Election 2025 results: Mamdani elected NYC mayor, Democrats win big in Virginia, New Jersey, California

Mamdani took the stage in Brooklyn to speak to voters for the first time since claiming the title of New York City’s next mayor — and the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor.

He welcomed the controversies of his campaign, telling the crowd that he will not apologize for the stir his candidacy has caused across the nation.

“I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. I refuse to apologize for any of this,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who repeatedly declined to endorse Mamdani, is now congratulating the New York City mayor-elect “on his well-earned and historic victory.”

In a statement, the New York Democrat said he had worked “collaboratively and productively” with Mamdani in the past, adding: “I look forward to building on that partnership to keep New York City strong, fair, more affordable, and thriving.”

The statement came just hours after Schumer, a 74-year-old Brooklynite and the highest-ranking elected Jewish leader in the U.S. government, would not say whether he voted for Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim democratic socialist and frequent critic of Israel, or Cuomo, the former New York governor who ran as an independent.

In the statement, Schumer also noted that Mamdani “relentlessly focused on the cost-of-living crisis, that Donald Trump has only made worse.” Schumer and Democrats are expected to make affordability a central tenet of their campaign messaging ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Cuomo took the stage tonight at his election watch party in Midtown Manhattan, congratulating Mamdani on his victory in the New York City mayoral race and defending the merits of his own campaign despite falling short of victory.

“Congratulations to Zohran Mamdani,” the former New York governor said to the crowd. When his supporters broke out in boos, he urged them to stop.

“No, no, no,” Cuomo said. “That is not right, and that is not us. Tonight was their night.”

Californians have signed off on Gov. Newsom’s redistricting counterpunch aimed at offsetting a mid-decade push in Texas to gerrymander congressional maps.

The state resoundingly passed Proposition 50 on Tuesday, according to NBC News Decision Desk projections. The measure will allow Democrats to bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission and potentially take five U.S. House seats from the GOP.

The move was a direct response to the Texas Legislature’s abrupt redrawing of that state’s maps to benefit Republicans.

Read more about the California measure and the “redistricting wars” here.

The NBC News Decision Desk is projecting that California’s Proposition 50 will pass.

There’s a clear takeaway from tonight’s slate of Democratic victories, according to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A year after Trump’s presidential win, Democrats are unbowed.

“Americans everywhere are not going to be scared,” the New York Democrat told MSNBC’s Antonia Hylton. “We will not be intimidated by an administration that is violating the rights and making life hard and unaffordable for every single American in this country. And we will send in a wave of Democrats that will not bow to this administration, but stand up to this administration.”

Speaking at Mamdani’s mayoral victory party in Brooklyn — a campaign she cast as a “heroic effort” — Ocasio-Cortez spoke of the 34-year-old’s win as the arrival of a new generation of leadership that is sweeping away the status quo in both parties.

“They were not just tasked with defeating a Republican,” Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC. “They were also tasked with defeating the old guard of the Democratic Party that essentially led us to many of the perils of this moment. So he had a two-front war to win, which is what makes his victory so deeply impressive.”

But she doesn’t see Mamdani’s approach as a one-size-fits-all answer to electoral success. Looking to Sherrill’s win in New Jersey and Spanberger’s victory in Virginia, Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats should unite behind both progressive voices and moderate voices.

“We have a future to fight for, and we’re either going to do that together or you’re going to be left behind,” she said. “And I think that that is not a partisan issue. It’s not about progressive, it’s not moderate, it’s not liberal. This is about do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now? And the assignment is to come together across differences, no matter what.”

As results poured in showing Democrats had swept marquee elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, President Trump took to his online platform Truth Social on Tuesday night to explain Republicans’ losses and deflect blame.

“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” Trump posted.

The president also managed to find a bright spot among the major defeats, posting about a recent interview and what he said were record ratings.

“JUST OUT: The 60 Minutes interview of Donald J. Trump, on CBS, Sunday night, was the highest rated 60 Minutes IN YEARS!”

The top two Democrats on Capitol Hill — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — are taking a victory lap as their party racks up a series of electoral wins tonight.

Jeffries went so far as to declare on social media: “Enough with the premature obituaries. The Democratic Party is back.”

In a statement, Schumer called the results a “repudiation of the Trump agenda.”

Chris Hayes speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

At the start of his campaign for mayor, Mamdani had essentially zero name recognition. He was 1% in the polls.

The thing that lifted him out of obscurity was that he went to two districts that had swung heavily for Trump, working-class districts with voters of color; one in the Bronx — right by Fordham Road, which I know well — and one in Queens, where he talked to people about why they had voted the way they had. He held a sign that read “Let’s Talk Election,” and just spoke to people.

