The New York City divide shaping its contentious mayoral race

New York’s mayoral contest has fully surfaced a tension bubbling in city politics for years: the divide between lifelong New Yorkers and young professionals who have recently moved in

New York’s mayoral contest has fully surfaced a tension bubbling in city politics for years: the divide between lifelong New Yorkers and young professionals who have recently moved in.

In his 7-point Democratic primary win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani cleaned up with younger voters who live in some of New York’s most gentrified neighborhoods — including Bushwick, Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Cuomo, meanwhile, edged out Mamdani in majority-Black, outer-borough neighborhoods that have experienced less gentrification, as well as other places like the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, also home to many longtime New Yorkers.

That divide is playing out in the general election, too, where Cuomo is running as a third-party candidate. A CBS News survey last month found that Mamdani held a 51-point edge over Cuomo among voters who have moved to New York within the last 10 years. Among voters who have lived in New York for more than 10 years, Mamdani’s advantage over Cuomo dropped to 19 points.

And among born and raised New Yorkers, Mamdani held a smaller, 7-point advantage over Cuomo. Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, two fixtures of New York politics for decades, combined to win 49% of this demographic.

Surveys show Mamdani with double-digit leads, enjoying a glide path to election next month, even after Mayor Eric Adams dropped his own third-party campaign. Still, the split has set the terms of debate for this fall’s contest — and highlighted what could become a strain on a potential Mamdani mayoralty.