It’s election day in the US.
Voters are queuing up in New York to choose a new mayor, while Virginia and New Jersey will decide a pair of high-profile governor races. California voters will weigh in on whether to redraw their state’s US House district maps.
This so-called “off year” election doesn’t feature presidential or congressional races, but there are still several critical votes to watch tonight.
During the mayoral race in New York City, a young and more progressive Democratic is challenged by one of the representatives of the old guard of the party.
The result of the gubernatorial race in the state of Virginia and New Jersey may be harbingers of the midterm congressional elections next year.
The redistricting that is being voted by Californians is a rare one because the Democrats are attempting to neutralize the attempts by Republicans to give their side an upper hand in the mid-term elections of next year.
Here are five things to watch.
1. New York City mayoral race
Everyone will turn to the city of the Big Apple wherein Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman, tries to stage a political upset in the quest to be elected as the youngest mayor in New York City in more than 100 years.
In this summer, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, entered the political scene by having defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. Cuomo has not given up, and he remained a campaigning independent. Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, has on the other hand, resisted the urge to withdraw the contest to give way to Cuomo.
- New Yorkers could pick a political newcomer to run their city – and take on Trump
- Trump backs Cuomo for New York City mayor and threatens to cut funding if Mamdani wins
- Who is Zohran Mamdani?
In case Mamdani succeeds, he will become the first Muslim mayor in the city. The Democrats of the country will be curious to know whether his laser-centricity on cost-of-living challenges such as rent, grocery and wages, can be used as effective messages in coming races.
With a proposed polling advantage going into election night, the margin between Mamdani and Cuomo has become narrow. During the last period of the campaign, Cuomo has flattened Mamdani over crime and city safety, and alleged that the young politician does not have the experience to be the leader of the largest city in America.
2. California redistricting
California’s Democratic leadership is asking voters for permission to redraw the state’s congressional districts in the middle of the decade. That’s unusual in California, which by law relies on a nonpartisan committee to draw its congressional maps once every decade, based on census data.
But with Republican dominated states such as Texas and Missouri rushing to redraw their congressional lines to benefit their party in the 2026 midterm elections, California Governor Gavin Newsom is looking forward to balance the losses with redistricting his state.
The Prop. 50 of California would permit the use of new maps of congressional districts at the expense of temporary usage until 2030. According to the Los Angeles Times, the campaign has attracted donations of $158 million, of which the Democratic proponents have contributed immensely compared to the Republican opposition campaign.
California Republicans who have just nine out of the 52 seat representation in the US House are a strong opponent of the plan.
According to a University of California Berkeley/IGS poll, 60 per cent of the likely California voters are in support of the Prop 50 and 38 per cent of the voters are against the Prop 50. The partisan vote was very split with 93 remaining democrats saying they would vote yes and 91 Republicans voting no.
3. New Jersey governor’s race
New Jersey is a Democratic state although it is not polling out to be a close call between the Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. It is one of the two governor races this year which might show the attitude of the Americans towards the present political situation.
Sherrill currently represents New Jersey’s 11th District in Congress, and Ciattarelli is a former state assemblyman.
Despite leaning blue, the state has had Republican governors in the past. The last one, Chris Christie, served two terms between 2010 and 2018.
The race has been a heated rhetoric. Ciattarelli and his supporters have been conducting political campaign ads with videos of Sherrill making stumbling replies during interviews on her policies.
It also has attracted both sides nationally renowned names. Sherrill has been campaigning with democratic star candidates such as former president Barack Obama and former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg. It has been supported by President Donald Trump at a virtual rally for Ciattarelli and by conservative activist Jack Posobiec.
4. Virginia governor’s race
The leadership of Virginia has been mostly fluctuating between Democrats and Republicans indicating that the outcome of the election in the gubernatorial race this year may be used as a barometer of the mood of the electorate.
Any way, whoever is elected, the state will be having the first woman governor of the year. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a US congresswoman, and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor of the state, will compete against each other in voting.
Earle-Sears, should she win will become the first black woman to be elected to lead a US state in the history of the country.
Virginia is bordered by the liberal-leaning Washington DC to the north, where many residents work in the nation’s capitol or for the federal government. But the state also has deep pockets of conservative voters throughout its rural districts, and swing voters.
5. The Trump factor
Though he’s not on the ballot, Trump’s name looms over this election.
The New York City mayor’s race is how the next leader of the city will deal with the Trump administration, which has meddled in the city’s politics. Cuomo is pitching his experience as governor dealing with the first administration as a reason for voters to choose him.
The president has even suggested that he will wreak havoc on the city in case of voters electing Mamdani.
Trump has made an appearance on the 60 Minutes programme that was aired on Sunday and in an interview with the 60 Minutes. Trump said: It is not going to be easy to me as the president to give a lot of money to New York because when you have a communist in charge of New York all you are doing is you are wasting the money you are sending that way. Mamdani dispels the communist label.
Trump launched the redistricting fight that saw California place the proposition 50 on the ballot, and has endorsed Ciattarelli in the New Jersey governor race.
