The national political spotlight will shine on New York City Thursday night when Democrat Zohran Mamdani debates his New York City mayoral rivals Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa for the first and only time before voters head to the polls to replace scandal-plagued incumbent Eric Adams.
A once-obscure state assemblyman from Queens affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani, 33, rocketed to prominence after upsetting Cuomo — New York’s former governor and the scion of one of its most famous political families — in July’s Democratic primary, instantly making him the frontrunner to win the general election on Nov. 4.
Mamdani’s surprise primary victory also made him an instant lightning rod for Democrats and Republicans nationwide.
Some of the chatter has centered on Mamdani’s identity — he is a Muslim who was born in Uganda to Indian-origin parents — and his pro-Palestinian views. But perhaps the more interesting conversation, or at least the one with wider implications, is whether Mamdani’s unapologetically populist agenda can serve as a blueprint for Democrats elsewhere as they struggle to regain power in the Age of Trump.
Thursday’s clash represents the last best chance for Cuomo and Sliwa to convince New Yorkers that Mamdani is too liberal for the city — and a prime opportunity for political observers beyond the five boroughs to watch the Democratic Party’s most buzzed-about rising star in action.
Here’s everything you need to know before tuning in.
When is the debate and how can I watch it?
The candidates will debate in WNBC’s studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza starting at 7 p.m. ET. The event is scheduled to last for two hours. For local TV viewers, the first hour will air live on WNBC and WNJU. For online viewers, it will stream in full on the websites of NBC 4 New York, Telemundo, Politico and the New York Times.
Who are the candidates?
Mamdani is the Democratic nominee. Sliwa — a conservative radio host — is the Republican nominee; he has been a familiar figure in New York since founding the Guardian Angels, a civilian crime-fighting group, in the late 1970s. Cuomo is running as an independent.
How did they get here?
Cuomo has been a Democrat for his entire political career. But in 2021 he was forced to resign the governorship after being accused of sexually harassing 11 women during his time in office, and his 2025 comeback bid for mayor floundered when Mamdani started to connect with voters earlier this year. Cuomo wound up losing to Mamdani by nearly 13 percentage points in the final count.
In response, Cuomo announced that he would challenge Mamdani again in the fall — this time as an independent.
Sliwa ran unopposed for the Republican mayoral nomination. He was also the Republican nominee in 2021, when he lost to Adams in a landslide.
Wait, what happened to Eric Adams?
A Democrat himself, Adams initially planned to run for reelection as well. But last fall, a series of investigations led to him being indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, making him the first New York mayor to be charged with federal crimes while in office. (Adams pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the Department of Justice under President Trump eventually instructed federal prosecutors to drop them after Adams cooperated with the administration on immigration enforcement.)
In April, Adams exited the Democratic primary and said he would run instead as an independent. By September, however, it had become clear that Cuomo’s own independent run had left the unpopular incumbent with a vanishingly small sliver of the anti-Mamdani vote. Adams dropped out of the race on Sept. 28.
What do the polls say?
New York is a heavily Democratic city, and three separate polling aggregators currently show Mamdami earning about 45% of the vote on average — giving him a roughly 15-point lead over Cuomo (at about 30%) and a roughly 30-point lead over Sliwa (at about 14%). Early voting is set to start on Oct. 25.
I don’t live in New York City. Why should I care about the debate?
Some of Thursday’s action will be parochial; in the past, for instance, Cuomo has incorrectly accused Mamdani of living in a rent-controlled apartment.
But to a greater degree than in any recent local political clash, the arguments that Mamdani and Cuomo plan to make Thursday night will reflect the larger argument that’s currently raging in the national Democratic Party about the best way to move forward — and regain power — in the wake of Trump’s improbable 2024 election victory.
Mamdani is a particularly articulate and internet-savvy spokesperson for the Bernie Sanders-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party. His case is straightforward: to beat Trump’s GOP, Democrats need new messengers who focus unapologetically on making life more affordable for working-class Americans — then actually deliver while in office.
To that end, Mamdani has proposed a slate of ambitious policies to lower the cost of living in New York: creating a network of government-owned grocery stores that aim to keep prices low rather than make a profit; freezing rent for lower-income tenants; permanently eliminating the fares on public buses; implementing free child care for every child aged 6 weeks to 5 years; raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030; and raising taxes on corporations and millionaires to pay for his plans.
Mamdani and his supporters dismiss Cuomo as part of the problem: a corporate, centrist Democrat who caves to the status quo and isn’t bold enough to beat back the MAGA movement.
Cuomo, of course, sees things differently — as do many moderate Democrats nationwide. To them, candidates like Mamdani are too risky to represent the party: too young, too inexperienced, too “socialist.” Expect Cuomo to continue to attack Mamdani on Thursday for his past statements — which Mamdani has since sought to downplay or distance himself from — arguing prostitution should be decriminalized, the police should be defunded and billionaires should not exist.
The better option, Cuomo insists, is to choose leaders — like him — who appeal to the middle and know how to work the levers of power.