A person holds an Israeli flag during a rally on the steps of New York City Hall against mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, in Lower Manhattan, July 14, 2025. © REUTERS/Adam Gray
(New York, NY) – In the closing weeks of the campaign, a new poll suggests the race for New York City mayor is tightening. If it was a two-way competition between Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani and former governor, now Independent Andrew Cuomo — there would be a four-point gap between both candidates. That’s according to a report released by Gotham Polling and New York City’s chapter of the AARP.
Of course, to date, Republican Curtis Sliwa has said he has no intention of dropping out — making the two-way race purely hypothetical. Over the weekend, as reiterated in a New York Post report, 77 WABC owner-operator John Catsimatidis called on Sliwa to drop out of the race. The same poll from Gotham Polling and the AARP gave Mamdani a commanding lead in the three-way contest, with 43.2% of the vote. Cuomo checked in with 28.9%, and Sliwa rounded out the field at 19.4%.
All of that said, it appears older New Yorkers could have a role to play in the race. Among undecided voters, 78% are 50 or older — so it’s possible they would prefer to back Cuomo or Sliwa over a self-avowed socialist who plans to legalize prostitution and not prosecute misdemeanors.
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s sometimes questionable associations with people who hold bigoted views (such as Rebecca Kadaga) continued to come to light this weekend. Photos show the state lawmaker beaming while staning with imam Siraj Wahhaj — who once said the United States was “filthy” and “sick” in a 1995 rant that was uncovered by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Stunningly, Wahhaj was reportedly considered to be an “unindicted co-conspirator” amid the 1993 World trade Center bombing that left six people dead. Several people implicated in the attack attended his mosque, according to the New York Post.
At one point, Wahhaj referred to the CIA and FBI as the “real terrorists.”
Early voting gets underway this Saturday, October 25, and the final day is Sunday, November 2. That Tuesday, November 4, is Election Day.
