Local elections affect the lives of all New Yorkers, even those below voting age. The New York City election for mayor takes place every four years, and this year, on November 4, voters will decide who will propose, pass or veto local laws and control things like the city budget and the appointment and removal of commissioners in over 40 agencies.  

At Tech, students do not have to be 18 years old to care about the election outcome.   

“Even though I cannot vote myself, I know a lot of people who can vote, so I try to spread the word,” said Shanzana Rahman (‘28), a supporter of the Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani. She thinks this election is vital for New York families like her own. She also said” If we are not getting the healthcare we deserve, it will be bad for us”.

In September, a New York Times poll showed that 46% of NYC registered voters support Zohran Mamdani, while 24 and 15 percent support Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, respectively. This poll was taken before Mayor Eric Adams abandoned his re-election campaign amidst abysmal approval ratings and distrust over corruption charges, slightly narrowing Mamdani’s lead.

In this year’s Democratic primary, the number of young adult voters (18-29) skyrocketed from 2021. This may be the result of Mamdani’s campaign, which rallied youth in a flurry of social media engagement, and used other innovative campaign approaches that generated record-breaking campaign contributions. 

Here’s what young people may need to know about this mayoral election:

Zohran Mamdani is a 34-year-old Democratic candidate, and New York’s 36th state assembly district representative, who has shaken up the world of politics. Mamdani’s primary win over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, in which he garnered over half of all the Democratic votes in the city, put his campaign on the national radar.

Mamdani is not a shy progressive. In interviews and debates, he emphasizes his left-leaning views, earning support from NYC liberal Democrats who feel unrepresented by more moderate politicians in the party.

Many who don’t share his political affiliation are focused on the fact that Mamdani, despite running as the Democratic candidate, is a self-proclaimed Democratic-Socialist, a rare party affiliation in American politics beyond big names like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Even national Republicans have strongly criticized Mamdani’s political ideology. 

“We have a Communist, 33 years old, doesn’t know a thing, probably never worked a day in his life,” said President Trump, who stated that he would withhold funding from the city if Mamdani wins. 

Mamdani has consistently affirmed that he is a democratic-socialist, not a communist, but criticisms of his far-left stances have found traction in the race. 

Mamdani has stirred controversy over his openly pro-Palestinian views, in contrast to his opponents who express staunch support for Israel. Several opponents, particularly Andrew Cuomo, have accused Mamdani of being an anti-semite because of his past statements. 

Mamdani’s big policy proposals include a rent-freeze for 2 million residents living in rent stabilized units, free buses, free childcare, ending the DOE’s gifted and talented program and building public supermarkets in food deserts with government control over food prices. 

Some New Yorkers find these goals unrealistic, and worry about Mamdani’s inexperience, age, and untested capacity to lead America’s capitalist-capital as a socialist. 

“I don’t think [Mamdani] will be able to carry out a lot of his plans,” said Maximo Gomez (‘28). “A lot of the time these plans are just too ambitious, especially for the city.” 

Andrew Cuomo is the former governor of New York State. After losing to Mamdani in a major upset, Cuomo switched his party affiliation to run as an independent candidate. 

His campaign has been controversial, potentially aiding his primary loss. He resigned as governor in 2021 after a series of sexual harassment allegations. Another scandal directed at Cuomo was the miscounting of covid deaths in nursing homes in 2020. Cuomo and his top aides intervened to edit a Department of Health report, artificially lowering the death toll. 

Both of these controversies have been used by his political opponents to further deepen New Yorker’s distrust of the former governor.

Cuomo is a pro-Israel moderate who, according to his website, plans to increase the size of the NYPD and the supply of affordable housing, while reducing class size in schools. There have already been state efforts to reduce class size but, in contrast to Eric Adams, Cuomo plans to embrace these laws and secure funding to implement these requirements. 

His previous support from labor unions and businesses has fizzled out because some union leaders feel he has underdelivered in help to workers and only wanted the votes, leaving him a weakened and polarizing candidate. 

Curtis Sliwa is the Republican candidate for mayor for the second cycle in a row. Sliwa is struggling to overcome Democratic enthusiasm for Mamdani, and the inevitable uphill battle for popularity in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6 to 1. 

Still, Sliwa has garnered attention. He made his name founding  a vigilante group called the “Guardian Angels” in 1979, when New York faced an epidemic of crime and fear. Members of the group patrolled subways, made citizen’s arrests, and resolved conflicts without the involvement of law enforcement. The Angels’ uniform is distinguished by its famous red beret, which Sliwa still wears. Public safety and anti-crime programs are huge pillars of his campaign.

In contrast to Mamdani, Sliwa supports the SHSAT, and plans to expand the gifted and talented program. 

A conservative, well known as a frequent guest on local television and radio news shows,  Sliwa rejoined the Republican Party in 2021 after 4 years in the Reform Party of New York State. His campaign’s main goals are to combat crime, grow the police department and decrease migrant shelters. 

He does not support President Trump, making it difficult for him to gain Republican votes, and faces constant pressure from Cuomo and Trump to drop out of the race just as Adams did. He sternly refuses. “The billionaires have led the parade and they’ve been wrong every step of the way,” he said.

Eric Adams is the current mayor of NYC, and on September 28 he dropped out of his reelection campaign. Adams had many struggles, including his conservatism, the denial of public matching funds from the campaign finance board and abysmal approval ratings. Yet his largest scandal was his corruption charges, which were dropped on April 2nd by the Department of Justice. He maintains that the bribery charges he faced were false, but many New Yorkers remain skeptical.

He was generally more open to criticizing progressives than Trump himself. He tried to appeal to New York as a whole, campaigning off of delivering a “safer, more affordable city”, closing illegal smoke shops, and reduction in crime, despite crime going up since he took office. 

In just over a week, the next NYC mayor will be decided. Whether voting or not, Tech students have strong hopes for the election that will shape their city for the next four years.