From Queens to White House: Why today's New York vote could rewrite American politics

New York City — New Yorkers have been heading to the polls since dawn, turning school halls and churches across Queens into small theatres of political drama.

The city’s mayoral race has become more than a local contest. It is a measure of whether Donald Trump’s Republicans still carry weight and whether Democrats can still claim the nation’s biggest city with confidence.

In Astoria, Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, arrive at their polling place early. Volunteers whisper directions, cameras click.

After voting, Mamdani looks up briefly and, to a TRT World question, says, “I have just voted for the best candidate.” It draws a few smiles from other reporters.

For weeks, polls have shown Mamdani leading independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. But it is New York, where margins slip and moods turn quickly.

Mamdani’s campaign has been sharper than most expected, built around a simple triad of promises: free childcare, free buses, and a rent freeze.

It unsettled the old Democratic establishment, which still struggles to understand how a 33-year-old Muslim candidate from Queens has taken command of the city’s political story.

"I voted for Zohran"

Outside a polling station near Vernon Boulevard, Nina Rossi, a nurse, folds her coat against the morning chill. "I voted for Zohran," she told TRT World. "He’s the first one who sounds like he actually lives here."

Across from her, Peter Mihailidis, 58, who runs a small hardware shop in Astoria, disagrees. "I went with Cuomo," he says.

"He’s done the job before. I respect energy and ideals, but New York needs someone who knows where the wires are buried."

At a school in Long Island City, the queues move slowly. Campaign volunteers stand near the gates, shivering, holding damp flyers.

A student from LaGuardia Community College, Iman Saleh, says she voted for Mamdani. "He’s not scared of saying rent control out loud," she says. "Everyone else dodges the word."

Shaping national argument

The election has opened an argument that reaches beyond borough lines. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries waited until the day before early voting to endorse Mamdani. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said nothing.

However, the city's left flank has been loud. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives have rallied for him, describing his campaign as proof that urban politics can still belong to renters, workers, and immigrants.

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, has framed the race around safety and discipline. Cuomo, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, has painted himself as the adult in the room, eager to show control.

Power in New York flows in layers. The mayor sits at City Hall, the governor above in Albany, and above both stands President Donald Trump, still shaping the national argument from Washington.

What happens here in New York City, the restless heart of American capitalism, rarely stays local. The city’s choices often become the country’s talking points.

Trump again weighed in on the off-cycle New York elections this morning, targeting Mamdani. The US President posted on social media, calling "any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER."

Big Apple awaits

Yet the City, as history reminds, tends to have a mind of its own. By noon, the rhythm of election day has settled in. The rumble of trains beneath Queens Plaza, the chatter of volunteers handing out coffee, the short patience of commuters delayed by crowds.

On lampposts, posters of Mamdani’s smiling face flap against the wind.

Earlier, Mamdani said he voted yes on housing proposals that would shift development authority towards the mayor’s office and no on synchronising local elections with presidential years.

Asked by reporters why he waited until now to share his view, he pauses. "I wanted time to think," he says, "because what we decide here will outlive us."

Near Queensbridge, Maria Santiago, a childcare worker, walks out of her polling place with her daughter. "I just voted for him," she says, pointing to a Mamdani sticker. "If he wins, maybe the buses will finally be free."

It is cold in New York City, but its iconic streets glisten. Conversations shift between housing and weather, and back again.

For now, the Big Apple waits. It is still early, the day still stretching, the outcome far from decided. But the queues are long, and the air feels charged.

"Whatever happens," says Nina Rossi, an accountant from Astoria, "this city’s awake now, and it’s not going back to sleep."