WASHINGTON: Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday (Nov 4), capping a meteoric rise from a little-known state lawmaker to one of the country’s most visible Democratic figures.
Mamdani will become the first Muslim mayor of the largest US city. He defeated Democratic former Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mamdani in the primary election. The campaign served as an ideological and generational contest that could have national implications for the Democratic Party.
In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger easily won the election for governor, becoming the first woman elected to serve in that role. And in New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governor’s race.
The trio of races offered the beleaguered Democratic Party a test of differing campaign playbooks a year ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. Since President Donald Trump’s win last year, Democrats have found themselves locked out of power in Washington and struggling to find the best path out of the political wilderness.
All three candidates emphasised economic issues, particularly affordability. But both Spanberger and Sherrill hail from the party’s moderate wing, while Mamdani campaigned as an unabashed progressive and a new generational voice.
Spanberger, who beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, will take over for outgoing Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Both Sherrill and Spanberger had sought to tie their opponents to Trump in an effort to harness frustration among Democratic and independent voters over his chaotic nine months in office.
“We sent a message to the world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” Spanberger said in her victory speech. “We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”
Trump gave both candidates some late-stage grist during the ongoing government shutdown.
His administration threatened to fire federal workers — a move with an outsized impact on Virginia, a state adjacent to Washington and home to many government employees. He also froze billions in funding for a new Hudson River train tunnel, a critical project for New Jersey’s large commuter population.
In interviews at Virginia polling stations on Tuesday, some voters said Trump’s most contentious policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the US illegally and to impose costly tariffs on imports of foreign goods, the legality of which is being weighed by the US Supreme Court this week.
Juan Benitez, a self-described independent, was voting for the first time. The 25-year-old restaurant manager backed all of Virginia’s Democratic candidates because of his opposition to Trump’s immigration policies and the federal government shutdown, for which he blamed Trump.
