Races to watch: N.Y. mayor, N.J. and Virginia governor

NEW YORK – Voters cast their votes risky choices on both coasts On Tuesday, for the mayor of New York, states whose shifting electorates could indicate the direction of the nation’s political winds, including new congressional maps in California and governors in both New Jersey and Virginia.

The races loom large for voters and political observers at a time of tense political division, with Democrats and Republicans sharply divided over the direction of the nation. Although President Trump is not on any ballots, some are calling Tuesday’s race a referendum on him and his unstable second term In the White House.

In New York, a self-described democratic socialist Zohran MamdaniThe 34-year-old was favored to win the mayoral race after winning the Democratic ranked mayoral primary in June. Such an outcome would shake the Democratic establishment and anger Republicans in almost equal measure, leading to a rejection of both old approaches. Governor Andrew CuomoTrump, a more established Democrat and Mamdani’s leading rival, who warned that Mamdani’s victory would destroy the city.

On the eve of Monday’s vote, Trump threatened that Mamdani’s victory would disrupt the flow of federal dollars to the city and took dramatic action: We support Cuomo against Republican Curtis Sliwa in the race.

“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City Mayoral Election, I am unlikely to contribute Federal Funds to my beloved first home beyond the minimum required, because as a Communist, the once-great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote On Monday on the Truth Social platform.

A vote for Sliwa, he added, “is a vote for Mamdani.” “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You have to vote for him and hope he does a great job. He can do it, not Mamdani!”

Mamdani, a Ugandan-born U.S. citizen and New York state assemblyman who defeated Cuomo once in the primary, promised New Yorkers a brighter day with better public transportation, more affordable housing and high-quality child care if he wins. He criticized billionaires and some of the city’s moneyed interests who oppose him and dismissed the “serious political darkness” he said threatens the country under the Trump administration.

He also mocked Trump’s support for Cuomo, saying Cuomo was Trump’s “puppet” and “parrot.”

Lifelong New Yorker Samantha Marrero, 35, lined up with more than a dozen others at a polling place in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood on Tuesday morning to vote for Mamdani, whom she praised for embracing people of color, gay people and other communities marginalized by mainstream politicians.

Marrero said she cares deeply about housing insecurity and affordability in the city, but also said it “really means to have someone on the ballot who is brown, looks like us, eats like us, and lives more like us than anyone we’ve ever seen before.” “That representation is really important.”

And that, he said, is a big reason why people across the country are watching the New York race.

“We are definitely a beacon in these kinds of fascist takeovers that are happening so openly across the country,” he said. “People in other states, other cities, other countries have their eyes on what’s going on here. Clearly Mamdani is doing the right thing. And we can do the right thing together. But it has to happen together.”

Elsewhere on the East Coast, voters were electing governors in both Virginia and New Jersey; These races also attracted the attention of the president.

In the New Jersey race, Trump endorsed the Republican candidate, former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli, over Democratic candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill, whom former President Obama recently admired. New Jersey, long a blue state, is shifting to the right and Polls show a tight race.

inside Virginia raceTrump did not support Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by name but urged voters to “vote Republicans” and reject the Democratic nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a 46-year-old former CIA officer whom Obama also supports.

“Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Governor Candidates Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger when there is transgender for everyone, men playing women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices nearly anywhere in the world?” Trump recently wrote on Truth Social and repeated some of his favorite partisan attacks on Democrats from last year’s presidential campaign.

At a rally on Spanberger’s behalf in Norfolk, Va., over the weekend, Obama cast the race in equally stark terms as part of the fight for American democracy.

“We don’t need to speculate about dangers to our democracy. We don’t need to wonder whether vulnerable people will get hurt, or ask ourselves how much more crude and vulgar our culture could become. We’ve witnessed it. Elections matter.” Obama said. “We all have more power than we think. We just have to use it.”

Voting was continuing in the states, but there were some disruptions. Bomb threats disrupted voting in parts of New Jersey early Tuesday, temporarily closing a number of polling places across the state before law enforcement determined the threats were fake.

In California, voters were being asked to amend the state Constitution to allow Democrats to redraw congressional maps in their favor by 2030 to counter similar moves by Republicans in red states like Texas.

While prominent Democrats, including Obama and Gov. Gavin Newsom, described the measure as an effort to protect American democracy from a power grab by Trump, who has encouraged red states to take action, opponents of the measure derided it as an anti-democratic power grab by state Democrats.

Trump urged California voters not to vote by mail or vote early, arguing that such practices are somehow “dishonest” and suggested that Proposition 50 itself is unconstitutional on Truth Social on Tuesday morning.

“The Unconstitutional Restriction of the Voting in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, especially the Voting, is FRAUD,” Trump wrote, without providing any evidence of the problems. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots with Republicans ‘Off’ in this State are under very serious civil and criminal scrutiny. STAY TUNED!”

The races, both individually and collectively, are being watched closely as potential indicators of political sentiment and enthusiasm for next year’s midterm elections and Democrats’ ability to bring voters back to the polls after Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

Voters also see the races as having particularly high stakes at a pivotal moment for the country.

Michelle Kim, 32, who has lived in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood for three years, lined up at a polling place early Tuesday morning to vote for Mamdani.

Kim said he cares about transportation, land use and the rising cost of living in New York, and appreciated Mamdani’s broader message that solutions are possible, even if they’re not guaranteed.

“My hope is not like, ‘Oh, he’s going to solve all our problems,'” he said. “But I think part of it is that he can represent people and give them hope.”

Lin reported from New York and Rector from San Francisco. Times writer Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta contributed to this report.