Democratic socialist Mamdani wins NYC mayoral race, youngest in history

Highlights:

• Democratic socialist defeats Cuomo on progressive platform
• 34-year-old is first Muslim mayor of largest US city
• Spanberger becomes first female governor of Virginia
• Sherrill projected to win in New Jersey

Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday, 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 emphasized 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.

Voter turnout high

In California, voters were deciding whether to give Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw the state's congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that could determine which party controls the US House of Representatives after next year's midterm elections. Trump on social media called the vote a scam, suggesting the vote was rigged without providing evidence.

Turnout appeared high across the board.

In New York City, more than 2 million ballots including early voting were cast, according to the board of elections, the most in a mayoral race since 1969. Early vote totals in Virginia and New Jersey also outpaced the previous elections in 2021.

In New York, Mamdani has proposed ambitious left-wing policies, including freezing rents for nearly a million apartments and making the city's buses free.

While Tuesday's results will offer some insight into the mood of American voters, the midterm elections are a year away, an eternity in politics.

"There's nothing that's going to happen in Virginia or New Jersey that's going to tell us much about what will happen in a congressional district in Missouri or a Senate race in Maine," said Douglas Heye, a Republican strategist.

For Republicans, Tuesday's elections were a test of whether the voters who powered Trump's victory in 2024 will still show up when he is not on the ballot.

But Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears, each running in Democratic-leaning states, faced a conundrum: criticizing Trump risked losing his supporters, but embracing him too closely could have alienated moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.

Trump remains unpopular: 57% of Americans disapprove of his job performance, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. But Democrats are not gaining support as a result, with respondents evenly split on whether they would favor Democrats or Republicans in 2026.

From housing counselor to political organizer

Before entering citywide politics, Zohran Mamdani built his career around housing advocacy and community organizing. A democratic socialist, he first gained prominence as a state assemblyman representing parts of Queens, where he served three terms. His political identity took shape through local activism, including a 15-day hunger strike in 2021 with New York City cab drivers seeking debt relief, a cause that cemented his ties with South Asian immigrant workers.

Mamdani was born in Uganda and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to New York City at the age of seven. The 34-year-old is the son of Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani and Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, known for films such as Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala.

Educated at the Bronx High School of Science and Bowdoin College, Mamdani worked as a housing counselor before seeking elected office. He also pursued a brief music career under the name "Mr. Cardamom," releasing songs inspired by South Asian life in New York. His opponents highlighted this during campaigns, but aides said the experience gave him "bravery in the face of embarrassment," which proved valuable in politics.

Mamdani's campaign style drew on grassroots mobilization and multilingual outreach, connecting with communities in Urdu, Bangla, Spanish and Arabic. His policy priorities centered on making New York more affordable through rent freezes, free public buses and universal childcare funded by higher taxes on the wealthy.

He is married to artist Rama Duwaji, 28, who was born in Texas to Syrian parents and moved to New York to complete a master's degree in illustration.