National spotlight shines on NYC mayoral race as voters make final decisions
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(NEW YORK) — Eyes are on New York City as Election Day arrives, marking the final opportunity for voters to weigh in on the high-stakes mayoral race.
While New Yorkers are focused on solving key issues of affordability and public safety, the implications of this race could stretch beyond the Big Apple.
Along with gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, this local off-year election has garnered national attention and is considered representative of political headwinds ahead of the 2026 midterms. Particularly in New York City, one of the most high-profile races to watch on Election Day, candidates are zeroed in on navigating the impacts of President Donald Trump’s second term.
State assemblyman and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has remained the front-runner since his upset victory in the June primary. The 34-year-old democratic socialist is running on a progressive economic platform with a remarkable social media charm, though he has faced questions from mayoral opponents and others on the feasibility and effectiveness of his policies, in addition to backlash for comments about Israel and his stance toward police.
Though Mamdani has scored endorsements of notable Democratic leaders, his candidacy has shed light on how the Democratic Party has struggled to balance its progressive and moderate sides.
If elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. His identity has been a topic of scrutiny throughout the course of the campaign, with Mamdani accusing Independent candidate former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as Vice President JD Vance, of engaging in Islamophobic attacks.
Trump has called Mamdani a “communist lunatic” and threatened to withhold federal funding to New York City if he wins. Though, his dislike for Cuomo has been evident, the president declared his preference for Cuomo over the other candidates in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night.
The president endorsed Cuomo on Monday in a social media post. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.
Cuomo, 67, has attempted a political comeback following his 2021 resignation from New York’s governorship amid sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct allegations — allegations he has denied and charges dropped. Cuomo has also faced backlash for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during his tenure as governor.
After losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June, he attempted his return once more — this time as an Independent candidate. Backed by multiple billionaire donors, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Cuomo touts his experience and ability to work with Trump as cornerstones of his campaign.
While Mamdani has consistently held a healthy lead over Cuomo, a Quinnipiac poll published Wednesday shows polls beginning to tighten between the two.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, 71, who ran an unsuccessful campaign against current Mayor Eric Adams in 2021, is keen on improving public safety — a goal that has been top-of-mind ever since he founded The Guardian Angels in the 1970s, a nonprofit crime prevention organization.
In addition to garnering criticism from Trump and consistently facing low polling numbers, Sliwa has faced numerous calls to exit the race — which he has refused to do.
Adams, who suspended his re-election campaign in September, remains on the ballot as an Independent due to his late withdrawal. Despite previous harsh words, he endorsed Cuomo last month and campaigned alongside him.
New York City has already seen a massive increase in early voting, with five times as many people voting early in 2025 compared to the 2021 mayoral race, according to the New York City Board of Elections.
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Sunday that the United States is in “one of the most dangerous moments America has ever faced” with President Donald Trump using the federal government to try to punish his political opponents.
“The United States is now employing the full power of the federal government, the FCC, the Department of Justice, in order to punish, lock up, take down off the air all of his political enemies,” Murphy told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “As you know, this is what happens in Iran. This is what happens in Cuba. This is what happens in China, in deeply repressive states in which if you have the courage to stand up and speak truth to power, you are silenced. I mean, there is no more fundamental right in America than the right to protest your government.”
Murphy said Trump’s threats to have the Federal Communications Commission reexamine licenses for television broadcasters that repeatedly criticize him is an effort to use the government to silence critics.
“Listen, every single president, every single politician has drawn issue with something that a media figure has said and may use the power of persuasion to try to get them to change what they say. That’s very different than using the power of government in a coercive way that’s actually illegal. The Supreme Court has said, no, you cannot use the regulatory power of the government to say to a broadcaster, if you don’t say what I want you to say, as the president, United States, there will be a official legal consequence that’s illegal”
Bill Nye speaks onstage during Global Citizen NOW at Spring Studios on April 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Global Citizen)
(WASHINGTON) — One of the most well-known names in science, Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” is pushing back on the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget cuts.
NYE, the CEO of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit founded by Carl Sagan in 1980, joined colleagues, space advocates and legislators on Capitol Hill Monday to make a case for keeping NASA’s funding intact and the benefits of space exploration.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA’s budget by approximately 24% for the 2026 fiscal year. The agency’s total budget would decrease from around $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. Around $6 billion of the cuts would impact the agency’s planetary science, Earth science and astrophysics research funding, which all form part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“We’re not talking about delays in scientific exploration, we’re talking about the end of it,” Nye said at a press conference Monday on the steps of Capitol Hill. “While we’re checking out, our competitors are checking in,” he added.
