Polling stations open in New York City as Mamdani and Cuomo face off

Voting at polling stations in New York City is underway, with residents set to decide the outcome of a generational and ideological divide that will resonate across the country as they choose the next mayor to run the nation’s largest city.

Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary earlier this year, faces former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and perennial Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who is trying to pull off a massive upset.

A victory for Mamdani would give the city its first Muslim mayor and its youngest leader in generations, while elevating the democratic socialist to political stardom and giving his brand of economic populism one of the most visible political perches in America.

If Cuomo comes out on top, he will have staged a remarkable political comeback four years after resigning as governor over a barrage of sexual harassment allegations.

For Sliwa — the creator of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group and a longtime New York tabloid fixture — a highly unlikely win would put a Republican in charge of the nation’s largest city at a time when many New Yorkers are seeking a leader who can keep President Donald Trump at bay.

The race has made Mamdani a national figure as he has drawn the ire of Trump and other Republicans, who have cast him as the face of a new, more radical Democratic Party. Trump has also threatened to take over the city if Mamdani wins, as well as arrest and deport the state assemblymember, who was born in Uganda but is a US citizen.