His focus on winning back voters the Democratic Party lost to Trump was actually where his campaign started. And the reason that many voters in New York City had swung toward Trump was affordability. People felt that they couldn’t afford things.

Out of that, Mamdani engineered a campaign from nowhere to victory.

I live in New York. I grew up in New York. I’ve covered New York. I know New York politics well.

Before this election, I vaguely knew there was a young, socialist assemblyman named Zohran Mamdani, and I’m as plugged in as they come. And now, in an incredible turn of events, that man is going to be the next mayor of New York City.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, will officially be New York City’s 111th mayor and the first Muslim to lead the country’s largest city.

The 34-year-old state representative beat out former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani’s victory could further a reckoning within the national Democratic Party, which has wrestled with balancing its big-tent approach with the appeal of up-and-coming progressive political powerhouses such as Mamdani. 

Read more from Allison here.

The NBC News Decision Desk is projecting that Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, will win the race for mayor of New York City.

Mikie Sherrill is moving from the U.S. House to the New Jersey governor’s mansion, the NBC News Decision Desk projects.

The four-term Democratic congresswoman was facing Trump favorite Jack Ciattarelli in the gubernatorial race.

The NBC News Decision Desk is projecting that Democrat Aftab Pureval will be reelected as mayor of Cincinnati.

Pureval, the city’s first Asian American mayor, overcame his Republican opponent, Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance’s half brother.

Vance endorsed Bowman in the spring, writing on X: “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!”

But it seems that not even the support of the vice president was enough to get the political newcomer across the finish line.

The NBC News Decision Desk is projecting that Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, will win the race for governor in New Jersey.

NBC News projects Pennsylvanians voted to retain Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, solidifying Democrats’ 5-2 ideological majority on the commonwealth’s supreme court. 

All three justices faced an up-or-down vote on whether they should remain on the bench. Their survival means Democrats can continue to set legal precedent in the state.

These Supreme Court races are typically sleepy, but a multimillion-dollar spending spree was a shot of political caffeine into the race. High-profile Democrats campaigned vigorously for the justices, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, who voiced a robocall effort in the immediate run-up to election day.

A handful of incidents at polling places have been seized on by Trump-aligned influencers, politicians and prominent conspiracy theorists to baselessly claim that the 2025 elections are rife with fraud orchestrated by Democrats.

Early this morning, at least seven New Jersey counties closed temporarily after receiving emails that authorities later described as “hoax” bomb threats. Polling sites reopened after law enforcement officials secured the area and a juvenile allegedly connected to at least one of the threats was arrested.

But on the far right, the threats were framed as something grander. “Always remember, Democrats can’t win unless they cheat,” posted Phillip Buchanan, the popular internet troll known as Catturd, to his nearly four million followers on X.

A new NBC News exit poll suggests that as Californians hit the ballot booth to vote on a measure to allow a partisan mid-cycle redrawing of the state’s congressional maps, they are weary of how both the Democratic and Republican parties have handled the redistricting arms race.

Public opinion polls in the run-up to Election Day showed that Proposition 50 — which would temporarily flout the state’s independent redistricting commission and redraw new congressional maps poised to lock in up to five additional seats for the Democratic Party — has a commanding lead. But the NBC News exit poll finds that among California voters who cast ballots, 53% believe that neither Republicans nor Democrats are approaching the redrawing of district lines fairly. Meanwhile, 28% believe Democrats are being fair, and 12% think the same of Republicans.

The redistricting drama first kicked off after President Donald Trump called on Republican state legislatures to redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, and Texas heeded his call.

Since then, other states have followed suit, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom has spearheaded a Democratic rebuttal.

Chris Hayes speaking on MSNBC moments ago.

In Virginia, this is the first time people have been able to vote in a big election since the second Trump term began. We’re constantly trying to echolocate where the country is — as we fly through this strange world we live in — and we use polling, reporting and little special elections to do so, but this is the best data we have. This is the first chance we have to ask voters how the administration is really doing and the answer appears to be a big thumbs-down.

In 2021, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won Virginia by two points. Harris carried the state by five points in 2024. This time around, Spanberger could secure a double-digit win. That would be a huge swing in the Democrats’ favor. But the weirdest, most unnerving thing in some sense is how little the Republican Party has seemed to care about this shift. No one in the president’s orbit seems to be tracking how the median voter feels about everything this administration and his party are doing in D.C.

Could tangible results, like what we’re seeing tonight, finally shock the system in Washington?

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Symone Sanders Townsend speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

After the 2024 election, there was a lot of talk about all the folks who swung: the people who would usually vote for Democrats who shifted their support to Republicans.

But I don’t think there was enough conversation about the Democratic coalition members who just stayed home: the Black voters, the Latino voters and the working-class voters.

