In what can be seen as a major rebuke to Trump and his policies, the Democrats won big last night. Below are the NYT headlines from this morning; click each to see an archived version:
Every vote that was seen as “close” turned out to be, as you can see from the figures above, not very close. Democratic Socialist Mamdani became mayor of NYC, beating Cuomo by nine points, Mikie Sherrill won the governorship of New Jersey by 13 points, and Abigail Spanberger became Virginia’s first female governor, beating her Republican opponent by 15 points. Perhaps the most lopsided win was in California, where Proposition 50, designed to created more Democratic seats in Congress via redistricting, won by nearly 28 points.
For each race I’ve quoted the NYT:
New York City
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker, was elected New York’s 111th mayor on Tuesday, riding a historic surge of enthusiasm as the nation’s largest city embraced generational and ideological change.
The Associated Press called the race just 35 minutes after polls closed, cementing a stunning upset that took root in June’s Democratic primary. Then and now, Mr. Mamdani handily dispatched former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the scion of a New York dynasty, and the big-money super PACs backing him.
Tuesday’s results underscored how thoroughly Mr. Mamdani has built his own new coalition of support, uniting younger voters with working-class immigrant enclaves in Queens. But he also made gains in working-class Black and Latino communities compared with the primary.
New Jersey
The race was expected to be close. In fact, it was a blowout.
Representative Mikie Sherrill beat Jack Ciattarelli by a wide margin, becoming the second woman to be elected governor of New Jersey.
Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat, made her opposition to President Trump the cornerstone of her campaign against Mr. Ciattarelli, a Republican who crisscrossed the state with fervor, trying to replicate the inroads Mr. Trump made with Latino and Black voters in New Jersey last November.
Mr. Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by Mr. Trump in May, had gambled that his new alliance with a president he once called a charlatan would help him run up the score, even in a left-leaning state.
The risky strategy fell apart for several reasons.
Virginia:
Abigail Spanberger did not just make history on Tuesday as the first woman to be elected governor of Virginia. She won the office by the largest margin of any Democratic candidate in Virginia in decades.
And the way Ms. Spanberger described it in her victory speech, she won, essentially, by being levelheaded.
“Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” she said to the crowd of boisterous Democrats, who seemed to be in a much more partisan mood than the woman they had just elected. “You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most: lowering costs, keeping our community safe and strengthening our economy for every Virginian.”
With more than 95 percent of the vote in, she was beating her Republican opponent, the lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, by a more than 14 -point margin.
Favored from the start, Ms. Spanberger, 46, ran a disciplined campaign focused on jobs and the cost of living. She also emphasized her support for abortion rights and she vowed to roll back an order directing state police to cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement. But she rarely veered far from the center. In August, she welcomed the endorsement of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, the state’s largest police organization.
California:
At a time when Democrats have been searching for a win against President Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California gave them one.
California voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported Proposition 50, Mr. Newsom’s measure to create more Democratic congressional seats, countering a similar redistricting effort pushed by Mr. Trump in other states to protect Republican control of the House next year.
The result has sharply lifted Mr. Newsom’s political profile at a moment when he is considering running for president. And it has provided what many Democrats praised as a road map on how to fight for a party that remains adrift one year after Mr. Trump captured the White House.
“It shows that he can get stuff done,” said the chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Christale Spain, who hosted Mr. Newsom on a swing through her state in July. She added, “Democrats want somebody to fight back. He’s pushing back and fighting back. That is what is helping him break through.”
The election has now freed Mr. Newsom, whose term as governor ends in January 2027, to turn his attention to elevating his presence on the national stage, presenting himself as a leader who scored a high-profile electoral win for Democrats at a bleak moment for the party.
I am no pundit, but my view is that the two governorship victories, both by centrists, are a sign of what Democrats really must do to win, while Mamdani, whose programs are impractical rather than centrist, and whom I see as somewhat of an antisemite, is (I hope) a one-off.
