Coming just over a week before early voting begins in New York City, Thursday night’s mayoral debate will provide one of the last chances for the candidates to shake up the race.
Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and the Democratic nominee, will walk onto the debate stage with a double-digit lead in polls that may prove difficult for his challengers to surmount.
Both of his rivals — former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the primary to Mr. Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee — are hoping to gain ground. They will be looking to create major moments that could resonate with voters, particularly in the wake of Mayor Eric Adams’s decision to end his own independent campaign.
By this point, all three candidates are familiar to many voters, but the debate, which is being hosted by NBC 4 New York/WNBC, Telemundo 47/WNJU and Politico New York, will bring them onto one stage for the first time.
The debate begins at 7 p.m. and will be held at WNBC’s studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Though the debate is scheduled to last two hours, only the first hour will air live on WNBC and WNJU. It will be streamed in full online on NBC 4 New York and Telemundo’s streaming platforms and on Politico’s website.
The New York Times will also carry a livestream of the debate, alongside real-time commentary and analysis from our reporters.
Here are some of the things we’ll be watching for:
How will Mamdani weather attacks?
When Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani last shared a debate stage in June, the former governor was the front-runner in the Democratic primary. He faced a steady stream of attacks, particularly from left-leaning candidates who mostly shied away from criticizing Mr. Mamdani because they were courting the same voters.
Months later, the race is very different. Mr. Mamdani now holds a steady lead in the polls and will be outnumbered onstage by candidates who vocally oppose his progressive views.
That new dynamic may present a challenge. Mr. Mamdani has tried to keep the focus on making the city more affordable, the central message of his campaign. Since his primary win, he has taken steps to moderate his image, playing down some of his more provocative stances and distancing himself from past comments, like his 2020 calls to defund the police.
But both Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Sliwa are likely to bombard Mr. Mamdani with attacks over his past statements, particularly on public safety, that they believe are out of step with New Yorkers’ views. Both have also accused him of political opportunism as the general election nears.
Mr. Mamdani will most likely need to account for his political evolution while reassuring his supporters that he stands by the central tenets of his successful primary campaign.
Will Cuomo be able to define his lane?
The stakes are particularly high for Mr. Cuomo in Thursday’s debate, which may be one of his last major opportunities to sway voters who remain wary of both him and Mr. Mamdani. These New Yorkers are critical to Mr. Cuomo’s path to victory, and he will need to persuade them to get behind him rather than supporting Mr. Sliwa or declining to vote.
Mr. Cuomo has been trying to build a broad coalition that includes wealthy donors, independents, moderate Democrats and conservative or Republican voters who are opposed to Mr. Mamdani.
The Cuomo campaign is betting that his centrist politics can attract a wide swath of the electorate. But that strategy may require Mr. Cuomo to walk a careful tightrope on Thursday night.
A Democrat for decades, Mr. Cuomo must present himself as sufficiently conservative to attract right-leaning New Yorkers who worry that Mr. Sliwa cannot win.
Yet at the same time, Mr. Cuomo cannot afford to alienate centrist Democrats by overtly embracing Republicans. Mr. Mamdani has for months sought to highlight that Mr. Cuomo is earning the support of donors who are aligned with President Trump.
Can Sliwa make a case for his presence on the ballot?
Mr. Sliwa faces long odds in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans, and he is polling a distant third. Many donors and voters opposed to Mr. Mamdani have called on him to drop out, arguing that Mr. Cuomo is better positioned to win in November.
Mr. Sliwa has resolutely dismissed the idea. Thursday’s debate will offer a chance to try to broaden his appeal and make his case to voters.
Though this will be Mr. Sliwa’s first debate of the campaign cycle, he is a veteran New York media figure who knows how to seize attention. His experience on the debate stage during his failed 2021 mayoral campaign may be a boon as he tries to win support from those who are turned off by Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Cuomo.
But if Mr. Sliwa does not make a forceful argument for why voters should back him over Mr. Cuomo, he will risk bleeding support and further calling his own candidacy into question.
How will the candidates balance experience and vision?
Mr. Cuomo portrays himself as a seasoned executive who will draw on his track record as governor of New York. But his efforts to attack Mr. Mamdani over his inexperience fell short in the primary, when voters were drawn to the assemblyman’s clear and forward-looking message.
Mr. Mamdani presents himself as a fresh face embracing a new form of Democratic politics. But after winning the primary, he began taking closed-door meetings with political and business leaders that suggested a willingness to learn from more experienced hands.
As Mr. Cuomo has campaigned in the general election, he has continued to point to his résumé as his strongest asset, while trying, at times, to offer a more forward-looking vision for the city.
At the same time, Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Sliwa have sought to turn Mr. Cuomo’s past against him, pointing to his resignation in 2021 in the face of sexual harassment allegations and his handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic. Mr. Cuomo denies wrongdoing in both cases, but his opponents cite them as evidence that it is time for new leadership in New York.
And how will they deal with Trump?
Mr. Trump remains deeply unpopular in New York City, and all three candidates have faced questions over how they would deal with him if elected.
The president has vowed to cut federal aid to New York City if Mr. Mamdani wins — something he is already doing — and he has suggested he might send the National Guard to the city as well.
Mr. Cuomo, who was governor during Mr. Trump’s first term and frequently sparred with him, has argued that he is best suited to deal with the president’s threats. In an interview on “The View” earlier this month, he insisted that he was the “last person” Mr. Trump wanted to see as mayor.
But Mr. Mamdani has argued that he is the only candidate in the race with no ties to the president, citing reporting of a phone call between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Trump that both men have denied.
Mr. Sliwa, a Republican, should be the easiest candidate to link to Mr. Trump. But though the two men share some views, particularly on public safety, they do not get along. Mr. Trump has dismissed Mr. Sliwa’s abilities, saying he is “not exactly prime time,” while Mr. Sliwa has argued that Mr. Trump’s involvement in the race would be a gift to Mr. Mamdani.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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