Zohran Mamdani, flanked by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, during a rally ahead of the municipal elections in New York, October 26, 2025.
A week ahead of New York City’s mayoral election on November 4, the main question now seems to be whether Zohran Mamdani can still lose. The Democratic candidate, unknown just a year ago, is leading the race to run the largest city in the United States. Polls give him around 45% of the vote, putting him well ahead of his main rival, Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, at roughly 30%, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, at 15% and 20%.
The mood was euphoric on Sunday, October 26, at Mamdani’s final campaign rally, held in the historic Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, which normally hosts concerts for 13,000 people. The political gathering had the feel of a concert: Supporters came to celebrate the man of the moment, the self-proclaimed “socialist” on the verge of taking over the world’s financial capital.
Mamdani tried to temper this premature sense of victory as early voting began Saturday. Addressing a crowd firmly in his corner, the candidate who first toppled former governor Cuomo in the Democratic primary back in June – despite trailing in the polls – urged caution about projections. “When you see the Kalshi odds [an American trading company] that have our chances of victory in the nineties, know this: You are reading the same things that Andrew Cuomo read when he went to sleep each night in June,” Mamdani said.
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