Zohran Mamdani challenges President Donald Trump head-on following his historic New York mayoral election win
Democrats have swept a trio of races in the first major elections since Donald Trump regained the presidency, elevating a new generation of leaders and giving the beleaguered party a shot of momentum before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the mayoral race, capping a meteoric and unlikely rise from an anonymous state lawmaker to one of the country’s most visible Democratic figures.
In Virginia and New Jersey respectively, moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger, 46, and Mikie Sherrill, 53, won the elections for governor with commanding leads.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani, who will become the youngest mayor in a century to lead the largest city in the US, told supporters.
“And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
“So Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up.”
The crowd responded with the raucous cheers.
“…AND SO IT BEGINS!” Trump posted on social media.
Tuesday’s contests offered a barometer of how Americans are responding to Trump’s tumultuous nine months in office.
The races also served as a test of differing Democratic campaign playbooks before 2026, with the party locked out of power in Washington and still trying to forge a path out of the political wilderness.
Perhaps the biggest practical boost to Democrats came out of California, where voters gave Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw the state’s congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that will shape the race for the US House of Representatives.
The winning candidates on Tuesday could re-energise and inspire more engagement from Democratic voters, many of whom have clamoured for fresh faces at the vanguard of the party.
All three Democratic candidates emphasised economic issues, particularly affordability, an issue that remains top of mind for most voters.
But Spanberger and Sherrill hail from the party’s moderate wing, while Mamdani used a viral video-fuelled insurgent campaign to present himself as an unabashed progressive in the mould of senator Bernie Sanders and US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“The Democratic Party is back,” Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives, posted on X.
Mamdani, who will become the city’s first Muslim mayor, outlasted former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mamdani earlier in 2025.
Cuomo, who resigned as governor four years ago after sexual harassment allegations that he has denied, portrayed Mamdani as a radical leftist whose proposals — such as raising taxes on corporations to pay for policies such as frozen rents and free city buses — were unworkable and dangerous.
Republicans from Trump down have already signalled they intend to present Mamdani as the face of the Democratic Party.
In a social media post on Tuesday night, Trump blamed the losses on the fact his name was not on the ballot and on an ongoing federal government shutdown.
Spanberger, who beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, will take over from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in Virginia.
New Jersey’s Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli and will succeed Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.
‘We sent a message’
Both Sherrill and Spanberger had sought to tie their opponents to Trump in an effort to harness frustration among Democratic and independent voters over his chaotic tenure.
“We sent a message to the world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” Spanberger said in her victory speech, adding: “We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”
Trump gave both candidates some late-stage grist during the ongoing government shutdown.
His administration threatened to fire federal workers, which had a big impact on Virginia, which neighbours Washington, DC, and is home to many government employees.
He froze billions of dollars in funding for a new Hudson River train tunnel, a critical project for New Jersey’s large commuter population.
In interviews at Virginia polling stations, some voters said Trump’s most contentious policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the US illegally and to impose costly tariffs on imports.