People forget that last time around in New Jersey, Ciattarelli lost to Gov. Phil Murphy by only about three points. That proves that small margins can make a huge difference in these elections.

I’m hearing a lot of anecdotal notes about a huge turnout in New Jersey and Virginia, specifically among Black and Latino voters. I talked to someone who has been doing a lot of organizing of Black voters in New Jersey. They told me that for this community, people are voting for freedom and democracy, and they feel as though this is their last chance to take a stand, and that’s why so many have come out.

I’ll wait to see what those numbers actually bear out to be, but if that information is correct, I think that matters.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Hello from Midtown Manhattan! I’m Mychael Schnell, reporting from former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s election night watch party.

The three-way mayoral race between Cuomo, Mamdani and Sliwa has heated up in the final stretch of Election Day. And though polls have consistently shown Mamdani with a commanding lead, the Cuomo campaign is putting on a brave face in the closing hours of the race.

I spoke with a Cuomo campaign adviser around 7 p.m. ET, who told me that the campaign is cautiously optimistic tonight — but candidly noted that they felt that way on primary day, too, and it didn’t go their way. They’re staying even-keeled.

As of 6 p.m. ET, 1,748,689 New York City voters had cast ballots in the mayoral race. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

The adviser tells me the campaign is encouraged that turnout could surpass two million, and added that voters age 55 and up — a key demographic for Cuomo — are coming out in good numbers.

Beyond that, the Cuomo campaign will take whatever help it can get — even leaning on old superstitions. “Political operatives are like baseball players: They wear socks inside out on Election Day,” the adviser said.

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger will be the first woman to lead the commonwealth of Virginia.

The Democrat, a former CIA officer who served three terms in the U.S. House, beat out Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

The state would have had its first female governor either way, with Earle-Sears already the first woman to serve as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the first Black woman elected statewide.

For more on the results, click here.

The NBC News Decision Desk is projecting that Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, will win the race for governor in Virginia.

Ari Melber speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

There is a lot to choose from for how people will interpret today’s results, but here’s what we know starting out: Off-year elections typically break against incumbents, so Trump and the Republicans face that dynamic.

There’s also the fact that Trump’s approval has now dropped to a new low of 37%. That’s unusually bad for this early in a president’s second term because they’re still roughly near a honeymoon. But for Trump, his disapproval rating is now worse than it was in the aftermath of Jan. 6.

Those low poll numbers come amid other huge, undeniable indicators of opposition, including the millions who rallied at “No Kings” protests across the country. That kind of turnout reflects broad concerns over Trump’s power grabs, not just standard debates over policy.

Today also marks the first voting indicator since Trump’s election and what is now an unusually long government shutdown, with effects from health care to food scarcity.

It was only a year ago that Trump capped a campaign in which he hammered inflation and pledged to lower prices. But, a year later, he has not really been governing that way.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

The top reason for casting a ballot for many in Somerset County, New Jersey, wasn’t affordability — an issue that both Ciattarelli and Sherrill have centered their gubernatorial campaigns around. It also wasn’t the soaring cost of electricity, a dominating issue throughout New Jersey politics. Many said they primarily wanted to send a message, good or bad, to Trump.

Cheryl Stone said she voted for Sherrill “mostly because I’m opposed to the Trump administration, and I feel Ciattarelli is an extension of that.”

On the other side of the coin, many saw Ciattarelli’s alignment with the president — who endorsed the Republican candidate and called him a “friend” during a virtual rally Monday night — as a reason to get out and vote, despite Trump himself not being on the ballot.

Samantha McDonough said she cast her ballot for Ciattarelli, adding: “I think Trump’s alignment is going to help Ciattarelli. I think a lot of people are starting to see that Trump is actually better for America nowadays.”

Polls closed at 7 p.m. ET in Virginia, a state that is set to elect its first female governor.

According to NBC News’ Decision Desk, the race between Democratic nominee Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, and Republican nominee Earle-Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor, is too early to call.

In the final stretch of the election here in Virginia, Democrat Jay Jones’ campaign for attorney general has been mired in controversy over unearthed texts he sent in 2022 suggesting he’d welcome violence against Republican lawmakers.

Today, a few hours before polls closed, I asked Jones how he is a different person from the one who fantasized about the shooting of a GOP state legislator a few years ago — a question he did not directly answer.

“Look, I’m excited that people have a chance to come and make their voices heard,” Jones told MSNBC. “I think there is going to be a resounding message sent today that people are rejecting the policies of Donald Trump and his administration that have been harming Virginians. And that’s what we have been talking about in this race.”

Pressed on what lessons he learned from the incident, Jones again pivoted to a different topic.

“We have gone everywhere in this Commonwealth, and what I have known and talked about from the beginning [is] this has never been just about me,” Jones said. “This has always been about Virginia and our future and our ability and our chance to chart a better course here in this Commonwealth.”

