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The New York City mayoral election is being billed as a window into the soul of the Democratic Party, even though there isn’t a traditional Democrat on the ballot.
Here’s a look at the candidates vying in Tuesday’s election to determine the next leader of the nation’s most populous city and its nine million residents:
ANDREW CUOMO
The scandal-plagued former governor has the backing of billionaires such as Bill Ackman and Barry Diller; current Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his reelection bid; and even the reluctant support of President Donald Trump, who told New Yorkers in a social media post Monday that “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him” over Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
(Cuomo has said he wouldn’t accept a Trump endorsement.)
While governor, Cuomo faced backlash for severely undercounting the deaths of state nursing home residents.
Cuomo, 67, was also accused by multiple female state employees in 2020 of sexual harassment, sexual assault and creating a toxic work environment. New York Attorney General Letitia James launched an independent investigation into the matter in 2021, and found Cuomo had violated state and federal laws.
Cuomo has denied those allegations, but after pressure from Democratic leaders, including then-President Joe Biden, he resigned in August 2021.
After a primary loss to the far less experienced Mamdani, Cuomo announced he would run in the general election as an independent.
Among his policies are increasing the number of police officers and their permanent presence in subway stations, reducing class sizes in schools and increasing housing across all income levels.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI
Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, has shot to fame in the span of a year. His grassroots campaign carried him to the Democratic nomination in July in a crowded race conducted by ranked-choice voting.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic socialist, is running on a platform centered around affordability. Mamdani says he plans to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants, make buses free and implement universal child care, policies that have been characterized by his opponents and even some in his own party as unrealistic.
Mamdani’s campaign has found success on social media, especially TikTok, where videos of him correcting Cuomo on the pronunciation of his surname and talking to voters in Spanish, Urdu and Arabic have gone viral.
Although Democratic Party leaders such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul have been tepid in their support — neither of New York’s U.S. senators endorsed him — Mamdani has won the backing of progressive stalwarts Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mamdani would be the first South Asian and first Muslim mayor of New York.
CURTIS SLIWA
Curtis Sliwa is perhaps more famous for his headgear and colorful commentary than his policies. Despite significantly trailing his opponents in the polls, the GOP nominee and radio host has refused to drop out of the race at the suggestion of top Republicans, who see his candidacy as helping Mamdani.
Sliwa touts a tough-on-crime approach, wanting to increase the NYPD by an additional 7,000 officers, even though crime in the city is at or near historic lows. While he supports Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to other cities such as Chicago and Washington, Sliwa said he would push back on the president taking the same action in New York.
Sliwa, 71, adopted his now-famous red beret in the 1970s after founding the Guardian Angels, a crime-fighting citizen patrol group. He has also become known for his large number of rescue cats and has even suggested deploying feral cats to deal with the city’s rat issue.