new york polls: Trump’s shadow looms over U.S. elections as first polls close

Voters in New Jersey and Virginia cast ballots for governor on Tuesday in a pair of races that will provide an early indication of the mood of American voters after President Donald Trump’s norm-shattering nine-month tenure. Polls closed at 19:00 (0000 GMT Wednesday) in Virginia, where Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, is running against Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears to become the first woman to serve as the state’s governor. Decision Desk HQ, a nonpartisan election forecaster, predicted Spanberger to win, but other news outlets had yet to pick a winner.

Polls in the New Jersey governor’s race will close at 20:00 ET (01:00 GMT). In the race for mayor of New York City, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, faces moderate Democrat Andrew Cuomo, 67, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in his first four years after resigning in disgrace as governor of New York state. The campaign has exposed generational and ideological divisions in the Democratic Party as it struggles to heal its damaged brand. And in California, voters will decide 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 U.S. House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats were watching Tuesday’s results carefully as the party was forced out of power in Washington and struggled to find consensus on the best way to oppose Trump, a Republican, and find a way out of the political wilderness. Former President Barack Obama, still the party’s most popular figure, headlined 11th-hour rallies in New Jersey and Virginia over the weekend, encouraging voters to elect Democrats to counter Trump’s lawlessness.
During interviews at polling stations Tuesday, some voters said Trump’s most controversial policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants who enter the United States illegally and impose expensive tariffs on imports of foreign goods. The legality of these policies is being challenged by the US Supreme Court this week.

More than 3 million people voted early in Virginia, New York and New Jersey; in any case, well above the totals of four years ago. In New York City, 735,000 votes were cast, according to the city board of elections; this number is more than four times the number in 2021. The New Jersey race was the most contested campaign; Polls show Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a congresswoman and former Navy pilot, with a narrow lead over her Republican opponent, former state lawmaker and small business owner Jack Ciattarelli.

A series of hoax bomb threats sent via email briefly closed polling stations in seven counties in New Jersey in the morning, state officials said.TRUMP Is Still on Voters’ MindsEven though Trump was not on the ballot, he remained on the minds of many voters.

Juan Benitez, who describes himself as an independent, was voting for the first time in Virginia. The 25-year-old restaurant manager has backed all of Virginia’s Democratic candidates because of his opposition to Trump’s immigration policies and the federal government shutdown he blames on Trump.

Jennifer Manton, 47, said she voted for Trump three times he ran for president and supported Republican candidates on Tuesday, citing Trump’s tariffs as a major issue.

In New York, Mamdani, a little-known lawmaker in the New York state legislature before his surprising rise, leads Cuomo by double digits, while Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, 71, is a distant third in most polls.

California’s ballot measure, Proposition 50, which would establish a new Democratic-backed congressional map aimed at flipping five Republican seats in response to a similar move by Texas, was also expected to pass.

ELIGIBILITY, TRUMP’S WEIGHT IN RACES

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

“Nothing that happens in Virginia or New Jersey will tell us much about what will happen in a congressional district in Missouri or a Senate race in Maine,” said Republican strategist Douglas Heye.

Tuesday’s candidates offer Democrats a chance to consider different tactics.

Spanberger and Sherrill, both moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds, are putting Trump first and trying to contain anger over the president’s no-holds-barred agenda.

In New York, Mamdani proposed ambitious left-wing policies, including freezing rents for nearly a million apartments and making city buses free. Any New York Jew who criticizes the Israeli government and voted for Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, is a “stupid person,” Trump said Tuesday, a day after endorsing Cuomo.

It was the latest in a series of comments from the US president throughout his career suggesting that Jewish Americans were voting against their interests. Mamdani, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, denies Republicans’ accusations of anti-Semitism.

For Republicans, Tuesday’s elections will test whether voters who backed Trump’s victory in 2024 will show up even when Trump is not on the ballot.

But Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears, each running in Democratic-leaning states, face a dilemma: Criticizing Trump risks losing supporters, but embracing him too closely could alienate moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.

Trump remains popular: 57 percent of Americans disapprove of his job performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. But as a result, Democrats cannot gain support; respondents are evenly split on whether they prefer Democrats or Republicans in 2026.