NBC News exit polls show 46% of Virginia voters viewed Jones’ leaked messages as “disqualifying” and another 25% called them “concerning.” Only 10% said they were “not a reason for concern.” Nearly half of those who voted for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Spanberger viewed the texts as “concerning,” but only 16% as “disqualifying.”

Speaking to MSNBC, Jones’ message to voters on the fence about supporting him was to cast a vote against the Trump administration.

“If you’re concerned about rising costs, if you’re concerned about your health care, if you’re concerned about protecting your civil rights and civil liberties, this administration has been doing nothing to help you in this moment,” Jones said, adding that Democrats “have a forward-looking, affirmative vision to help lower costs here in Virginia, keep our communities safe, protect our health care.”

Even as he’s stressed his intention to be a check on Trump’s power, Jones said he’s willing to work with the president “if this administration has a policy that’s going to be beneficial for this Commonwealth.”

Economic concerns appear to be a major motivating factor for many voters today. In Virginia and California, voters said the economy was the most important issue in today’s elections, according to exit polling by NBC News.

In Virginia, just 12% of voters told NBC News they believe their families are getting ahead financially, while 24% said they were falling behind.

In New York City, 56% of voters said cost of living was the city’s most important issue, more than twice as many as those who said crime is their top concern (22%). More than 7 in 10 mayoral voters said the cost of housing was a major problem in the city.

And in New Jersey, 36% of voters named taxes as the most important issue, while 34% said it was the economy. Only 38% of respondents said the state’s economy was in good or excellent shape.

Voters in key elections across the country today expressed broad disapproval over President Trump’s handling of his second term in office, according to new NBC News exit polls. 

• In Virginia: 41% approve, 56% disapprove
• In New Jersey: 43% approve, 55% disapprove
• In New York City: 29% approve, 69% disapprove
• In California: 36% approve, 63% disapprove

Although Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot, his presence still appears to loom large over major contests. 

NBC News exit polls found that in New Jersey and Virginia, the two states electing governors, roughly 40% of respondents said the reason behind their vote was to oppose Trump; just 13% and 15%, respectively, said their vote was in support of the president. About half the voters surveyed in both states told NBC News that Trump wasn’t a factor in their decision.

In California, 50% of voters said their decision was in direct opposition to Trump, while just 8% said they voted to support the president. The remaining 42% said he wasn’t a factor.

And in New York City, 59% of voters told NBC News that Trump was not a factor in their decision-making. Just 30% said they voted to oppose Trump, and 8% said they voted in support of the president.

Although 2025 may be an off-year election cycle, a handful of high-profile votes on Tuesday could have an outsize effect on next year’s fight for control of the U.S. House and Senate.

Crucial elections are being held across the country for a variety of seats and propositions. One way or another, the outcomes will be historic.

When will we know the results? It depends.

For more from Erum on what to look for over the next few hours, click below:

It’s Election Day, and I’m here in the U.S. Capitol. And while Republicans and Democrats will have an eye on the election results — and are well-equipped to spin the outcomes, whatever they may be — their focus is instead trained on a possible solution to what has become the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, mindful of its potential effect on next year’s midterm elections.

One of the big developments out of Congress today is a tentative, still-in-the-works deal to vote on three appropriations bills, a continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government and legislation to extend the subsidies for health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Notably, some Republicans are now reportedly discussing the need to vote on an alternative health care proposal, which would give them political cover to vote against the one-year enhanced subsidies extension. (Without an extension, many Affordable Care Act enrollees will see their premiums skyrocket for 2026.)

Since the start of the shutdown, Democrats have successfully put health care front and center, demanding those ACA subsidies be addressed as part of any off-ramp to the impasse. And Democrats I’ve spoken with anticipate health care will remain a potent issue in next year’s critical elections.

Republicans appear to be keenly aware of this — and the fact that Democrats historically outperform them on this issue in public sentiment.

To be clear: Talks are early, and this could easily all fall apart. But the looming elections — and the salience of health care prices now that we’re in open-enrollment season — has sparked optimism on Capitol Hill.

Virginia residents have been heavily affected by cuts to federal nutrition assistance programs amid the longest-ever government shutdown.

More than 850,000 Virginia residents rely on benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, according to the state government records.

Several SNAP recipients at a Food for Others pantry in Fairfax, Virginia, told MSNBC on Tuesday they would not be voting because the shutdown has caused them to lose faith in government.

“I choose not to vote, and I’ll tell you why,” Alonso Lockridge, a Virginia SNAP recipient said. “Because it takes the people to vote and to put people in office. And if we are putting people in office — you know, the president and senators and congressmen and congresswomen — then we are trusting in you guys to fulfill what you put your hand on the Bible.”

