Giovanni Lanzo is “still tossed up” about the mayor’s race – that’s Brooklyn for undecided. But he understands the stakes.

As early voting nears its end in the race for New York City mayor, new polling shows encouraging signs for Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. At least one poll, though, suggests “room for movement” as the three major candidates fight to replace incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.

The city Board of Elections said in 2025, 735,317 people had checked in at poll sites early to vote for a new mayor.

Jewish voters have long reliably supported Democrats, and Mamdani won the Democratic primary, but concerns about rising antisemitism and Mamdani’s sharp criticisms of Israel have opened up a generational split.

As the only gubernatorial races held in the year following a presidential election, the contests have long served as the first major test of voter sentiment toward the party holding the White House. In every race for governor since 1973, one or both states have elected a governor from a party different than that of the sitting president.

New York City is in the midst of a cost of living crunch. As a result, the race to become its next mayor this week has been dominated by how to make the city more affordable. We hear about radical plans and ask whether they add up,

New York City has often set the political, cultural and financial course of the country. Tuesday’s mayoral election — and a New Yorker watching from Washington — could scramble it all.