New York Prepares for First Muslim Mayor

Breakout Democratic Party candidate Mamdani, a naturalized Muslim American who represents Queens in the state legislature, leads former governor and sex assault-accused Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after losing his party's primary contest to Mamdani.

The Republican party candidate polling in third place is Curtis Sliwa, 71, who has a colorful past as founder of the Guardian Angels vigilante group, a prolific broadcaster and cat lover.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll conducted Oct. 23 to 27 gives Mamdani 43 percent of the vote, followed by Cuomo on 33 percent and Sliwa on 14 percent.

The race has centered on cost of living, crime and how each candidate would handle Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from the city.

"Mamdani is an unusual political figure and really captures the spirit of the moment. This is a moment where a loud anti-Trump voice in America's biggest city is going to get news," Lincoln Mitchell, a politics professor at Columbia University, told AFP. 

"Frankly, a Muslim candidate for mayor of New York is an enormous story."

Mamdani, 34, has attacked his opponents for Islamophobic rhetoric and smears, calling out both Republicans and Democrats for "anti-Muslim sentiment that has grown so endemic in our city."

NYC Board of Elections data showed 275,006 registered Democrats had cast ballots, as had 46,115 Republicans, along with 42,383 voters unaffiliated with any party in the first five days of early voting, which ended yesterday.

Mamdani's ascent has highlighted the gulf between the left and center-right of the Democratic Party.

New York's state governor Kathy Hochul, a centrist, appeared at a Mamdani rally on Oct. 26 but was drowned out by "tax the rich" chants, an AFP correspondent saw.

Hochul has been critical of Mamdani's proposals to impose a 2 percent income tax on New Yorkers making more than $1 million.

Mamdani's unlikely ascent has been fired by young New Yorkers canvassing for him, with his campaign claiming 90,000 people have volunteered.

"It really comes back to people speaking to other New Yorkers about the city that we all love," Mamdani told The Daily Show. 

Torrential rain at the end of the week slowed canvassing, with the three leading candidates touring TV studios in a final push to woo wavering voters.

Ahead of the vote, Sliwa appeared in a surreal conservative rap video wearing a suit and his signature red beret.

Cuomo, 67, sought on Oct. 30 to court Black and Muslim voters, campaigning in Harlem with current mayor Eric Adams, a corruption-accused Democrat who bowed out, eventually endorsing his former foe Cuomo.