Lockridge said lawmakers are not giving the people what they promised. In return, he said, it’s “causing people to not vote because we don’t trust those that we’re putting in office.”

About 320,000 SNAP recipients in Virginia are children.

Lisa McKay, a Virginia SNAP beneficiary, said she worries for families as they start budgeting for partial November funds that could take weeks to arrive.

“I’ve talked to several people at the grocery store that are worried what they’re going to do for their kids,” she said.

Sorry, voters of Kentucky, you have to wait your turn.

Elon Musk has entered the chat.

In a post on X, the world’s wealthiest man alleged that the “New York City ballot form is a scam,” citing the fact that some “mayoral candidates appear twice” on it. 

That’s an apparent misunderstanding of New York’s long-standing election law.

The Empire State allows candidates to be nominated or endorsed by multiple political parties and therefore appear on the ballot under each of those party labels — a format known as “fusion voting.” 

For that reason, mayoral hopefuls Mamdani and Sliwa appear on the ballot multiple times. Mamdani won the Democratic Party nomination and the Working Families Party’s endorsement, while Sliwa won the Republican Party nomination and also chose to run under the Protect Animals Party line. Musk’s endorsed candidate, former Gov. Cuomo, appears on the ballot only once because he is running as an independent after losing in the Democratic primary.

Under the “fusion” system, voters choose the party line under which they want to vote, those votes are tallied separately, then added together to determine the winner.

Earlier today, MSNBC’s ​​Nnamdi Egwuonwu reported that Mamdani voted under the Working Families Party line.

It appears Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will let the sun set on this Election Day without telling his constituents — or the rest of the country — how he voted in New York City’s historic mayoral race.

Asked Tuesday on Capitol Hill if he voted for Democratic nominee Mamdani or third-party candidate — and former New York governor — Cuomo, Schumer replied: “I voted, and I look forward to working with the next mayor to help New York City.”

Schumer, a proud Brooklynite and the highest-ranking elected Jewish leader in the U.S. government, has repeatedly sidestepped opportunities to endorse Mamdani, a Muslim democratic socialist and frequent critic of Israel.

Schumer, 74, who has touted ongoing talks with the 34-year-old Mamdani, isn’t the only high-ranking New York leader to drag his feet on wading into the city’s mayoral race. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the U.S. House who also lives in Brooklyn, held out endorsing Mamdani until the day before early voting began. 

Even then, it wasn’t exactly full-throated. 

While Jeffries praised Mamdani’s focus on affordability, Jeffries also said, “As with any mayor, there will be areas of agreement and areas of principled disagreement. Yet, the stakes are existential.”

Mamdani’s candidacy has exposed rifts among Democrats — mainly between moderates and progressives.

When asked last month by MSNBC about top Democrats holding off on endorsing Mamdani, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said, “We should seize on every opportunity to support Democrats who are running to lower costs for American families. Don’t pass that up, because families need us in this fight.”

Virginia Democrats’ recent foray into a mid-decade districting war were met with mixed reviews on Tuesday from their party’s voters at the polls.

“I think they should leave it like it is,” Eugene Blowe told MSNBC after he cast his ballot for Democrats up and down the ticket.

Tiffany Hanks also opposes the tit-for-tat gerrymandering frenzy, which began as a battle between Texas and California and has ballooned into a nationwide melee.

“I feel like they should stick with the rules,” Hanks said.

“And every 10 years, when the census comes around, that’s when you should redistrict going about it that way,” she said. “I don’t feel like that’s right.”

But not all Democrats agree. Maribel Mohena thinks it’s time for her party to fight fire with fire. Mohena is originally from California, where voters are deciding whether to approve Prop 50 — to redraw congressional districts in a way that would help Democrats gain as many as five seats in the U.S. House over the next five years. 

“I think for too long, the Democrats have tried to be bipartisan, have spent too much energy and time doing that, and the Republicans didn’t,” Mohena said.

“I think it’s time that we fight back a little bit more,” she said.

Polls in the Big Apple don’t close until 9 p.m. ET, but this odd-year election is already one for the history books.

The New York City Board of Elections reported that nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers had shown up to vote as of noon, including those who voted before Tuesday. In 2021, about 1.15 million voters cast ballots for mayor and other local public offices.

The 2021 election, which took place in the middle of a global pandemic, had a historically low turnout rate of 23.3% of registered voters in the city.

But this year’s election, one year after one-time New Yorker Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House, has garnered wild enthusiasm across the city. The Board of Elections said Sunday was the highest early voter turnout day in the city’s history, a significant milestone, especially for an off-year election.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned New York voters as they headed to the polls not to support the candidate who is poised to become the city’s first Muslim mayor.

“Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump’s post underscored the religious and ethnic tensions that have permeated the mayoral race in New York City, where Mamdani, a practicing Shia Muslim, is the front-runner over Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic New York governor, who is running as an independent.

Cuomo has invoked Mamdani’s faith and political beliefs in the waning days of the race. “I think this Zohran has frightened a lot of people with his policies and his statements. I mean, I know it’s true with the Jewish community, certainly,” Cuomo said on Nov. 2 during a radio interview.

Other top GOP voices have also waded into the conversation over the past 24 hours. In a post on X earlier Tuesday, far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer invoked the discredited bomb threats at New York City polling places: “The bomb threats were probably called in by Mamdani’s own Muslim jihadi voters.”

Right-wing political commentator and Trump supporter Dinesh D’Souza posted on X: “We didn’t see 9/11 coming and when we did it was too late. We’ve seen this guy coming for a while. The result will be no less catastrophic.”

On Monday, conservative Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee posted a video on X from Sept. 11 showing a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers, saying, “WAKE UP NEW YORK!” Ogles has previously requested that the Department of Justice investigate Mamdani’s citizenship. Mamdani is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Uganda, where he was born and raised until moving with his family to New York City at the age of 7.

Hello from Richmond! I’m Julia Jester reporting from Virginia.

Although the contest to become the state’s first female governor continues to dominate headlines, I’m paying closer attention to the race for attorney general.

GOP incumbent Jason Miyares’ Democratic challenger Jay Jones has been mired in controversies, including a resurfaced reckless driving conviction and years-old texts he sent apparently encouraging violence against his political opponents.

The AG race results here are expected to serve as a referendum on the Trump administration, especially if the blue headwinds are strong enough for Spanberger to help pull Jones over the finish line.

Miyares, for his part, is encouraging voters to split their ticket, in a blow to Earle-Sears.

At a precinct in Queens, New York, Mamdani voted for himself earlier this morning under the Working Families Party ballot line rather than the Democratic line, his campaign spokesperson told MSNBC.

Like many other Democratic candidates, Mamdani appeared on both lines. The Working Families Party — a progressive group that’s also backing Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, who like Mamdani identifies as a Democratic socialist — was among the earliest groups to endorse the 34-year-old in his bid to lead New York City.

I’m at the White House today where President Trump has zero public events on his schedule, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a briefing this afternoon.

Trump is monitoring election results closely, but the president and Republicans are already setting expectations.

Though urging voters to turn out for Republicans in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, Trump didn’t hit the campaign trail for the candidates, instead phoning in his support.

One former Trump adviser told me Republicans expect to lose the Virginia governor’s race and the California redistricting ballot measure. They’re a little more optimistic about Ciattarelli’s chances in New Jersey, but also shrugged off a potential loss there, downplaying its significance for 2026 and beyond.

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill rode the blue wave of the 2018 midterms, taking back the suburbs to win their seats in Congress.

Now, both moderates are seeking to become the first female Democratic governors in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. And they’ll need to go through the suburbs to get there.

To do so, Spanberger is touting her bipartisan record in Congress and hyperfocusing on an economic message as inflation remains stubborn — and even pushing to make inroads in rural areas. She may be helped by the long-running government shutdown that is disproportionately affecting Virginians, many of whom work for Washington.

Read more from Julia here:

There have been email threats sent to at least three polling locations across Manhattan as of noon on Tuesday, according to three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation.

The threats are terroristic in nature, the officials told MSNBC. They said the threats and locations have been investigated, cleared and are not believed to be credible at this time.

Sources said they believe the emails are part of an elaborate swatting scheme. The New York Police Department is working with federal partners to look into the matter, the sources said.

It is unknown at this time if these are connected to threats to New Jersey polling locations. There were no disruptions at polling sites in New York City.

Trump has been active on his preferred social media platform, Truth Social, this morning, seeking to bolster support for his party’s candidates and interests.

The president acknowledged that affordability remains a top priority for Americans, an issue he also ran on during his 2024 campaign. “If affordability is you[r] issue, VOTE REPUBLICAN!” he wrote in one post with a typo.

He also referred to California’s redistricting ballot initiative as a “GIANT SCAM,” despite his own efforts to redraw maps in favor of the GOP in states led by fellow Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. Before results have been tallied and without evidence, Trump has attempted to undermine confidence in the vote on the California initiative, widely known as Prop 50.

Trump also reiterated calls to end the filibuster in the Senate to overcome a 60-vote threshold aimed at ending the government shutdown and advance other Republican legislative priorities. “FOR THREE YEARS, NOTHING WILL BE PASSED, AND REPUBLICANS WILL BE BLAMED. Elections, including the Midterms, will be rightfully brutal,” he wrote in another post.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opposes suspending the filibuster, and previous attempts to abolish the rule have failed.

