It has been one of New York City’s most closely watched local election seasons in years, and at long last, the mayor’s race is about to be over.
At some point after the polls close at 9 p.m., a victor will almost certainly emerge from among the top three contenders to succeed Mayor Eric Adams: Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old assemblyman and Democratic nominee; Andrew M. Cuomo, the 67-year-old former governor running on an independent ballot line; and Curtis Sliwa, the 71-year-old Republican founder of the Guardian Angels (who is also running on the “Protect Animals” line).
In the five months since the Democratic primary in June, the three men have jockeyed for position, but their respective standing in the polls has remained largely static. Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, remains in first place, followed by Mr. Cuomo and then Mr. Sliwa.
Today’s vote will determine whether that dynamic holds or is somehow upended. Turnout expectations are high. More than 735,000 people cast ballots during the early voting period that concluded Sunday evening, more than four times the number who voted early in the 2021 contest.
The campaign’s final day was not without drama. President Trump endorsed Mr. Cuomo, with whom he has a long, tangled history. Mr. Mamdani continued to dodge questions about where he stood on this year’s contentious ballot proposals, with his spokeswoman saying he would announce his position when he voted. Mr. Sliwa visited a Coney Island subway station to lay a wreath for Debrina Kawam, who was burned to death there last year.
Mr. Sliwa voted early, but Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo are expected to vote this morning near their respective homes in Queens and Manhattan. All three will wrap up the evening with election watch parties attended by both die-hard supporters and reporters.
Here’s what else to know:
Trump weighs in: “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post urging New Yorkers to vote for the former governor. As he has done in the past, Mr. Trump also threatened to withhold federal funds “other than the very minimum as required” from the city, his hometown, if Mr. Mamdani is elected.
Where the candidates stand: If you are still undecided, here is a handy questionnaire. And here is an explanation of what you will find on the other side of the ballot.
How to vote: The polls will be open today from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Find your polling site here.
Curtis Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels, a citizen patrol group, in the late 1970s, when New York City was convulsed by crime.Credit...Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Buoyed by a warm reception of his performance in the first New York City mayoral debate, and defying his low polling numbers, Curtis Sliwa has dug in. He has refused calls to drop out of the race and insisted that his experience leading a once-prominent citizens’ patrol group has prepared him to run America’s largest city.
But a look at the state of that group, the Guardian Angels, reveals an organization marred by mismanagement: It has lost its tax-exempt status but continues to solicit donations online, all while exaggerating its presence around the United States and the world.
The most recent tax returns on file for the group, formerly a nonprofit charity, are for the year 2019. As a result, the government revoked its tax-exempt status in 2022, for noncompliance.
Mr. Sliwa, the Republican nominee, has defended his stewardship of the organization but, in an interview, acknowledged its recent management troubles. He blamed the loss of its tax-exempt status on a previous accountant, Rafael Alvarez, who he said had duped the Guardian Angels into believing its paperwork was in order for years. Mr. Alvarez, a Bronx-based tax preparer known to some customers as “The Magician,” was charged last year in a $145 million fraud scheme, and sentenced to prison in May.
The Guardian Angels, Mr. Sliwa said, are now working with a new accountant and petitioning the I.R.S. to reinstate their tax-exempt designation.
As Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa strove to define and build a winning voter coalition, the city’s vast and diverse electorate was on full display. See and read aboutsome of the most memorable scenes our photographers captured from the campaign trail.
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Victor J. Blue for The New York Times; Vincent Alban/The New York Times; Shuran Huang for The New York Times; Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Throughout Mario M. Cuomo’s 1977 mayoral campaign, his son Andrew, left, was at his side, including at his concession speech after he lost the Democratic primary runoff.Credit...Barton Silverman/The New York Times
He had lost the Democratic mayoral primary in New York. Overnight, labor unions and party leaders abandoned him for his opponent. His campaign headquarters emptied as his own allies urged him to quit the race. But he would not concede. He stayed on the ballot through November, convinced he could win.
The year was 1977, and the candidate was Mario M. Cuomo, a young, relatively unknown New York secretary of state, who had been defeated in the Democratic mayoral primary and in a runoff 10 days later by Edward I. Koch, a congressman from Greenwich Village. Mr. Cuomo then ran as a Liberal and on a smaller third-party line, and lost again to Mr. Koch in November.
Now, 48 years later, a startlingly similar political drama is unfolding in a New York mayoral race, but with a different Cuomo: Andrew, the oldest son of Mario.
Andrew, like his father, lost the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. Andrew, like his father, was urged to quit the race. Andrew, like his father, is pushing ahead and, defying polls, running in the general election, this time against Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who, like Mr. Koch, was the choice of Democratic primary voters.
New Yorkers are also voting on a handful of ballot proposals, including some contentious measures aimed at building housing. Mamdani, the Democratic candidate, has avoided taking a public position on those when asked, but he has teased to reporters that he would have one on Election Day.
It’s Election Day in New York City, and the polls are open as voters pick a new mayor and vote in a number of other local races. Both Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo are expected to cast their ballots today, while Curtis Sliwa voted early.
From left to right: the New York City mayoral candidates Curtis Sliwa, Andrew M. Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani.Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The three major candidates running for mayor of New York City could not be more different. They have unique biographies and are far apart on critical issues facing the city.