Under the proposed budget, NASA’s science research funding would be among the hardest hit by the cuts, with a 47% cut. In a statement, The Planetary Society called this cut an “extinction-level event for space exploration.”
ABC News has reached out to multiple NASA centers for comment, but the agency is currently being affected by the government shutdown.
“Cutting NASA science in half would end several missions that are spacecraft that are already flying and several missions that are scheduled to fly,” Nye told Diane Macedo on ABC News Live on Monday. “And why this matters is if you cut it in half, cut the science budget in half, you’ll probably turn the whole thing off.”
Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, says his organization has a simple goal: protecting existing programs.
“So, this is no new money, it’s no changes in policy, it’s just to continue these projects that we’ve already invested in, already paid for and are currently returning in fantastic science,” Dreier said.
At Monday’s press conference, Dreier explained that at this point, “Both House and Senate [are] a near-full rejection of the proposed cuts to NASA science and broadly around other areas of NASA as well.”
The Science Mission Directorate is responsible for sending satellites into space like the James Webb Space Telescope, the Perseverance Rover (the spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2021) and the Landsat 9 satellite, which work to collect vital data and “achieve scientific understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe.”
The White House’s proposal referred to several missions as “unaffordable.” More than 40 projects have already been flagged for defunding, including the Mars Sample Return, Mars orbiter MAVEN and the Juno mission.
“The Budget proposes termination of multiple unaffordable missions and reduces lower priority research, resulting in a leaner Science program that reflects a commitment to fiscal responsibility,” the proposal stated.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump administration for a comment, but did not immediately hear back.
“The Budget eliminates climate-focused ‘green aviation’ spending while protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications, producing savings,” NASA headquarters said in a statement.
Nye and Drier say they are speaking out to explain the dangers of cutting funding for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the National Science Foundation. Nye suggested that those cuts could ultimately have a direct impact on the United States’ position in the global race back to the moon’s surface.
“The China National Space Administration is going fast, doing a lot of extraordinary missions very similar, almost mission for mission, to what the United States is doing and I’m telling you there’s going to be a Sputnik moment when Taikonauts, China National Space Administration space travelers, are on the moon in the next five years,” Nye said.
U.S. Representative Glenn Ivey, D-Md., echoed those thoughts during the Capitol press conference.
“We’re falling behind with respect to China,” Rep. Ivey said. “They’re pushing money and engineers and scientists towards advancing science in China, competing against us, while we’re doing the exact opposite. The White House almost wants to zero out NASA science.”
More than 300 advocates joined the call to action on Capitol Hill Monday, along with 20 education, science and space partner organizations. Some of the groups represented at the press conference at the U.S. Capitol included the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“Finish the job. So, both the Senate and House have bills that reject these cuts, pushing back against these cuts, but we want them to sign it into law,” Nye said.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks with ABC News correspondent Devin Dwyer about a state ban on conversion therapy for minors. ABC News
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Conversion therapy, or the attempt to change a patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a form of treatment, has been widely discredited by major American mental health and medical organizations for decades. Half the states have outlawed the practice as ineffective and harmful to minors, often on a bipartisan basis.
On Tuesday, a licensed therapist who offers “faith-informed” counseling services in Colorado will directly confront that consensus at the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to strike down the laws as infringements on free speech.
“I want to be able to speak genuinely, openly, have full conversations with my clients,” said Kaley Chiles, the plaintiff in the high court case, in an interview with ABC News, “without the state kind of peering into my office in these completely private conversations.”
“If someone comes into the office and they say, I am a biological male and I have been living and presenting as a female for a while now – those are the clients who I cannot have a full conversation with,” Chiles said.
The case pits the First Amendment against a state’s regulation of medical practices to comply with an established standard of care. It also implicates the rights of parents in search of help for children struggling during puberty and the mental health of LGBTQ young people in search of greater societal acceptance.
The Colorado Minor Conversion Therapy Law, enacted in 2019, says therapists licensed by the state are not allowed to try to “change behaviors or gender expressions” or try to “eliminate or reduce” same-sex attraction. Violators face up to a $5000 fine and potential loss of license.
The law does not apply to religious groups or faith-based ministries aimed at changing a person.
Therapists are allowed to provide “acceptance, support, and understanding” around areas of sexuality and gender identity as a child develops.
“Making you feel bad about who you are, or pressuring you to be someone else, that’s not legitimate therapy,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told ABC. “The medical consensus is clear. That’s why it’s banned here in Colorado on a bipartisan basis.”
