The Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, a radio host best known as the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol who lost to Adams in 2021.
For some voters, Mamdani represented a chance to usher in a new era for the party.
“I think it’s time for somebody young, a person of colour, something different,” Ignacio Tambunting, a 28-year-old actor, told a Reuters reporter outside a polling station in Manhattan after putting Mamdani atop his ballot. Another voter, Leah Johanson, said she listed Mamdani first even though she was concerned he was too liberal. But she did not rank Cuomo.
“No. God, no,” said Johanson, 39, who voted on Tuesday in Queens, where Mamdani lives. “I’m not gonna vote for a man who is credibly accused of molesting women.”
Cuomo has denied the harassment accusations, which he has characterised as ill-conceived attempts to be affectionate or humorous.
SELF-DESCRIBED DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST
Born in Uganda to a family of Indian descent, Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, has a history of pro-Palestinian activism.
He was elected to a state assembly seat in New York’s Queens borough and has garnered the support of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent progressives.
Cuomo accused Mamdani of lacking the experience required, while Mamdani attacked Cuomo over the harassment allegations.
Cuomo, who emerged as a vocal critic of Trump during his first term as president, won the endorsements of former President Bill Clinton and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In ranked voting, the last-place candidate is eliminated after each round, and their votes are redistributed to the second choice marked on the ballots of their supporters. The process is repeated until one candidate achieves 50 per cent of the total.
Mamdani seems likely to expand his lead when the additional counts are conducted, after he and Lander endorsed one another and urged their supporters to rank the other as second choice. Lander, who was the first choice on 11.6 per cent of ballots counted on Tuesday, made national headlines last week when he was briefly detained while escorting a defendant out of an immigration court.