Ahead of the election on Tuesday, we interviewed each of them about their experience, their plans for the city and their favorite subway seat.
Zohran Mamdani’s opposition to Israel gained national attention in 2023, when he began a hunger strike to protest the country’s treatment of Gaza.Credit...Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images
But in a race full of fights over rent freezes and policing, his longstanding beliefs on Israel and Palestinians have been a singular lightning rod — a galvanizing force behind his early support, but also one of his biggest vulnerabilities.
Mr. Mamdani’s unapologetically pro-Palestinian platform would once have been almost unimaginable for a leading mayoral candidate. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack tipped the region into all-out war, he has accused Israel of committing genocide, vowed to arrest its leader and said he could not support the country as long as it is an officially Jewish state that gives lesser rights to Palestinians.
On the two-year anniversary of the massacre this week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued an unusual denunciation, calling him “a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda” despite his condemnation of the terrorist group’s massacre. Yet polls suggest that as the war drags on, New Yorkers are moving toward Mr. Mamdani’s position, which was once far outside the mainstream.
And at a time when Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is trying to reassure New Yorkers that he is open to compromise, it is the biggest issue on which he has not budged.
To understand why, and how one of the most combustible topics in global politics became so central to his ascent, requires looking beyond the present race, to the rarefied milieu where the only child of celebrated intellectuals formed his view of the world — and to Bowdoin College, the campus where he began to put it into action.
President Trump urged New Yorkers to vote for Andrew Cuomo on Monday, saying “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice.”Credit...Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times
For weeks, President Trump has strongly suggested that he would prefer that Andrew M. Cuomo, the former governor, win the New York City mayor’s race.
He has mocked Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner, calling him a “‘liddle’ communist” (he is a democratic socialist). And the president has made a point of deriding Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, whom Mr. Cuomo has tried to push out of the race so he could reap more of the Republican vote.
Finally, on Monday evening, hours before Election Day, Mr. Trump made it official.
“It is my obligation to run the Nation, and it is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win,” the president wrote in a social media post. As he has done in the past, Mr. Trump threatened to withhold federal funds “other than the very minimum as required” from the city, his hometown, if Mr. Mamdani is elected.
“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN,” he wrote, referring to Mr. Cuomo, a three-term governor, “than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE.”
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Mr. Trump wrote. “You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”
Mr. Trump also said, “We must also remember this — A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” referring to the red hat Mr. Sliwa wears as the founder of the citizen patrol group the Guardian Angels.
In a radio interview on WABC about half an hour after Mr. Trump published his post, Mr. Cuomo said, “The president is right.”
“A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani,” he said, suggesting that Mr. Sliwa was selfish for staying in the race. “That’s why this election is up to the Republicans.”
Asked about the endorsement at a campaign event in Brooklyn Monday evening, Mr. Sliwa struck a neutral tone. “Look, the president is entitled to say whatever he wants, to have his own opinion,” he said, “but it’s really the people, the people’s opinion, which motivates me.”
Mr. Cuomo, who has a long, tangled history with the president, has long argued that only he can stand toe-to-toe with Mr. Trump. The president, a Republican, is still widely disliked in the city.
Mr. Mamdani, for his part, has sought to link Mr. Cuomo to Mr. Trump throughout the campaign, noting that they have some of the same big-money donors.
“This is absolutely the nail in the coffin for Andrew Cuomo,” said Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the Mamdani campaign.
At a campaign event in Astoria, Queens, Mr. Mamdani said that he had known “for months” that Mr. Trump would back Mr. Cuomo.
“In these final days, what was rumored, what was feared, has become naked and unabashed,” he said. “The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him — not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration.”
VideoN.Y.C. Mayoral Candidates Make Final Push on Last Day of Early Voting
Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa spent Sunday, the last day of early voting, zigzagging across New York City to deliver their final messages and urge people to go to the polls.CreditCredit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday’s mayoral election, marking the highest early in-person turnout ever for a nonpresidential election in New York.
Sunday, the final day of early voting, saw about 151,000 early voters, the most of any day since the polls opened, and more voters under 35 than in the first weekend combined, according to data from the city’s Board of Elections. That brought the median age of early in-person voters down to 50.
Turnout among younger age groups lagged early in the week, with about 80,000 people under 35 voting from Sunday to Thursday. That number jumped from Friday to Sunday, with over 100,000 voters under the age of 35 casting ballots, including more than 45,000 on Sunday.
More than four times as many early ballots were cast in this year’s closely watched mayor’s race, in which Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, leads his two rivals, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, as in the last mayor’s race, in 2021.
That election, the first mayor’s race in New York City where early voting was an option, saw approximately 170,000 early votes cast. The race was not very competitive, however, with Mayor Eric Adams capturing more than double the votes of his closest competitor, Mr. Sliwa.
The early in-person turnout this year was not quite so high as in last year’s presidential election, which saw over a million people vote early, but the electorate was younger. That’s surprising, because people who vote early generally skew older than registered voters as a whole.
Far more early ballots were also cast in this year’s mayoral race than in the 2022 midterm elections, during which approximately 433,000 people voted early in New York.
In that general election, when Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, faced a challenge from Lee Zeldin, a Republican, most early voters were older than 55. In last year’s presidential election, on the other hand, when turnout was higher, the median age sank down to 51. The median age of early voters this year fell even further to 50.
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