“This law allows children to be their best authentic selves, whatever it is. It doesn’t put a thumb on the scale either way,” Weiser said.
One in four American high schoolers identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, according to a first-of-its-kind 2023 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three percent of teens identify as transgender and another 2 percent report questioning their gender, the survey found.
“What happens is that people do develop, their sexuality emerges, their gender emerges. Those changes happen naturally, but it’s not because some therapist has affected that change,” said Dr. Clinton Anderson, a trained psychologist who spent more than 30 years studying mental health care for LGBTQ people at the American Psychological Association (APA).
“If you are trying to make them change, and they’re not going to be successful,” Anderson added, “then the distress they bring into the therapy gets compounded by their concern about being a failure, particularly in these religious contexts.”
Attorneys for Chiles dispute the consensus scientific conclusions about the ineffectiveness of using talk therapy for a goal of conversion and any harm that may come from it.
Chiles won’t say directly whether she wants to practice conversion therapy or whether she has successfully used the treatment in the past to help a client eliminate unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction or reach better alignment with sex assigned at birth.
She said the law has a chilling effect that prevents her from even approaching the topics.
“The statute is broad, overarching language and it prevents me from doing what I want to do with clients,” she said. “Minors who are coming to me voluntarily of their own free will, who might have values different from the state and who have goals that the state has forbidden – they can’t come and have the same conversation with me that they could before this law.”
Erin Lee, a mother of three in Wellington, Colorado, says her daughter Chloe was unable to find a counselor willing to help her resolve a struggle over gender identity during puberty because of Colorado’s law.
“She had already made up this, ‘I’m gonna go by Toby now’ and ‘I’m ready to cut my hair’ and ‘I don’t wanna wear girls’ clothes anymore’,” Erin said of her then 12-year-old daughter in an interview at the family home.
“We knew she was not a boy who was trapped in the wrong body,” she said. “We thought, we have to talk to a professional so we know what to say, because if in fact she’s just experiencing normal distress over her sex, we don’t wanna push her further into this trans identity.”
Lee claims a counselor who worked briefly with Chloe “was dodging the issue entirely” because of the law, which in turn pushed Chloe deeper into depression and contemplation of suicide.
“The law as I very clearly – it’s very clearly written and, as I interpret it, it prevents counselors from being able to help kids through their gender confusion. They can only help them into it,” Erin said. She founded a grassroots advocacy group, Protect Kids Colorado, to oppose the restrictions on therapists.
Chloe, now 16, said she has become more comfortable as a cisgender girl despite what her parents have lamented was a lack of resources to help her. “I felt a lot of shame and despair that seemed absolutely inexplicable,” she recently told a gathering of parent advocates. “I’m not a boy, and I was just really really confused.”
An estimated 700,000 LGBT adults in the US have received conversion therapy –half were subjected to the practice as adolescents, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
“The trauma of conversion therapy can last a lifetime,” said Matthew Shurka, 37, a self-described “survivor” of four conversion therapists over five years.
After sharing feelings of sexual attraction to other boys with his parents when he was 16, Shurka’s father sought out help from licensed therapists. Some said they could cure Matthew.
“They said that I was an easy case, that I should start to see my heterosexuality come back within six weeks,” he told ABC News in an interview. “My father made this situation life or death, and he really felt that he was saving my life.”
One therapist told Shurka that a key part of treatment would be no contact with female family members — his two sisters and his mother — which lasted 3 years. He was also coached as a teenager to use Viagra to help intimacy with women.
“Maybe I was able to perform on that specific evening, but the harm that I was doing to my mental self was starting – at times, it felt irreversible,” Shurka said. “That is when I knew that suicide may be an option for me, because I knew I wasn’t changing.”
In 2018, Shurka testified in Colorado about his experience, urging lawmakers to adopt the conversion therapy ban, which they later did.
“Any therapist can share their opinion on anything. That is their freedom of speech,” he said. “But when it comes to a course of treatment, that’s professional speech. I was given a treatment to cure my homosexuality that had no basis in any scientific finding.”
The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Colorado’s law as a legitimate regulation of “professional conduct,” which incidentally restricted speech but was not viewpoint discrimination.
The Supreme Court will decide whether to affirm that conclusion and, in the process, wade into an impassioned national debate over how to best help developing teens.
“We know that young kids right now are hurting,” said Attorney General Weiser. “One of the ways we protect young people is we let them have autonomy about who they are.”
A decision in the case — Chiles v Salazar — is expected in spring 2026.