I’m hoping that last night’s results will be a sign to Trump to stop futzing around and trying to get us into foreign wars, and instead concentrate on the problems of the electorate (and that does not mean more tariffs). I’m not a huge fan of Newsom, but I’ll take him over Vance—or any Republic candidate—any day.
All in all, it was a good night for the Democrats, particularly for the more centrists ones like me. The road to victory travels along Sherrill and Spanger Streets, not the Mamdami Highway. As for Newsom, he’s now much more viable as a candidate, and if he runs he should take a lesson from New Jersey and Virginia. Americans will be dubious of a left-wing governor from California, but he’s already been creeping towards the center.
Finally, as for Congress, well, it will remain relatively powerless so long as Trump is President and has veto power, but if the President continues his antics and narcissism, both houses may flip in next year’s midterms. I do think the results last night will force an end to the government shutdown, now the longest in American history.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
D.A.
NYC
Are you talking about NYC or the U.S. If the latter, I can only suppose you’re a fan of the President.
One need not be a fan of the president to despise a callous woman who openly declines – with an ugly, smirky smile – to condemn murderous fantasies of her colleague, who’s obviously mentally sick.
What you call a “centrist” is a centrist in a political party which obtained many features of the cult of death and violence.
Who are you talking about? And please explain your view that the Democrats “obtained [sic] many features of the cult of death and violence.”
Absolutely disgusting behavior from Spanberger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivBUkPDYmE and on many other places. The callous woman is silent for like 15 seconds or so, proving her lack of basic human decency. Not only should she disavowed Jay Jones, but she should have sent him to mandatory mental examination and counselling.
You are a newbie and I would try to tone down these comments. Just a suggestion.
Since you’ve prevented me from replying to your last comment, I’ll reply here. I will NOT tone down any comments, since, you know, freedom of speech is important to me.
You are, of course, free to ban or silence me, your morals and your choice.
Nope, you were under moderation. But now you’re outa here. People who cry “censorship” when I haven’t yet gotten to posting their moderated comments really irritate me. And you clearly haven’t read the rules about “free speech” either. I suggest you go comment on another website. .
@Milan Cirkovic
Read and learn.
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/free_speech.png
I’m a NYer, PCC(E). We are only capable of discussing NYC.
We think it is all that matters. Worse… we believe other people think that also
😉
D.A.
NYC
ps For the record I despise Trump and until this election had never voted GoP. 🙂
Does this mean you’re MAGA? 🙁
I don’t think the election results will affect Trump or his behavior. But I do think some of the Republicans in Congress will be alarmed at their prospects of being re-elected and adjust according – and as Jerry says, fix the shutdown.
Indeed. Trump is delusional and incapable of learning.
But maybe Congress will wake up and stop ceding powers to Trump (like tariffs).
Win big, assuming that these victories don’t back-fire on them.
An opinion piece in Time by the Lord Mayor of London says, “Zohran Mamdani’s Win Is a Victory for Hope”, reminding me of the truism that “Hope is not a strategy.”
Lord Mayor of London? Or Mayor of London? I’m guessing the latter.
Mamdani won with 50.4% of the vote, compared to Cuomo’s 41.6%. This is an outstanding victory for the Democrats, but not a very convincing one for Mamdani, who was only able to win over about half of the voters.
If the Democrats believe that they can win future elections by focusing on left-wing issues like Mamdani, then may be in for a disappointment. The political center is crucial nationwide, as Spanberger and Sherrill showed, winning over swing voters, non-voters, and probably also disappointed Republicans.
Where the Democrats can learn something from Mamdani is in the way he ran his campaign. It was fresh and modern and aimed at a young audience with an affinity for social media.
We saw something similar in Germany during the federal elections in February. The Left Party, which was declared dead last year, made significant gains, especially among young voters, thanks to its modern campaign.
” This is an outstanding victory for the Democrats, but not a very convincing one for Mamdani, who was only able to win over about half of the voters.”
But, but…. Trump, who got less than 50% of the vote in 2024, calls his win historic, a mandate, and a landslide.
