independent into office, as other influential figures have urged Curtis Sliwa to drop out from the race.

Candidate Backgrounds

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should not have reached to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty state legislators, started his campaign for mayor in last year, not many had heard of him, and in reality, few even noticed.

The former governor, by contrast, entered smoothly into the race in this year and became the instant favorite. He was the political heavyweight who apparently held every edge. The classic political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as New York governor in 2011, seventeen years after his parent, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the identical role.

The progressive, who was elected to the state legislature in recently, does not have the same political heritage. But his dedication to providing free buses and affordable child services – along with the rent control promise – present a brighter outlook of the future than his opponent's pessimistic predictions about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his promise to increase police presence.

Campaign Controversies

Still, the candidate has faced difficulties in the final phase, after video surfaced suggesting him suggesting the NYPD and the IDF were intertwined.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your throat, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the recording, recorded at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in recent years. The progressive, a longtime critic of Israel who has said the nation is engaging in atrocities in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing cooperative programs between the city police and IDF.

Powerful Moment

As the race closes, the candidate appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s escalating attacks.

Mamdani responded to the independent's terrorism comments in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered 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 realization, he said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That security could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those shadows alone where followers of Islam could embrace their true selves, and that if we were to emerge from those seclusion, then it is in those silence that we must leave our beliefs.”

Addressing the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has alleged Mamd