Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast.

I'm Galen Druke.

The year after a presidential election is generally the sleepiest time in election

land.

No midterms, no national election, and no invisible presidential primary.

But it's during this relatively sleepy period that one of the most interesting political

contests in the country is playing out.

The race for mayor of New York City.

Now before you write this off as my own hometown bias, hear me out.

New York City has a larger population than all but a dozen states.

If the region were a country, only a dozen countries would have a larger GDP.

What happens in New York City also matters electorally.

The race is where some of the strongest disagreements within the Democratic Party will

get decided by some of the party's most devoted voters.

75% or more of New Yorkers vote for Democrats in national elections, and its diverse population

embodies many of the demographic groups that make up the Democratic Party.

But that doesn't mean it's overwhelmingly progressive.

Just ask Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.

New York was hit early and hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the future of work, education,

and public health, are some of the fault lines, like in many places around the country,

in this race.

After years of historically low unemployment, the unemployment rate in the city now sits

...