New Yorkers looked set to elect a young Muslim leftist as Mayor on Tuesday (November 4, 2025) as U.S. voters cast judgment for the first time on Donald Trump’s tumultuous second presidency in nationwide local elections.

While Zohran Mamdani’s rise has dominated headlines, elections for Governor in Virginia and New Jersey could also be revealing gauges of the U.S. political mood nearly 10 months since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House.

Democratic wins in those states may indicate a revived opposition ahead of next year’s midterm elections to decide control of Congress.

In New York, Mr. Mamdani, 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.

Unabashedly playing the race card, President Trump on Tuesday labelled Mr. 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.

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

Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, was on 24% — a margin that could sway the vote if enough of his backers shifted to Mr. Cuomo.

Turnout by midday, with nine hours of voting remaining was 1.195 million, exceeding the total of 1.14 million votes cast in 2021, which saw the election of current Mayor Eric Adams who bowed out when his reelection campaign was hit by scandals and corruption allegations. He endorsed Mr. Cuomo, 67.

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.

Polls close at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Wednesday).

Mamdani’s improbable rise

The race has centred on cost of living, crime and how each candidate would handle Mr. Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from New York.

Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said Mr. Mamdani’s win would set up a clash with Mr. Trump.

“Mr. Trump will treat New York City more aggressively,” he said. “There will be some kind of political showdown.”

Mr. Mamdani’s improbable rise highlights the Democratic Party’s debate over a centrist or a leftist future.

“I think that this has to be a party that actually allows Americans to see themselves in it,” Mr. Mamdani said last week.

But Mr. Cuomo said there was “a civil war in the Democratic Party.”

“You have an extreme radical left that is run by the socialists that is challenging what they would call moderate Democrats. I’m a moderate Democrat,” he said after voting.

In New Jersey, Democratic Party candidate Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, faces off against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a businessman backed by Mr. Trump.

In Virginia’s race for Governor, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger has been polling ahead of Virginia’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.

Both sides wheeled out big guns, with former President Barack Obama rallying support for Ms. Spanberger and Mr. Sherrill over the weekend and Trump scheduling tele-rallies for both Virginia and New Jersey on the eve of voting.

Mr. Obama also reportedly spoke to Mr. Mamdani over the weekend but — reflecting the internal party debate — held off endorsing him.

Emailed bomb threats involving polling stations across New Jersey forced the brief closure of several sites, said state Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

Mr. Mamdani called the threats “incredibly concerning.”

“It’s an illustration of the attacks we are seeing on our democracy,” he said after voting in Astoria, Queens.

Published – November 05, 2025 02:28 am IST

New York City is all set to elect a new Mayor on Tuesday (November 4, 2025) as the mayoral race enters its final lap, with Indian-descent Zohran Kwame Mamdani emerging as the front-runner to take up the top political post in America’s biggest city.

Mr. Mamdani, 34, born in Uganda and raised in New York City, is a New York State Assembly member and democratic socialist running for Mayor.

The Democratic nominee will face off against former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate and the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa on the ballots.

Current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration has been plagued by scandals, dropped out of the mayoral race in September. 

November 4 is election day across the U.S., with polls opening from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The early voting period, which commenced on October 25, ended on Sunday.

Mr. Mamdani, the son of renowned Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan author of Indian ancestry, upset Mr. Cuomo in the Democratic primary race for New York City Mayor and was declared victorious in June.

The Board of Elections has said that more than 735,000 people voted early in this election, which is about four times more than the number of ballots cast during the 2021 elections.

Mr. Mamdani has emerged as the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election race and has promised to “lower costs and make life easier” for New Yorkers as the city gets “too expensive.”

Mr. Mamdani has vowed that as Mayor, he will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilised tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent.

Promising fast, fare-free buses, his campaign said that as Mayor, he’ll permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way.

Mr. Mamdani would also implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years, ensuring high-quality programming for all families. 

With food prices out of control, his campaign also promised that as Mayor, he would create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit.

Mr. Mamdani has a plan to bring down the cost-of-living through city-owned grocery stores, universal childcare, and other bold proposals, and he knows exactly how to pay for it, too, the campaign said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has been critical of Mr. Mamdani and has described him as a “communist” and “far worse than a Socialist.”

In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Mamdani “will do a worse job” than former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio by far. 

“And it’s gonna be hard for me as the President to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there. So I don’t know that he’s won, and I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”

The New York Times reported that former President Barack Obama called Mr. Mamdani on Saturday, saying his “campaign has been impressive to watch.”

Mr. Obama also offered to be a “sounding board” if Mr. Mamdani wins the election, the NYT said.

A group called ‘Hindus for Mamdani’ held a prayer gathering in support of the mayoral candidate Saturday in the city, offering “blessings for Zohran’s protection and strength ahead of Election Day.

Addressing the event, Ms. Nair had said that her son’s campaign is not for one community or one faith, but for all New Yorkers, for a city that holds every colour, every tongue, every prayer within its vast and generous embrace.

“As his mother, I’ve watched him walk this path with grace and grit and humour and humility, qualities I know that come from his father also who taught him that the truest joy is found in serving, in thinking about others,” she said.

“May this gathering itself be a blessing, a reminder that our unity across faith and difference is the true strength of this city, and may Zohran bring the new dawn to our day with hope, with courage and with love,” she added.

Published – November 04, 2025 02:06 am IST