New York City mayor race: What to watch in the primary

New York City heads to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the city’s mayoral primaries, dominated by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s comeback tour and progressive state legislator Zohran Mamdani’s late rise in the Democratic contest.

New York City heads to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the city’s mayoral primaries, dominated by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s comeback tour and progressive state legislator Zohran Mamdani’s late rise in the Democratic contest.

But Election Day is likely to be short on answers for voters who want to know who could lead their city next year or what the high-profile race means for the battle over the future of the Democratic Party.

That’s because of a pair of complicating factors in this primary: the city’s use of ranked choice voting (a more complicated style of voting that often takes longer to determine a winner) and the possibility that the Democratic runner-up will run in the general election on a different party’s ballot line.

The only sure things for city voters are that their scandal-ridden mayor, Eric Adams, is running in the fall as an independent, that long-shot candidate Curtis Sliwa will be the Republican nominee (as he’s running unopposed) and that it’s unlikely that any Democratic candidate will win a clear majority Tuesday, triggering the ranked-choice process, which could take more than a week to decide a winner.

Polls close at 9 p.m. ET. Here are three things to watch in the Democratic primary.