New York City voters have already made it clear that interest and engagement are high for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
More than 735,000 votes were cast during the city’s nine days of early, in-person voting — more than four times the number of ballots cast during the 2021 election, the only other mayor’s race to allow early voting.
And the race always captures national attention. With a population of roughly 8.5 million people, New York is the biggest city in the United States and the country’s financial capital.
Polls have suggested the city is on the way to elect its first Muslim mayor, a Democrat, which has prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten to withhold federal funds from New York.
Here’s what you need to know:
From left, Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani participate in a mayoral debate on Oct. 16. (Angelina Katsanis/Pool/Reuters)
Who is running?
The three main candidates are Democrat Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an Independent.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman, beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary by nearly 13 percentage points, prompting Cuomo to declare as an Independent.
Mamdani describes himself as a democratic socialist. His campaign has largely focused on the cost of living and how to make life in the city more affordable.
His policies include increasing taxes on New York City’s wealthiest, raising the corporate tax, freezing stabilized apartment rental rates and increasing publicly subsidized housing.
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The 67-year-old Cuomo is trying to make his return to political office after resigning as governor four years ago following a barrage of sexual harassment accusations that he denies.
Despite being a Democrat before the mayoral race, he has been courting Republican voters by likening a potential Mamdani administration to left-wing governments in Latin America.
Cuomo pitched himself as the only candidate who can beat Mamdani and has promised to hire more police officers and reduce crime.
Sliwa is running a distant third behind the two front-runners. The 71-year-old ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He is running to be mayor for a second time after losing the 2021 election in a landslide to Eric Adams.
He is a longtime New York City activist who founded the Guardian Angels, a non-profit organization that worked to combat street crime and violence, in 1979. Sliwa also spent about three decades hosting various talk radio shows.
The staunch animal rights advocate has said his campaign is focused on quality of life — particularly in the city’s outer boroughs — and public safety. He has also described himself as an anti-Trump Republican.
No incumbent?
Adams, New York’s current mayor, was elected four years ago as a Democrat and planned to seek re-election as an Independent. But he was polling so poorly that he dropped out of the race in September.
His name will remain on the ballot.
When do polls open and close?
Polls across New York’s five boroughs will open at 6 a.m. ET and close at 9 p.m. ET.
Results are expected to come fairly quickly. In the last mayoral election in 2021, Adams was declared the winner about 10 minutes after polls closed. He won about two-thirds of the vote.
Tuesday’s outcome might be closer. Mamdani has been leading, but Cuomo has managed to tighten the race in recent days.
WATCH | Why this NYC election was different:
How Zohran Mamdani is reshaping New York’s mayoral race
Zohran Mamdani is shaking up New York’s mayoral race with a socialist platform that includes rent control and public transportation. The front-runner’s message is drawing both support and backlash from the city’s financial elite, including the U.S. president.
What has Trump said about the race?
Over the course of the race, Trump has threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him and take over the city if he wins.
In an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Trump said if Mamdani wins, “it’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York.”
He doubled down as the race wrapped up on Monday, posting on social media that it would be “highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required.”
And Trump, a Republican, urged New Yorkers not to vote for Sliwa either, saying it would only help Mamdani.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.
What a Mamdani win could mean to Democratic Party
Although Mamdani was finally endorsed by Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just before early voting began in New York, he has not been universally embraced by the party.
While some have called Mamdani “the brightest light in the Democratic Party,” others have expressed concern that Republicans could tie him to the Democrats as a socialist to fear.
