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    New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani challenges Donald Trump in victory speech as Democrats win key US election races – live

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    It’s been a busy night! Here’s a debrief of all the key moments to get you up to speed:

    Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect of New York City with a decisive victory over former governor Andrew Cuomo. With more than 97% of the votes counted, Mamdani received more votes – at least 1.03 million – than all the other candidates combined, including Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

    California passed Proposition 50, the measure that will temporarily redistrict the state in hopes of countering Republican efforts to do the same in Texas. The new maps could help Democrats pick up five additional seats in the US House of Representatives.

    It was a good night for Democrats, with Abigail Spanberger winning the Virginia governor’s race and Mikie Sherrill winning the governorship in New Jersey.

    President Donald Trump took to his favored platform, Truth Social, to distance himself from the losses. He also urged Republicans to pass voter reform and terminate the filibuster. As Mamdani was speaking, Trump posted a cryptic final missive of the night: “AND SO IT BEGINS!”.

    Mamdani directly addressed Trump in his victory speech in Brooklyn, vowing to use his role in city hall to counter his politics of division. The newly minted mayor said: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up.”
    Zohran Mamdani supporters said they were “elated” and “hopeful” after the Democratic candidate was elected as the new mayor of New York City.Mamdani’s socialist campaign promising to freeze rent and make buses free seduced New Yorkers who voted for him en masse, securing victory for him with more than 50% of the vote. He will be inaugurated as the 111th mayor of the city in January.You can see New Yorkers reacting to Mamdani’s victory in this video:Today’s First Edition newsletter focuses on Zohran Mamdani being declared the winner of the New York City mayoral election with more than 50% of the vote on the biggest turnout since the 1960s. You can read Archie Bland’s summary here:Below is a snippet from the newsletter:What does his victory mean for New York?While Mamdani has been portrayed as an extremist, much of his policy platform is fairly middle-of-the-road social democratic stuff: he wants to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour, increase taxes on the highest earners, make bus transit free, offer universal childcare and increase affordable housing provision.His boldest proposals are probably a rent freeze for two million people living in housing where rent stabilisation laws barring excessive rises are already in place, and a plan to establish city-owned grocery stores with price controls.The question now is how much of that platform he can put into practice. This Vital City piece has a useful guide to which policies he can enact on his own, and which would require cooperation from other stakeholders. And this New York Times piece sets out the costs, noting his plan to raise about $10bn in additional revenue each year.Across the borough, in what has been affectionately called by pollster Michael Lange “the commie corridor” – so called because Zohran Mamdani pulled autocrat numbers there in the primary – the line for a dance club on the edge of Bushwick and Ridgewood was equally lively.Hundreds queued up on the sidewalk outside Nowadays for another Democratic Socialists of America watch party, cheering and holding signs, and, in the case of one woman, a cardboard cutout of Mamdani. Those who made it in wore various unofficial merch – Hot Girls for Zohran, Bisexuals for Zohran, at least one pair of hot pants with “Zohran” blazed on the butt – and bummed cigarettes or sipped mixed drinks as they waited for the race to be called. They were confident, if slightly scarred from past election upsets. “He’s good. We’re all just traumatized from 2016,” a man in a black beret said to no one in particular.The crowd was a genuine mix: Black, white, brown, young folks and old folks, party gays, butch lesbians, bridge-and-tunnel kids who couldn’t even vote in the election but felt its reverberations nonetheless. Amber Pease, 25, lives in Nassau county in Long Island. Her inability to cast a vote didn’t stop her from traveling in to volunteer for Zohran’s campaign. She wants to get a job and move into the city soon. “I’ve been waiting to see a good progressive candidate, and to have one so close to home, it gives me a lot of hope.”When the election was called for Mamdani, the cheers could be heard inside and on the street, and someone started a “DSA! DSA!” chant (not to be mistaken with a “USA! USA!” chant). Soon a representative for the DSA named Kareem took the stage. He referenced Mamdani’s meteoric rise. “This didn’t just start last year,” he said. “This is the culmination of years of work.” He spoke of the progressive New Yorkers who campaigned against the Iraq war, and the Occupy Wall Street movement, and those who stumped for Bernie Sanders. He also noted how Andrew Cuomo’s campaign trafficked a message of fear, with Mamdani’s “antidote” being solidarity. At Nowadays, the victory felt communal.Inside an election watch party hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene, under the din of pet-nat wines being cracked open, there was a sense of nervous anticipation. “I’m not sure if this is an accurate recreation of Solomon’s Temple,” said one supporter in a Zohran Mamdani T-shirt. “This is like a who’s who of everyone I’ve slept with,” said another.The suspense didn’t last long. Just after 9.30pm, someone jumped on the mic to announce that news outlets had called it: a record number of New Yorkers had cast ballots in this electric – and often ugly – race between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, ultimately choosing the 34-year-old democratic socialist of seemingly boundless energy who had shocked party establishment in the primary by winning on a clear-eyed affordability agenda. The DJ immediately started playing I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas. And, indeed, tonight was a good, good night for those in the room, who erupted in tears, hugs and twerking.Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and its youngest in over a century – but not its first immigrant mayor, nor its first mayor to champion socialist ideals. New Yorkers celebrated his monumental election at official and unofficial parties spread across the five boroughs.“I’ve been a DSA member for over 10 years,” said 40-year-old health department worker Will, at the Fort Greene party. “This just shows that our politics are not radical, that New Yorkers actually think what we believe is sensible, and maybe the rest of the country is ready for sensible, commonsense, Democratic socialism.”As the dancefloor was in full swing (even as the house lights remained dangerously bright), Ellie, a 28-year-old bartender from Bed-Stuy, felt “absolutely ecstatic”. “This is the first time we’ve had hope in so long. I can’t remember a – ”She cut herself short to scream along to the chorus of Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone.These are the people who fought for Mamdani when he was polling at 1%, who celebrated his socialist principles when others said they disqualified him. As his speech played, there was a sense not just of political hope but a project come to fruition, the work of a lifetime building to a moment that might change the city – and all soundtracked to the 90s Eurodance anthem Freed from Desire.Democrats have racked up election wins across the US, but they would do well not to misread the results, writes the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith. You can read his full analysis here:In case you’re coming our US elections blog now, here are some graphics recapping the New York mayoral election results:Donald Trump’s approach to this government shutdown stands in marked contrast to his first term, when the government was partially closed for 35 days over his demands for funds to build the US-Mexico border wall. At that time, he met publicly and negotiated with congressional leaders, but unable to secure the funds, he relented in 2019. As the Associated Press (AP) reports, this time, it is not just Trump declining to engage in talks. The congressional leaders are at a standoff and House speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home in September after they approved their own funding bill, refusing further negotiations.In the meantime, food aid, childcare funds and countless other government services are being seriously interrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or expected to come to work without pay.Transportation secretary Sean Duffy predicted there could be chaos in the skies next week if air traffic controllers miss another paycheck, reports the AP. Labor unions put pressure on lawmakers to reopen the government.Senate majority leader John Thune said this has been not only the longest shutdown but also “the most severe shutdown on record.”The Republican leader has urged the Democrats to accept his overtures to vote on the health care issue and keep negotiating a solution once the government reopens, arguing that no one wins politically from the standoff. “Shutdowns are stupid,” Thune said.You can view Zohran Mamdani’s historic triumph in New York City’s mayoral election in pictures via the gallery below:The Associated Press has a brief explainer on the election in the 18th congressional district:Confusion has lingered over the election in the 18th congressional district, where many residents will vote in a different district next year under a redrawn map demanded by Donald Trump in an effort to increase the number of GOP seats, reports the AP. Republicans currently hold a seven-seat majority in the House, 219-212, with four vacancies, including the Houston seat. Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in September in a heavily Democratic district along the Mexico border, but she has not been sworn in yet. A narrower majority gives Republican leaders less room to maneuver.The current 18th district is solidly Democratic and spirals from northeast Houston through downtown, back up to northwest Houston and east again, until its two ends come close to forming a doughnut. Non-Hispanic whites make up about 23% of its voting-age citizens, though no single group has a majority. The redrawn 18th stretches from suburbs southwest of Houston diagonally through the city and past its northeast limits. A little more than 50% of voting-age citizens are Black, which critics say is not a big enough majority for them to determine who gets elected, reports the AP.Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards advanced to a runoff on Tuesday night in a special election for a US House seat that has been vacant since March and will narrow the GOP’s slim majority once a winner is sworn in, reports the Associated Press (AP). Menefee, who serves as Harris County attorney, and Edwards, a former Houston city council member, received the most votes in a crowded field of 16 candidates. Neither received more than 50% of the vote, sending the race to a runoff that is expected early next year.The winner is to serve out the remaining term of Democratic rep Sylvester Turner, who died two months after taking office representing the deep-blue 18th congressional district.After Turner’s death, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended not holding a special election until November by arguing that Houston election officials needed time to prepare. Democrats criticized the long wait and accused Abbott of trying to give his party’s House majority more cushion. Menefee said his message for President Donald Trump and his allies is, “We’ve got one more election left, and then you’re going to have to see me”. Menefee said:
    For months, as this seat sat vacant, I heard from voters who were ready for someone willing to take on Donald Trump and the far right – not just talk about change, but deliver real results.
    “It’s not enough to me just for us to fight back against the attacks waged by our president,” Edwards said, speaking to supporters after polls closed. “We must do that and forge a path for our future.”Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of Trump’s executive orders on immigration. He was endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats including former congressman Beto O’Rourke and rep Jasmine Crockett.Edwards served four years on the council starting in 2016. She ran for US Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged US rep Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement. More

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      ‘Like we won the championship’: New Yorkers celebrate Mamdani’s win with cheers, tears and DSA chants

