On Oct. 16, 2025, Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa faced off in the first general election debate for New York City mayor at NBC's 30 Rockefeller Center studios.

Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic nominee and frontrunner leading polls at 45 percent, defended his progressive agenda while Cuomo and Sliwa attacked his experience and past 2020 social media posts calling police "racist" and "wicked."

The debate focused heavily on how each candidate would handle President Trump, with all 3 raising their hands when asked if they could protect asylum seekers from ICE deportations. Cuomo defended his controversial nursing home policies during COVID-19 while promising to hire 5,000 new NYPD officers.