The New Yorker:

Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani are leading the Democratic field. Even they seem nervous.

By Eric Lach

This year’s mayoral race has so far been a strange, frustrating exercise. The Democratic primary, usually definitive, is looking like a two-man race between candidates who are not guaranteed to win in November: Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, and Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has served four years in the State Assembly. One is only a few years removed from resigning amid an enormous sexual-harassment and abuse-of-power scandal. The other is a decade removed from college. The political trajectory of the city is genuinely up for grabs. And no one’s feeling too confident about it.

On Thursday evening—two days before the start of early voting—Cuomo, Mamdani, and five of the nine remaining candidates in the primary faced off in a televised debate at the campus of John Jay College, near Columbus Circle. For two hours, just a few blocks from the gleaming towers of Billionaires’ Row, the field discussed the city’s housing and affordability crisis, policing and its effect on crime, New York’s relationship with Donald Trump, Israel and Palestine, e-bikes, and myriad other issues. The candidates, by and large, are serious people, with serious things to say about the city’s overlapping crises, though no one onstage could ignore the modern political demand for clip-ready zingers. “Truth be told, experience matters, and Andrew Cuomo has experience,” the former comptroller Scott Stringer said, delivering the truest-sounding canned line of the night. “But vision matters, and Mamdani . . . you have the vision, and you have articulated that during the campaign.” Stringer turned from his competitors to face the audience, and added, “The problem is, we need someone who can do both.”

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