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The candidates for New York City mayor spent a frantic final day campaigning across the city, as voters prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday in one of the most closely watched races in the city’s history.
Zohran Mamdani, the race’s frontrunner, whose campaign has been centered on affordability, has maintained a commanding lead, with most polls showing him leading by double digits.
The 34-year-old Democratic nominee, a state assembly member from Queens, began his Monday walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise. He was joined by the New York attorney general, Letitia James; the city comptroller, Brad Lander; as well as several city and state lawmakers and throngs of supporters.
He finished the walk at city hall, where he told a news conference that “we stand on the verge of ushering in a new day for our city”, and was scheduled to join volunteers before they began a final day of canvassing in Astoria, Queens, later in the day.
Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in June’s primary, kicked off the last day of the campaign with an interview on the Spanish-language radio station La Mega before heading to a campaign stop in the Bronx. He reportedly planned to visit all five boroughs on Monday.
Running a distant third has been Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate and founder of the Guardian Angels, a non-profit organization dedicated to “unarmed crime prevention”. According to social media, Sliwa spent part of Monday morning at Coney Island and was set to host a tele-rally in the evening.
The weekend saw all three candidates racing across the city in a final push to energize supporters and win over undecided voters in a race that has drawn national and international attention – and could have significant implications for the future of the Democratic party and next year’s midterm elections.
Mamdani was seen campaigning in Harlem, Queens and Brooklyn. On Saturday night, he made the rounds at several nightclubs, where videos show him dancing to Empire State of Mind and urging patrons to get out and vote. On Sunday, he cheered on runners at the New York City marathon, watched the Buffalo Bills game in a Queens bar alongside New York governor Kathy Hochul – who has endorsed him – and capped off the evening in nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden for the New York Knicks basketball game, where he mingled with fans.
Cuomo, meanwhile, was seen at campaign events in the Bronx – where he spoke at two churches and met with voters at a cafe – as well as in Brooklyn and Queens, where he served as Grand Marshal in a community parade in Cambria Heights. Sliwa was seen meeting with supporters in the streets of Manhattan and campaigning in Queens, Staten Island and South Brooklyn.
The race has already shattered early voting records, according to the board of elections, with more than 735,000 ballots cast ahead of election day – more than four times the number of ballots cast during early voting in the 2021 mayoral race, according to the New York Times.
Donald Trump also loomed large over the race this weekend: in an interview with 60 Minutes, the US president suggested that he would prefer Cuomo to win.
“It’s going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump said, falsely labelling Mamdani, who espouses democratic socialism. “So I don’t know that he’s won, and I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”
Mamdani’s campaign responded on social media with a post stating: “Trump endorses Cuomo!” and a caption that read: “Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo. I know how hard you worked for this.”
Throughout the race, Mamdani and Cuomo have sparred and clashed over their records, qualifications, ideologies and visions for the city. Mamdani has accused Cuomo of being beholden to wealthy and corporate donors and of serving their interests, while Cuomo has dismissed Mamdani as inexperienced and unrealistic.
In recent weeks, the rhetoric has intensified. Cuomo, who is seeking a political comeback after resigning as Governor of New York in 2021 after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment – allegations which he has denied – has labelled Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, an “extremist” and warned that New York “will not survive” under his leadership.
Polls are closed on Monday but polling stations will reopen on Tuesday for election day from 6am to 9pm ET.
English (US)