What do the last polls show?
Ever since his victory in the Democratic primary, Zohran Mamdani has been the clear favorite to win. Polls aggregated by the New York Times had Mamdani anywhere from five to 25 points ahead of his opponents, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, and Andrew Cuomo, who entered the race as an independent after losing in the Democratic primary.
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How does voting work?
New York had nine days of early voting which ended on 2 November. An analysis of early voting data by the City, a local news outlet in New York, found that more than 732,000 early votes were cast, 65% of the total votes cast in the entire 2021 mayor’s race.
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The candidates
Zohran Mamdani
Democrat
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Queens assemblyman and the popular Democratic nominee, built his campaign around a central issue: affordability in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Born in Uganda and raised in New York City, Mamdani is a self-described democratic socialist who will now become the city’s first Muslim mayor. A relatively unknown figure in New York politics until just a few months ago, Mamdani led a progressive, multiracial grassroots campaign that energized young voters, working-class families and communities of color across the five boroughs. His platform, centered on freezing rent, expanding access to free childcare and making city buses free, has largely positioned him as a symbol of generational change and a leading figure in the revival of the Democratic party’s left wing.
Andrew Cuomo
Independent
Andrew Cuomo, the 67-year-old former governor, initially entered the race as a Democrat to challenge the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who has faced widespread criticism over corruption. However, after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, Cuomo announced his pivot to an independent campaign. Despite decades of political experience, Cuomo’s bid, backed by some of the city’s wealthiest landlords and corporate donors, struggled to gain momentum against Mamdani’s insurgent movement. Cuomo faced lingering controversies, including a sexual harassment scandal that led to his 2021 resignation and accusations of mishandling nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, Cuomo centered his campaign on his experience, long record in public service and infrastructure achievements. His supporters included several prominent establishment figures, among them the former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, former president Bill Clinton, and, most recently, Donald Trump.
Curtis Sliwa
Republican
Curtis Sliwa, the 71-year-old founder of the Guardian Angels, threw his signature red beret into the city’s mayoral race as a Republican candidate. Known for his decades of crime prevention activism, Sliwa also admitted to fabricating some of his group’s exploits for publicity. Yet, he remained undeterred and refused to bow out of this year’s race, even claiming he was offered up to $10m by allies of Cuomo to do so. “They all think everybody has a price,” he said earlier this year, adding: “Curtis Sliwa doesn’t have a price. I came into this world with nothing, I’ll leave with nothing – ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Sliwa, who also ran for mayor in 2021 and has a deep affinity towards cats, had positioned himself as an outsider defying powerful figures from both parties including Cuomo, Trump, as well as the billionaire investor Bill Ackman. His campaign leaned heavily on his image as a street-level advocate for ordinary New Yorkers.
