Sitting in northern Europe, I shouldn\u2019t care about the New York mayoral race.<\/p>\n
Yet, despite all that is happening in the world, the contentious Democratic primary for the 2025 New York City mayoral election has found its way into conversations around me \u2013 and onto my social media feed.<\/p>\n
This attention isn\u2019t just another example of the New York-centric worldview famously skewered in Saul Steinberg\u2019s 1976 New Yorker cover, View of the World from 9th Avenue. A genuine political struggle is under way, one that has the potential to reverberate far beyond the Hudson River. At its centre is the increasingly polarised contest between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n
The name Cuomo may ring a bell. He resigned as New York\u2019s governor in 2021 following multiple allegations of sexual harassment. While he expressed remorse at the time, his political comeback has been marked by defiance \u2013 suing one of his accusers and the state attorney general who found the accusations credible. He claims the scandal was a \u201cpolitical hit job\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cuomo\u2019s record in office was far from unblemished. He diverted millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), jeopardising the financial health of New York\u2019s essential public transit system. He formed the Moreland Commission to root out corruption but disbanded it abruptly when it began probing entities linked to his own campaign. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his administration was accused of undercounting nursing home deaths, allegedly to deflect criticism of policies that returned COVID-positive patients to those facilities.<\/p>\n
Given that legacy, one might imagine Cuomo\u2019s chances of becoming mayor would be slim. Yet, he currently leads in the polls.<\/p>\n
Close behind him is Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman from Queens. When he entered the race in March, Cuomo led by 40 points. A recent poll now puts Mamdani within 8 points.<\/p>\n
Born in Kampala and raised in New York, Mamdani is the first Muslim candidate to run for mayor of the city. But his significance extends beyond his identity. What distinguishes Mamdani is his unapologetically progressive platform \u2013 and his refusal to dilute it in the name of \u201celectability\u201d. His appeal rests on substance, charisma, sharp messaging, and a mass volunteer-led canvassing operation.<\/p>\n
At the heart of Mamdani\u2019s campaign is a vision of a city that works for working-class New Yorkers. He proposes freezing rents for all rent-stabilised apartments, building 200,000 affordable homes, creating publicly-owned grocery stores \u201cfocused on keeping prices low, not making profit\u201d, and making buses free. He supports free childcare for children under five, better wages for childcare workers, and \u201cbaby baskets\u201d containing essentials for new parents.<\/p>\n
To fund these initiatives, Mamdani proposes increasing the corporate tax rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent, and imposing a 2 percent income tax on New York City residents earning more than $1m annually.<\/p>\n
He also wants to raise the minimum wage, regulate gig economy giants like DoorDash, and protect delivery workers. His plan to establish a Department of Community Safety would shift resources away from traditional policing towards mental health and violence prevention.<\/p>\n
He further promises to \u201cTrump-proof\u201d New York by enhancing the city\u2019s sanctuary status, removing ICE\u2019s influence, expanding legal support for migrants, defending LGBTQ+ rights and protecting reproductive healthcare access.<\/p>\n
But championing such bold policies \u2013 as a brown, Muslim candidate \u2013 has made Mamdani a lightning rod for hate. Recently, in a rare show of emotion, Mamdani teared up while recounting threats he has received: \u201cI get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life \u2026 on the people that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NYPD is investigating two voicemails from an unidentified caller, who labelled Mamdani a \u201cterrorist\u201d, threatened to bomb his car, and ominously warned: \u201cWatch your f..king back every f..king second until you get the f..k out of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuomo\u2019s campaign has also played into Islamophobic tropes. A mailer targeting Jewish voters from a Cuomo-aligned super PAC doctored Mamdani\u2019s photo \u2013 darkening and lengthening his beard \u2013 and declared that he \u201crejects NYPD, rejects Israel, rejects capitalism and rejects Jewish rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Much of this centres on Mamdani\u2019s outspoken support for Palestinian rights. He has been criticised for refusing to affirm Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state and for defending the slogan \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, which he describes as \u201ca desperate desire for equality and equal rights\u201d. He also noted that the Arabic term intifada has been used by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to describe the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.<\/p>\n
Despite the attacks, Mamdani\u2019s movement is surging. He has received endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez, Attorney General Letitia James, the New York Working Families Party, United Auto Workers Region 9A, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Cuomo is backed by major real estate donors wary of Mamdani\u2019s housing agenda. His campaign has received $1m from DoorDash, presumably in response to Mamdani\u2019s proposed labour protections. Other prominent donors include Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman \u2013 both known for supporting Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Still, Mamdani\u2019s grassroots campaign has continued to gain ground. Whether or not he wins the nomination, his candidacy has already achieved something vital: it has offered proof that an anti-corporate, anti-Trump, community-powered campaign \u2013 one rooted in progressive values and refusal to compromise \u2013 can resonate with American voters.<\/p>\n
But the stakes extend far beyond New York. Across Europe, South America, South Asia and Africa, right-wing populists are gaining ground by exploiting economic precarity, stoking culture wars and vilifying minorities. Mamdani\u2019s campaign offers a clear counter-narrative: one that marries economic justice with moral clarity, mobilises diverse communities and challenges the politics of fear. For progressives around the world, it is a rare and instructive blueprint \u2013 not just for resistance, but for rebuilding.<\/p>\n
The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera\u2019s editorial stance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting in northern Europe, I shouldn\u2019t care about the New York mayoral race. Yet, despite all that is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,90,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5622,67,586,132,5230,68,72,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-4244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-opinions","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-canada","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114724976337418580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}