NEW YORK — New York City Democrats will decide Tuesday whether to reboot Andrew Cuomo's political career, elevate liberal upstart Zohran Mamdani, or turn to a crowded field of lesser-known but maybe less-polarizing candidates in the party's mayoral primary.
Their choice could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during President Donald Trump's second term.
The vote takes place on a sweltering day about four years after Cuomo resigned as governor following a sexual harassment scandal. Yet the 67-year-old has been the favorite throughout the race, with his deep experience, nearly universal name recognition, strong political connections and juggernaut fundraising apparatus.
The party's progressive wing, meanwhile, has coalesced behind Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist. A relatively unknown state legislator when the contest began, Mamdani gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city's high cost of living and secured endorsements from two of the country's foremost progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
While preliminary returns will be released after the polls close at 9 p.m. Tuesday, a winner might not emerge for a week because of the city's ranked choice voting system, which allows voters to list up to five candidates in order of preference. If a candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters, they win outright. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the tabulation of the rankings wouldn't begin until July 1.
The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump's Justice Department. Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, will be on the ballot in the fall's general election.
The mayoral primary's two leading candidates — one a fresh-faced progressive and the other an older moderate — could be stand-ins for the larger Democratic Party's ideological divide, though Cuomo's scandal-scarred past adds a unique tinge to the narrative.
The rest of the pack has struggled to gain recognition in a race where nearly every candidate has cast themselves as the person best positioned to challenge Trump's Republican agenda.