Amit Bagga, a Mamdani adviser and former member of the Bill de Blasio administration, predicts there will be two million votes in the New York City general election tonight, a figure that hasn’t been reached since Rudy Giuliani and David Dinkins faced off in 1993.

“I think the proof is simply in the numbers,” Bagga told MSNBC. “[Mamdani] absolutely remade the electorate.”

Based on polling data from the New York City Board of Elections, 65% of 2021’s total electoral turnout has already voted early this year. The city tallied a total of 735,317 votes when early voting closed Sunday night.

Bagga argued that Mamdani’s success in getting out young voters comes from engaging with them in their own neighborhoods. “He has awoken mass parts of the electorate that have previously been unengaged, that have not really been courted by our politicians, because, as is on great display with establishment politicians like Andrew Cuomo, they have cynically refused to develop even a basic understanding of who lives in New York City or what the demographics of our city are,” Bagga said.

“He’s going to be going to City Hall with a mandate that I can’t think of a mayor having in certainly my adult lifetime,” he added.

President Trump took to social media Monday night to urge New York voters to get behind former governor-turned-mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo in a last-minute endorsement.

“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

Asked on Tuesday morning about Trump’s endorsement, Cuomo downplayed the announcement.

“The president does not support me; the president opposes Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo told MSNBC’s Mychael Schnell. “The president believes Zohran Mamdani is a communist. He believes he’s an existential threat.”

Virginia is set to elect its first female governor Tuesday in a contest pitting two women seen as up-and-comers in their parties.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only states that regularly elect governors the year after a presidential election, so they’re often seen as windows into voters’ minds ahead of midterm elections.

This time, Virginia’s election also could indicate what the electorate is thinking when it comes to more immediate concerns: The vote lands in the middle of a government shutdown in one of the states with the largest number of federal workers.

Read more from Erum about the candidates here:

Multiple polling locations were temporarily locked down across seven New Jersey counties after law enforcement reported that emailed bomb threats had targeted specific voting centers.

Shortly after the reports, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way posted online that law enforcement “has determined there are no credible threats at this time.”

The counties where voting operations were temporarily affected were: Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Passaic counties. Four of those counties voted in favor of then-Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Two polling locations in Middlesex County have closed for the entirety of the day. County officials said affected voters in the district will be redirected to nearby voting centers. “This decision was made out of an abundance of caution and with the highest priority placed on public safety,” county officials wrote in a statement.

Several of the locations have since reopened after law enforcement officers at the scenes gave the all clear.

“Law enforcement officers have responded at each affected polling place, and they have worked swiftly to secure these polling locations and ensure the safety of every voter,” said Attorney General Matthew Platkin in a statement.

Sherrill posted after the threats were made: “We will not stand for voter suppression in our state — and I encourage all New Jerseyans to not be deterred as they cast their ballots today.”

Sherrill voted Tuesday morning at a polling location in an Essex County elementary school to kick off her final appeal to voters in these closing hours. I asked her what the country should take away from her would-be win tonight, and she brought it back to a campaign that has zeroed in on affordability and the economy.

“I’m gonna work relentlessly to drive down costs for people,” Sherrill told MSNBC. “So I think as we are navigating what is going on in the nation right now with — as I said — constant attacks on our economy from the federal government and a need to make sure our state governments are running incredibly well to serve people.” She continued, “I’ve told people in my state, ‘Look, if it’s keeping you up at night, as your governor, it’s going to keep me up at night.’”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday announced a plan to form a redistricting advisory committee to reconsider the state’s congressional map.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., will chair the five-member bipartisan commission, according to the governor’s office. It will begin working this month to craft recommendations to the Maryland General Assembly and the governor.

In a statement, Alsobrooks accused Republicans of “trying to rig the rules in response to their terrible polling.” She added, “Maryland deserves a fair map that represents the will of the people.”

The Election Day announcement comes as California weighs its own redistricting ballot initiative, which Gov. Gavin Newsom has cast as a direct response to similar efforts being undertaken in Republican states.

On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Democrats were simply running scared of their voters, fearful their base would “punish” them if they caved to GOP demands before the election. But once those voters have a chance to cast their ballots on Tuesday, Johnson argued, Democrats will be able to “come to their common senses again and do the right thing.”

“I hope,” Johnson said, Democrats will “make the calculation that maybe we won’t have to hold that line anymore.”

There are plenty of other Republicans also pushing the narrative that Democrats will relent on the shutdown fight as soon as voting ends. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told MSNBC last week that he believed it was “more than likely” the government will reopen after the elections.

Read more from Kevin here:

New Jersey’s tight race for governor may be the most hotly contested and closely watched election being held Tuesday.

