Mamdani’s affordability agenda has covered housing, child care, and transit, though he’s been criticized for a public safety plan that won’t hire new officers. Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa have pledged to hire thousands of new officers and clean up the city’s streets.

The two candidates opposing Mamdani have fought to find the same appeal; however, neither has been able to create the same momentum on the issues that Mamdani has.

A recent poll showed Mamdani’s trademark issue, the cost of living, as the most important concern in the race, followed by crime and housing affordability.

Voters have questioned how Mamdani would exactly implement his agenda if elected, and how he’d deal with President Donald Trump, as he has shown a particular interest in the race and could take action if Mamdani wins.

Here are more details on issues voters are concerned about in New York City’s mayoral election.

Socialism

The 34-year-old Democratic socialist has made waves since he launched his campaign late last year. His promises of free and fast buses, no-cost child care, and freezing the rent captivated voters enough for him to upset former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary.

While Mamdani is a progressive Democrat, he’s also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. If he were to win New York City’s mayoral race, he’d be one of the most influential socialists in the country.

There’s a debate about whether there’s a difference between democratic socialism and socialism. Mamdani often makes the distinction that he’s a Democratic socialist, appearing to be distinct from countries like socialist and communist countries in Cuba and North Korea.

Some are fearful of socialism, democratic or not, taking the reins of the United States’s largest city.

Brooklyn Republican New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union, has called Mamdani a “communist” and warned he’ll bring a resurgence of socialism and antisemitism.

“They escaped communism and socialism. A lot of people here are Jewish immigrants. They escaped antisemitism,” she said. “We came to America for the American dream, for capitalism, for the free market economy, for opportunities for our children.

“And what we’re seeing now is everything that we escaped, communism, socialism, antisemitism is coming back into New York City,” she added.

Mamdani has refused the “communist” label, which President Donald Trump has also used for him, and said Trump calls him that because he knows voters are connecting with his brand of Democratic socialism.

“I think it reflects the fact that … whereas that identity would have been enough for Donald Trump in the past, now he doesn’t even want to use that because he knows that the message of my politics is one that is connecting with New Yorkers across the five boroughs. It’s a message of dignity in each and every person’s life,” Mamdani said in September.

It’s unclear how else Mamdani’s socialist roots will manifest if he makes it to City Hall. The DSA’s platform list states that Medicare, housing, and college should be free for all people and that several police reforms should be enacted, including the elimination of cash bail. The organization often touts Mamdani and believes it can take on the ruling class.

“The Democratic Socialists of America believes that we as working people can beat the ruling class and forge a better world,” the group’s platform says.

Rent

New York City has long been one of the most expensive places to rent housing in the nation. The city accounted for 39 of the 100 ZIP codes with the most expensive median rent across the United States.

The average rent price in New York City is about $3,600, according to Zillow. That’s $1,100 higher than the average in Washington, D.C., of $2,500.

One of Mamdani’s hallmark campaign pledges has been to freeze the rent of rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. Those apartments saw a 3% rent increase this year, following a recommendation by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which oversees the rent of rent-stabilized units.

While a mayor cannot control the rent themselves, they can appoint members to the Rent Guidelines Board that will implement their agenda.

Cuomo has said Mamdani’s “freeze the rent” pledge is misleading because it only accounts for rent-stabilized units. “‘Freeze the rent’ is a fraud on the public,” he said earlier this month.

Mamdani and Cuomo have both pledged to build affordable housing in New York City in the hope that they can bring rent prices across the board down. Sliwa believes affordable housing isn’t an adequate solution, and wants to convert commercial space into rental housing while supporting small landlords and property owners.

The rent issue in the city is part of the greater cost-of-living crisis there. Food, healthcare, and utilities are more expensive than in most cities.

All three candidates have acknowledged that the cost of living is a top issue and have campaigned heavily on it. Mamdani, the polling leader, has done the most extensive campaign work on the affordability of the three.

Even in his campaign launch video last year, Mamdani repeatedly cited affordability as a top problem.

“The cost of living is the real crisis,” he said then.

Crime

New York City’s crime rate has been variable over the years, with a downward trend as of late. New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch recently announced the city hit record lows in shooting incidents and victims in 2025.

However, voters remain concerned about the city’s safety, particularly as the police force grapples with a staffing crisis, having lost several thousand officers from its peak of 40,000 in 2000.

Mamdani hasn’t addressed the problem as much as Cuomo and Sliwa, and it could be a weak point for him. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gained extensive popularity and renown in the city due to his efforts to combat crime in the mid-to-late 1990s.

The two opposition candidates to Mamdani have tried to capitalize on voter concerns about crime by promising to hire more officers. Cuomo has pledged 5,000 new officers, while Sliwa wants 7,000.

Mamdani wants to maintain the current NYPD force levels and create a “Department of Community Safety.”

The campaign states that the new department will alleviate pressure on the NYPD by redirecting its focus away from “failures of our social safety net.” The department would send mental health workers to the scenes of certain emergencies and “gun violence interrupters” to areas where violence is escalating.

There’s been ample skepticism about whether his new department will be able to solve the city’s crime problem.

There are concerns that the outreach workers may not be equipped to handle a dangerous situation. “If someone is inside a house and there are knives or weapons around, even though he may be nonviolent, the police may need to respond,” Rodney Harrison, a former NYPD chief, told the New York Times.

Subway safety is also a top concern. A woman was set on fire on a city subway in December 2024, sparking uproar over the perceived danger of the city’s subways.

Mamdani’s DCS would deploy dedicated outreach workers to 100 subway stations, whereas Cuomo and Sliwa aim to increase the presence of law enforcement officers in the transit system.

All three candidates also want to expand outreach to the city’s large homeless population, many of whom reside in the subway system.

Trump

Trump has taken a particular interest in New York City’s mayoral race during his second term in office, likely because he was born in the city. He has largely refused to back anyone in the race until very recently, noting he’d rather vote for the “bad Democrat” in Cuomo than the “communist” Mamdani.

The president isn’t a fan of Sliwa, even though he is a Republican, once calling the crime prevention leader “not exactly prime time.”

There has been discussion during the general election about who will be best to deal with the president, who has signaled that he will deploy the National Guard to fight crime in New York City at some point.

Cuomo insists that he’s the best candidate to battle Trump because he fought with him as New York’s governor.  “I would say to the president — the first conversation, look, we have had many, many battles … and the battles were bloody, and I’d like to avoid them. … I will fight you every step of the way if you try to hurt New York,” Cuomo said during the first mayoral debate.

The former governor has said Trump would knock Mamdanu on his “tuchus.” Mamdani has taken pleasure in associating the former governor with Trump, even congratulating him on Trump’s recent endorsement.

“Congratulations, @AndrewCuomo. I know how hard you worked for this,” he wrote on X.

MAMDANI LEADS THE NYC MAYORAL PACK AHEAD OF OTHER KEY PLAYERS CUOMO AND SLIWA

Sliwa has said he’s willing to be tough on Trump, but not if it costs the city valuable federal funds.

Mamdani said he would resist any deployment of the National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or any other federal intervention. He has noted he would speak to Trump only about lowering the cost of living in the city.