Mamdani Leads Democratic Wins

BY ANVEE BHUTANI AND ALYSSA LUKPAT

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race Tuesday on a big night for his party, cementing the democratic socialist’s meteoric rise in the epicenter of global capitalism and making him the first Muslim to lead the U.S.’s most populous city.

Mamdani defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. With an estimated 90% of the vote counted, Mamdani had 50% to Cuomo’s 42% and Sliwa’s 7%.

Democrats rolled to victory in two other races Tuesday, capturing the governor’s mansions in New Jersey and Virginia, in the first major electoral test of President Trump’s second term.

In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger was elected the state’s first female governor. And in

New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill won to retain the Democrats’ stronghold on the state.

In California, voters approved the Proposition 50 ballot initiative, a congressional redistricting measure that would put Democrats in position to potentially flip five House seats.

“Populist Dems won. Moderate Dems won. We won in blue states. We won in purple states,” wrote Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) on X.

Once a little-known state assemblyman from Queens, the 34-year-old Mamdani skyrocketed to fame this spring, eventually scoring a decisive primary victory against Cuomo. He maintained a commanding lead in general election polls all summer, even after Cuomo re-entered the race as an independent.

“This city belongs to you,” Mamdani told cheering supporters in Brooklyn.

Mamdani led an affordability- focused campaign that promised free buses, free child care up to age 5, and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments. He was omnipresent on social media, diving into a frigid Atlantic Ocean to promote his rent freeze and explaining the city’s ranked-choice voting system via cups of mango lassi. His platform and social media fluency captivated the city’s younger voters, many of whom volunteered to canvas the five boroughs on his behalf.

Nevertheless, many opponents remain. Skeptics said his core campaign promises are doomed to fail without support from the state government in Albany. He has faced condemnation from members of the city’s Jewish community over his position on the Israel-Hamas war. He also earned the wrath of Trump, who has said Mamdani will “ have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City.”

The son of an academic and a film director, Mamdani was born in Uganda, and moved to New York’s Upper West Side at age 7 when his father joined the faculty at Columbia University. He is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, who were initially reluctant to take a chance on him as a mayoral candidate but ultimately backed his campaign, which he launched in October 2024.

Around two million New Yorkers cast ballots in the election, the highest number since 1969, according to the city Board of Elections. The turnout is nearly double the 1.1 million who voted in the 2021 mayoral election, when Democratic nominee Eric Adams won. Adams dropped out of his race for re-election in September.

The cost of living was the top issue for over half of New York City voters, according to exit polling conducted by SSRS, with 63% of those voters backing Mamdani. Most voters who cited crime or immigration as the city’s biggest concern supported Cuomo.

The victory in Virginia by Spanberger returns the state to Democratic leadership after four years under a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin. She had 57% of the vote with an estimated 95% of ballots counted in her race against Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee and current lieutenant governor.

A former member of the House, Spanberger built her campaign around economic anxiety and federal-workforce turmoil. She said she would directly challenge Trump, particularly regarding the layoffs of thousands of federal workers in the commonwealth. She has also vowed to strengthen Virginia’s public schools, make the state more affordable by reducing healthcare and child care costs, and improve public safety.

“We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” Spanberger told supporters. “We chose our commonwealth over chaos.”

In New Jersey, Sherrill led with 56% against Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli with an estimated 95% of the vote counted.

A former U.S. Navy heli--copter pilot and federal prosecutor, Sherrill campaigned on freezing energy prices, increasing housing supply and expanding tax credits. The 53-year-old moderate Democrat will succeed Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited. Her victory marks the first time since the 1960s that the same party won a third consecutive gubernatorial term in New Jersey.

Although Democrats typically dominate federal elections in New Jersey, the Garden State has occasionally elected Republican governors, most recently Chris Christie. President Trump lost New Jersey three times, though he made inroads among its nonwhite voters in 2024. Sherrill painted Trump-endorsed Ciattarelli as a far-right MAGA candidate on the campaign trail.

Sherrill was first elected to the House in 2018 to represent New Jersey’s suburban 11th district. The majority of her votes in Congress aligned with former President Joe Biden’s positions, but in July 2024, she was among the first House Democrats to call on Biden to suspend his re-election campaign.

The Virginia and New Jersey results suggest these typically blue states are getting bluer, and Democratic enthusiasm is rising. Trump lost both states just a year ago by single-digit margins. Spanberger was winning Tuesday by roughly 14 percentage points, and Sherrill by 12 points.

Turnout was heavy as Californians cast ballots on Proposition 50, the redistricting measure championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. The new maps will likely eliminate five GOP-held congressional seats, a direct response to Texas redrawing their maps in an effort to gain five Republican seats of their own.