• Democratic socialist defeats Cuomo on progressive platform.
• 34-year-old becomes first Muslim mayor of largest US city.
• Spanberger becomes first female governor of Virginia.

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: criticising 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 favour Democrats or Republicans in 2026.

The US government shutdown entered its 35th day on Tuesday, matching a record set during President Donald Trump’s first term, as lawmakers voiced optimism over progress behind the scenes to end the dispute.

The federal closure appears almost certain to become the longest in history, with no major breakthroughs expected before it goes into its sixth week at midnight — although there were fragile signs in Congress that an off-ramp is closer than ever.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set the buoyant mood music on Monday when he told reporters he felt “optimistic” that newly energised talks between warring Republicans and Democrats could end in a deal before next week.

The government has been grinding to a halt since Congress failed to approve funding past September 30, and pain has been mounting as programmes — including food aid relied on by millions of Americans — hang in limbo.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long. We didn’t believe, we couldn’t have imagined,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news conference arranged to mark the six-week milestone.

“It’s now tied for the longest shutdown in US history. And we didn’t think we’d have to come in here every single day — day after day after day — and repeat the obvious facts to the American people and to put on display every day what is happening here.”

Some 1.4 million federal workers — from air traffic controllers to park wardens — have been placed on enforced leave without pay or made to work for nothing, while vital welfare programs and even paychecks for active-duty troops are under threat.

Some lawmakers — including Thune and Johnson — are hoping a slew of elections taking place in New York, Virginia, New Jersey and California on Tuesday will provide the momentum they need to reopen the government.

But both sides remain dug in over the main sticking point — health care spending.

Democrats say they will only provide votes to end the funding lapse after a deal has been struck to extend expiring insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans.

But Republicans insist they will only address health care once Democrats have voted to switch the lights back on in Washington.

While both sides’ leadership have shown little appetite for compromise, there have been signs of life on the back benches, with a handful of moderate Democrats working to find an escape hatch.

A separate bipartisan group of four centrist House members unveiled a compromise framework Monday for lowering health insurance costs.

Democrats believe that millions of Americans seeing skyrocketing premiums as they enroll onto health insurance programs for next year will pressure Republicans into seeking compromise.

But Trump has held firm on refusing to negotiate, telling CBS News in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would “not be extorted.”

The president has sought to apply his own pressure to force Democrats to cave, by threatening mass layoffs of federal workers and using the shutdown to target progressive priorities.

Last week his administration threatened to cut off a vital aid program that helps 42 million Americans pay for groceries for the first time in its more than 60-year history, before the move was blocked by two courts.

But Trump nevertheless insisted Tuesday — in apparent defiance of the court orders — that the food aid would be disbursed only after the government shutdown ends.

Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that benefits from the SNAP program “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

Trump also revived his call for the elimination of the Senate filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation — so Republicans can pass government funding without the help of Democrats.

• New Yorkers on verge of saying goodbye to politics of past: Mamdani.
• Democratic nominee on about 44% in latest polls, ahead of others.
• “Will utilise every single tool to fight for people of New York.”

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday said New York City was “on the brink of making history” as he cast his vote in the city’s mayoral election, expressing confidence that his progressive campaign was poised to deliver a break from what he described as “the politics of the past.”

Speaking to reporters outside a high school polling station in Astoria, Queens, the 34-year-old democratic socialist appeared optimistic about his chances.

“We are on the brink of making history in our city, on the brink of saying goodbye to a politics of the past,” he said. “I believe that victory is a mandate in and of itself.”

Polls were opened at 6am (1100 GMT) and will close at 9pm, while early voting, which wrapped up Sunday, saw more than 735,000 people cast ballots according to election officials, the highest ever number.

Mamdani was at about 44% in latest polls, several points ahead of former state governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent.

The democratic nominee, aged just 34, is a self-described socialist who was virtually unknown before his upset victory to secure the Democratic nomination.

He has focused on reducing living costs for ordinary New Yorkers, building support through his informal personal style and social-media-friendly clips of him walking the streets chatting with voters.

Mamdani, a State Assembly member, is facing Cuomo, 67, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, 71, is trailing far behind in most opinion polls, which have consistently shown Mamdani with a comfortable lead.

However, the contest has taken on national political overtones in recent days. Unabashedly playing the race card, President Trump on Tuesday smeared Mamdani, who would be New York’s first Muslim mayor, as a “Jew hater.”

“Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self-professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” the Republican president posted on his social media platform.

Trump had also warned of blocking federal funds to the city if Mamdani became mayor.

Responding to Trump’s remarks, Mamdani said he would “not be intimidated.” “What we see in the language of Donald Trump is a premise as if it is his decision on whether or not to fund this city — the very money this city is owed,” he said.

“I look forward to utilising every single tool at my disposal as the next mayor to fight for the people of this city. I will not be intimidated by this president, or anyone.”

He downplayed some polls suggesting he may not have the support of the majority of New Yorkers, saying, “I believe that victory is a mandate in and of itself.”

‘A mayor for all New Yorkers’

“I voted for Mamdani,” said 36-year-old Gregory Jones told Reuters.

“As somebody who’s been living in New York City for over 10 years — affordability, safety, making New York feel like home for so many people who’ve been living here for decades, for all New Yorkers, for working families, for business people, for immigrants, for underrepresented people.

“It’s really important that we have a mayor that represents all types of New Yorkers and makes New York a place where everyone can thrive and work and live happily, healthily and safely,” he added.

Lucy Cordero, a 68-year-old from Mott Haven Bronx, says she voted for Mamdani “because he’s new and he’s fresh”.

“Maybe he can make a change and fix what’s messed up now,” she told Al Jazeera.

Denise Gibbs, 46, a doctor of physiotherapy, voted at a school in Brooklyn.

“I sure hope it improves the city. I want to see it decrease divisiveness and increase livelihoods of working-class households and services for children,” she said, wearing green scrubs.