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

U.S. President Donald Trump. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, pledged Friday (October 24, 2025) to further embrace his Muslim identity in response to growing attacks by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his surrogates that he characterized as “racist and baseless.”

Encircled by faith leaders outside a Bronx mosque, Mr. Mamdani spoke in emotional terms about the “indignities” long faced by the city’s Muslim population, choking back tears as he described his aunt’s decision not to ride the subway after the Sept. 11 attacks because she didn’t feel safe being seen in a religious head covering.

He recounted how, when he first entered politics, an uncle gently suggested he keep his faith to himself.

“These are lessons that so many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught,” Mr. Mamdani said. “And over these last few days, these lessons have become the closing messages of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams.”

Throughout the race, Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and staunch critic of Israel, has been accused by Cuomo as others of radical beliefs.

But those attacks have amped up in recent days, drawing allegations from some Democrats that Mr. Cuomo’s campaign is leaning into Islamophobia in the final stretch of the campaign.

Appearing on a conservative radio station Thursday, Mr. Cuomo appeared to laugh along at the host’s suggestion that Mr. Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack. “That’s another problem,” Mr. Cuomo replied.

Hours later, at an event endorsing the former governor, Mayor Eric Adams invoked the possibility of terrorist attacks in New York City, seeming to suggest — without explanation — they would be more likely under a Mamdani administration.

“New York can’t be Europe. I don’t know what is wrong with people,” Mr. Adams said, standing alongside Cuomo. “You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism.”

At a debate earlier this week, Sliwa, the Republican candidate, falsely smeared Mr. Mamdani as a supporter of “global jihad.”

Messages left with Mr. Adams’ and Sliwa’s campaign were not immediately returned. A spokesperson for Mr. Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said the former governor did not agree with the radio host’s comments.

While Mr. Mamdani alluded to the recent attacks on Friday, he aimed his speech at his fellow Muslim New Yorkers.

“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker,” he said. “And yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that, and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive.”

“No more,” he said.

To that end, Mr. Mamdani said he would further embrace his Muslim identity, a decision he said he consciously avoided at the start of his campaign.

“I thought that if I behaved well enough, or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks, all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” Mr. Mamdani said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”

He continued: “I will not change who I am, how I eat, for the faith that I’m proud to call my own. But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”

Mr. Mamdani, who won the primary in stunning fashion, has faced skepticism from some in the Democratic establishment, particularly over his criticism of Israel, which he has accused of committing genocide in Gaza. On Friday, Mamdani earned the endorsement of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Published – October 25, 2025 05:04 am IST