Yes. Just over 50% seems meagre. But from the comments on WEIT (like [1] and [2]) over the recent past, I gather that his ideas are rather radical. It follows that a bit more than half the voters support a radical change. At least that’s what it looks like.
Yes and no. The anti-Zohran vote was WAAAY higher than I expected.
Which is a bit encouraging. Everybody was predicting a total wipeout.
On another issue close to our hearts – as above – teaching protocols in Gaza: until recently Saudi schoolbooks taught the same thing … and ISIS used Saudi textbooks in their classrooms. Hamas/UNRWA does also. (I think I’ve posted my article here before but in case you didn’t see it) –
A humorous commentary on Gaza “education”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/07/kindergarten-jihad-who-plays-the-beheaded
D.A.
NYC
A great night for moderate dems in Virginia, running the table in the executive branch by winning governor, lt. governor, and attorney general, all by big margins; and flipping 13 house of delegates seats in the legislature making it 64dem to 36rep this morning. My quick look at “by precinct” results last night showed much of the deep red from two years ago trending to pink or even light blue. The map of VA results looks very red by area, which is deceptive, because most of that deep red area is very rural and has small population, with it taking two or more counties to make a house of delegates voting district. The urban areas always lead blue, but last night the suburbs and ex-burbs trended bluish too.
And Mikey won governor of NJ. Fly Navy!
So, the world capital of capitalism is now led by a communist (with a cynical descriptor for plausible deniability.)
How could anything go wrong?
“[…] and so the dialectic continues.”
(Emphasis added)
-Delgado and Stefancic
Critical Race Theory – An Introduction
p.66, 3rd Ed.
2017
These are important races, no doubt, but it remains to be seen whether they have nation-wide implications. The congressional races in 2026 will give us a better idea of how the country is going. Also, those races will determine if the House goes back to the Democrats. Return of the House to the Democrats—led by a Democratic speaker—would have a more substantive effect on limiting Trump’s power. It’s early.
Mamdani is absolutely an anti-semite as well as being economically illiterate. The problem for the Democrats is that the Republicans will ignore the centrist governors in the midterms and essentially run against Mamdani, painting the entire Democratic Party with his socialist brush.
You are correct, sir. The Republicans are thrilled to have Mamdani on their side.
No shortage of economic illiteracy amongst politicians of all stripes, and Mamdani’s proposal to remove rents and supermarkets from market forces would cause predictable negative effects. There are some good arguments from economic externalities to subsidize public transport, but the implementation will be the problem.
He should do what most successful politicians do after winning – muddle through without changing too much and blame the Federal government for any problems. He has a big problem with his anti-Israel comments, which are close to the extreme end of the spectrum opposing the Gaza war. Hard to see him walking that back.
Indeed Pat, Norman and Peter – on all counts. 100%
D.A.
NYC
Free busses don’t work, everywhere they’ve been tried, even from the externality argument. People don’t value things that are free, don’t look after them, and any expansion of service requires fresh infusion of tax money with no hope of even partial recovery from the fare box. Busses become rolling homeless shelters, which makes driving relatively more attractive for anyone not forced by economic circumstances to take the bus.
All transit systems are subsidized on externality grounds but they can’t be free. The user has to have some skin in the game.
I am not familiar with the USA or Canada, but in Europe, free public transport has been tested and introduced quite successfully in some cities and countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport
RPGNOi, I think Leslie was referring to the USA where free busses haven’t been a good idea. Differentials in public trust could be behind this, vs Europe where I’ve read they’re indeed a success. (Benelux I think?)
Of note is most kids – and many adults here in NYC – seem to not pay anyway already. They jump the turnstiles all time and routinely ignore the drivers on buses who are instructed to not hassle them.
Generally here, people want safe and reliable PT and they’re ready to pay for it. A HUGE negative externality is they become mobile homeless shelters without a fare needed, like the subway occasionally is. (in Wash. DC for awhile I think, a few lines in Bronx here.)
D.A.
