
With the New York City mayoral race around the corner, the three leading candidates, Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, took the stage at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan on Thursday for an intense face-off.
Early voting in the race is set to begin next week, and the most recent polling suggests that Democratic socialist Mamdani has widened his lead to 46%, while Cuomo, who is running as an independent, stands at 33%.
The 33-year-old's primary win in June caused havoc across the US, as it marked a high-profile victory for progressive Democrats when the party was searching for a new direction following defeat in the 2024 general election.
Moreover, the candidates had a number of topics to debate, including President Donald Trump, Israel's war on Gaza, affordability and Mamdani's lack of experience.
During the heated debate, which mainly consisted of Mamdani and Cuomo sending jabs at each other, the young Democrat also criticised the former New York governor for not visiting enough mosques during his time in office.
"It took Andrew Cuomo being beaten by a Muslim candidate in the Democratic primary for him to set foot in a mosque," said Mamdani during a live debate against Cuomo.
The NY state rep added, "He had more than ten years and he couldn't name a single mosque at the last debate we had that he visited."
Mamdani continued, "What Muslims want in this city is what every community wants and deserves. They want equality and they want respect, and it took me to get you to even see those Muslims as part of this city, and that frankly is something that is shameful and is why so many New Yorkers have lost faith in this politics."
Notably, the election will take place on November 4.