New York City mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa tried to blunt Democrat Zohran Mamdani's momentum during a contentious first general election debate Thursday evening.

For Cuomo, now running as an independent, the stakes were high. The debate was one of his last chances to sway voters and convince them that going with Mamdani, who already defeated the once-powerful New York governor in the primary this summer, would be a mistake.

Meanwhile Sliwa, the colorful creator of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group, hoped to land a major upset in the deeply blue city. He received almost 30% of the vote when he last ran as the GOP candidate four years ago, and this time he hopes Mamdani and Cuomo split the Democratic vote while he secures Republicans and centrists to come out on top.

The race has catapulted Mamdani to national political stardom, with Republicans, including President Donald Trump, trying to turn him into the face of the Democratic Party by highlighting his most controversial past comments and positions and casting him as dangerous, a communist and an antisemite.

Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, suspended his reelection campaign late last month after being deeply wounded by a now-dismissed federal corruption case and his relationship with the Trump administration.

Mamdani came under attack straight out the gate in the debate as Cuomo highlighted the 33-year-old's relative lack of job experience.

Cuomo, stressing his own executive experience, said being mayor “is no job for on-the-job training.”

Mamdani hit back at Cuomo’s integrity and decision-making during the pandemic and repeatedly raised the sexual harassment investigation and legal bills related to his defense.

“What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. What you don’t have in integrity, you can never make up for in experience,” he charged.

A second and final debate is scheduled for next week.