NYC
https://www.changinglanesnewsletter.com/p/the-high-cost-of-free-transit (Sept 2025)
https://www.changinglanesnewsletter.com/p/public-transit-should-not-be-free (Sept 2024)
Too many links goes to moderation but this sensible urbanist has other essays on the need for fare enforcement and many other transit-oriented topics. These two are free.
As David says, the issue in North American (Canada and the U.S.) is that social trust needs to be nudged and enforced. At the farebox. The colonization of the transit system by homeless people when Edmonton suspended fare collection during COVID led to the delightful euphemism, “destinationless travel.”
Boy, Leslie, you’ve described what has happened in Tucson perfectly. “Rolling homeless shelters” indeed. They’re also used as subsidized get away cars for theft rings run by gangs who use the fentanyl addicted to supply them with goods they then sell on Craigslist. The fentanyl addicts will do anything for a hit. We now have shootings, knifings, and hatchet attacks at bus stops and inside the buses. Finally, a couple city councilmen are coming around to this reality, but we’ve been watching this shit show since 2020. Free transportation without even a requirement for ID so that those onboard are somewhat accountable is the perfect way to destroy a city and expand the boundaries of criminal activity.
Thank you, @Leslie, for clarification.
It was also a good night for Dems in PA since the three PA Supreme Court Justices, all Dems whose terms were up, won retention–in spite of the major attempt by billionaire Yass and his cohorts to convince people to vote no on their retention. Also great: Dems were voted in and became the majority on a couple of school boards in the area where extremist right-wing Reps had held the majority for years. That didn’t work in all areas, but this is a very conservative area, so the results are significant. Now if only all the Dems voted in wherever can successfully serve, that would be wonderful.
I pop in to agree with this:
The road to victory travels along Sherrill and Spanger Streets, not the Mamdami Highway.
It worries me that Mamdami will seen as a direction for the Democrats. He will be a millstone around the Democratic neck on the national stage. What to be more irritated about — his anti-semitism, economic illiteracy or gender-nonsense trampling on women’s rights, child protection, reality…?
Sorry, but the mayor of NYC won’t be a millstone around Dems on the national stage. I’m sure the GOP will try and use him as a scapegoat and employ their usual fear mongering tactics. NYC politics and politicians (esp. a mayor) aren’t the rest of the country’s, not even close, and good luck to those who think they are and try to leverage based on that assumption.
The California vote was no surprise, as Prop 50 was so popular the Republicans basically gave up trying to defeat it a while ago.
I hope New Yorkers recognize Mamdani’s foolishness sooner rather than later. Glad the vote was closer than expected.
The California Republicans have filed a suit.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/california-redistricting-measure-republican-lawsuit
“Good luck, losers!” said a Newsom spokesperson.
I don’t live in NYC or NY, but I hope Mamdani does a great job and proves to be an excellent mayor. From what I’ve seen and heard, he seems like a compassionate, honest, intelligent, and likeable human being. I find all the pearl-clutching and name calling ridiculous, esp. by people like Johnson that he’s a communist and NYC residents are communists by extension- what an idiot. Let’s see what he does, what he can/can’t do and judge him on his actions. I feel the GOP (and some of the conservative Democrats) is terrified of the man succeeding, and most of the hatred comes from this fear (nothing novel there).
I wish him well, too, if for no other reason than for my NYC friends sake, but I can’t get past his anti-semitism. He’s denied it, but he’s lying. They all do. It’s too much for me and I would not have voted for him on that alone. It’s unlikely that any of his ideas will work (a rent freeze will be a total disaster) as they are Marxist at heart and those will always fail. But his is a fresh, young, dishonest start at upsetting an old, entitled, corrupt system. It’ll be interesting, if nothing else. The two have corruption in common – they’ll just be different benefactors.
For what whatever Mamdani might have said or promised or if he seemed to think this way or that way, I also hope that he does a great job as mayor. I’m open to pleasant surprises.
Zohran Mamdani is the embodiment of the unholy alliance between the Far Left and Islam. How this plays out will be a wakeup call for New York and the USA.