New Jersey is one of two states — along with Virginia — that holds gubernatorial elections one year after a presidential election. That makes political types eager to treat it as a tea leaf for next year’s midterms.

And while the state has voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1992, it has toggled between governors of both parties for decades.

This year, Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli have called in the big guns to gain a late edge: Sherrill stumped in recent days with former President Barack Obama and popular Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, while Ciattarelli has enjoyed loud backing from President Donald Trump since the primary.

Read more from Erum about the race here:

A total of 735,317 New York City voters cast ballots early in the mayoral race, according to the New York City Board of Elections, as the high-stakes election between Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa heated up in the final days of campaigning.

Those numbers shattered early voting data from the last New York City mayors’ race in 2021. Roughly 170,000 voters cast ballots early that year, according to The New York Times, though that year’s election was less competitive.

Shortly before midnight Monday, Mamdani posted a video to Instagram with the sort of rhetoric that has ignited enthusiasm among his supporters while fanning fears among Democrats closer to the center who are uneasy about the candidate’s rising national profile.“There are many who say that a democratic socialist vision of governance for New York is impossible, that our ideas are untested,” Mamdani said. “To them, I say: We need look only at our past for proof of how socialism can shape our future.”

He went on to reference Vito Marcantonio, a New Deal-era socialist lawmaker who represented East Harlem in Congress and was a supporter and ally of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

But to think of this merely as a historical allusion is to misunderstand the moment. To democratic socialists, a Mamdani mayoral win would be the capstone of a 10-year stretch that began with the insurgent presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., against Hillary Clinton in 2015 and 2016, continued with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s improbable 2018 congressional win over Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and the formation of the “Squad” of like-minded progressive lawmakers and, ultimately, the Democratic Party’s shift to the left.

The New York City mayoral election is being billed as a window into the soul of the Democratic Party, even though there isn’t a traditional Democrat on the ballot.

Here’s a look at the candidates vying in Tuesday’s election to determine the next leader of the nation’s most populous city and its nine million residents:

President Donald Trump may not be on the ballot Tuesday, but in many places, he might as well be.

The president’s influence can be felt in several key races across the country, from candidates both parties have nominated to a referendum in California that seeks to counter Trump’s efforts to gerrymander a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

The results will be the first major sign of how voters are responding to the president’s norm-shattering second term ahead of next year’s midterms.

Ryan looks at the races to watch here:

Republicans hoped President Trump’s strong 2024 performance would bode well for Earle-Sears’ chances of becoming the first woman to hold the state’s governorship. Instead, Trump’s government shutdown led to widespread fury among Virginia’s more than 320,000 struggling federal workers. Now, Earle-Sears is performing the worst of all GOP statewide candidates and trailing Spanberger by roughly seven percentage points. Ouch.

Tuesday’s election is nothing less than a referendum on Trump’s shutdown and his disdain for the federal workers who make up the backbone of the Commonwealth’s economy. Virginia’s Trump-enabling Republican leaders have earned the drubbing voters are likely about to hand them.

Read more from Max here:

That’s where Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who first won election to the House in the anti-Trump wave of 2018, and GOP businessman Jack Ciattarelli are running for governor in one of the most closely watched contests on Tuesday.

Ciattarelli came within three percentage points of beating outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in 2021, and some polls have shown this year’s contest coming down to the wire.

And it’s also where the popularity of President Donald Trump after 10 months in office will be most keenly tested. Trump made real gains in New Jersey in the 2024 election, losing the historically blue state by just six points.

Read more from Laura here:

And that is precisely what worries some Democrats on the national stage as Zohran Mamdani’s surging mayoral campaign nears the finish line.

For the progressive left, a Mamdani win would be a signal achievement, catapulting a self-identified democratic socialist to one of the most prominent public offices in American politics. It would cap off a decade of gains — from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s improbable 2018 congressional win, to moving the entire party to the left.

In New York, his supporters are lapping it up.

But in Washington, Democrats are uneasy.

“Mamdani has run a joyful campaign that has offered many tactical lessons for Democrats,” Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist, told MSNBC. “But it would be a grave mistake to think you could run somebody with these policy positions anywhere outside of America’s most liberal city.”

“A Mamdani victory is a serious political problem for those in the party who believe, as we do, that our primary focus must be on flipping red and purple seats blue, expanding the map for Democrats, and creating a path back to Congress and the White House,” Matt Bennett, executive vice president of center-left think tank Third Way, told MSNBC. “The [Democratic Socialists of America] platform — which Mamdani has not repudiated — hands a potent set of weapons to Republican ad makers eager to tie Mamdani-style politics to Democrats running in much tougher places than deep blue New York.”

Read more from Zack and Nnamdi here.