City Voting Guide: Identifying NYC's Next Mayor - Insights into Each Contender's Profile

In the heart of America, New York City continues to make headlines with its political shifts and transformative initiatives.

Andrew Cuomo, who served as New York's 56th governor from 2011 to 2021, resigned amid two massive scandals in 2021. An investigation found that he had sexually harassed 11 women, marking a controversial end to his tenure. Since then, Cuomo has been living in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan.

Eric Adams, the city's second Black mayor, took office in 2022, becoming the 110th mayor of New York City. Adams, who served in the NYPD before retiring in 2006, made a name for himself in politics by winning a Brooklyn state Senate seat and later serving as Brooklyn borough president from 2013 until his mayoral victory in 2021.

Adams' mayoralty has been marked by both triumphs and challenges. He has claimed double-digit drops in the city's shooting and murder rates, passed a massive zoning overhaul known as "City of Yes," and launched a push to containerize the city's trash among his major accomplishments. However, his administration has also faced internal and external challenges, including a migrant crisis and a series of corruption scandals that led to the resignation of many of his top aides and his own dismissed federal indictment last fall.

The mayoral race for the next four years in New York City is heating up. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor in June 2022. Mamdani, who graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 2014 with a Bachelor's Degree in Africana Studies, has represented western Queens neighborhoods since 2021 and was elected to Albany's lower chamber in 2020.

Mamdani's political career began with work as a housing foreclosure prevention counselor before entering politics. He is also known for co-founding the college's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

On the Republican side, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the vigilante group The Guardian Angels, is the party's mayoral nominee. Sliwa has been a vocal critic of Mayor Adams' administration's efforts to shelter migrants. He is running on growing the NYPD's ranks by 7,000 officers and repealing Mayor Adams' City of Yes zoning reforms.

Sliwa has been accused of fabricating stories about The Guardian Angels' heroics and has apologized for these falsehoods. Questions have also been raised about his commitment to Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, as he spends much of his time at a co-op he co-owns with his long-time partner in Fort Lee, NJ.

As the election approaches, New Yorkers will be watching closely to see who will lead their city into the future.

City Voting Guide: Identifying NYC's Next Mayor - Insights into Each Contender's Profile