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      Inside an election watch party hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene, under the din of pet-nat wines being cracked open, there was a sense of nervous anticipation. “I’m not sure if this is an accurate recreation of Solomon’s Temple,” said one supporter in a Zohran Mamdani T-shirt. “This is like a who’s who of everyone I’ve slept with,” said another.The suspense didn’t last long. Just after 9.30pm, someone jumped on the mic to announce that news outlets had called it: a record number of New Yorkers had cast ballots in this electric – and often ugly – race between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, ultimately choosing the 34-year-old democratic socialist of seemingly boundless energy who had shocked party establishment in the primary by winning on a clear-eyed affordability agenda. The DJ immediately started playing I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas. And, indeed, tonight was a good, good night for those in the room, who erupted in tears, hugs and twerking.Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and its youngest in over a century – but not its first immigrant mayor, nor its first mayor to champion socialist ideals. New Yorkers celebrated his monumental election at official and unofficial parties spread across the five boroughs.“I’ve been a DSA member for over 10 years,” said 40-year-old health department worker Will, at the Fort Greene party. “This just shows that our politics are not radical, that New Yorkers actually think what we believe is sensible, and maybe the rest of the country is ready for sensible, commonsense, Democratic socialism.”As the dancefloor was in full swing (even as the house lights remained dangerously bright), Ellie, a 28-year-old bartender from Bed-Stuy, felt “absolutely ecstatic”. “This is the first time we’ve had hope in so long. I can’t remember a – ”She cut herself short to scream along to the chorus of Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone.These are the people who fought for Mamdani when he was polling at 1%, who celebrated his socialist principles when others said they disqualified him. As his speech played, there was a sense not just of political hope but a project come to fruition, the work of a lifetime building to a moment that might change the city – and all soundtracked to the 90s Eurodance anthem Freed from Desire.Across the borough, in what has been affectionately called by pollster Michael Lange “the commie corridor” – so called because Mamdani pulled autocrat numbers there in the primary – the line for a dance club on the edge of Bushwick and Ridgewood was equally lively.Hundreds queued up on the sidewalk outside Nowadays for another DSA watch party, cheering and holding signs, and, in the case of one woman, a cardboard cutout of Mamdani. Those who made it in wore various unofficial merch – Hot Girls for Zohran, Bisexuals for Zohran, at least one pair of hot pants with “Zohran” blazed on the butt – and bummed cigarettes or sipped mixed drinks as they waited for the race to be called. They were confident, if slightly scarred from past election upsets. “He’s good. We’re all just traumatized from 2016,” a man in a black beret said to no one in particular.The crowd was a genuine mix: Black, white, brown, young folks and old folks, party gays, butch lesbians, bridge-and-tunnel kids who couldn’t even vote in the election but felt its reverberations nonetheless. Amber Pease, 25, lives in Nassau county in Long Island. Her inability to cast a vote didn’t stop her from traveling in to volunteer for Zohran’s campaign. She wants to get a job and move into the city soon. “I’ve been waiting to see a good progressive candidate, and to have one so close to home, it gives me a lot of hope.”View image in fullscreenWhen the election was called for Mamdani, the cheers could be heard inside and on the street, and someone started a “DSA! DSA!” chant (not to be mistaken with a “USA! USA!” chant). Soon a representative for the DSA named Kareem took the stage. He referenced Mamdani’s meteoric rise. “This didn’t just start last year,” he said. “This is the culmination of years of work.” He spoke of the progressive New Yorkers who campaigned against the Iraq war, and the Occupy Wall Street movement, and those who stumped for Bernie Sanders. He also noted how Cuomo’s campaign trafficked a message of fear, with Mamdani’s “antidote” being solidarity. At Nowadays, the victory felt communal.In Astoria, Mamdani’s home turf, hijabi girls wearing keffiyehs raced to watch parties while uncles outside hookah bars kept an eye on the streets. (“We like this guy Mamdani. We’ll be watching him,” one said.) A large crowd gathered outside of Moka & Co, a Yemeni cafe, to hear the results come in over loudspeaker.Nisa Ganiestry, a 41-year-old homemaker living in Astoria, stood with her young son. She recently worked to secure her citizenship so that she could vote for Mamdani; she’s known Mamdani since he became Astoria’s assemblyman in 2021. Over the past five years, she said, Astoria has rapidly gentrified. “We couldn’t afford newer space, we couldn’t afford to get groceries, but I am really, really optimistic that he can fix the situation.”“We’re in the belly of the beast here in New York. We’re the financial capital of the world,” said Shivana Jorawar, an organizer based in the North Bronx. “If we can elect a socialist mayor in New York, we can do that anywhere.”View image in fullscreenPassing cars, buses, and cabs honked in celebration with the crowd as the night wore on. Every now and then, chants of free Palestine would ring out. Many cheered, some cried, and all waited patiently for their new mayor to speak.For Shehab Chowdhury, 34, co-chair of Bangladeshi-Americans for Political Progress, Mamdani’s participation in a 2021 hunger strike to win debt relief for taxi drivers and dedication to the Palestinian cause earned his respect. He said Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani have been felt throughout the entire Muslim community. “As Zohran has said: for so long we’ve stood in the shadows. Now it’s time to stand in the light.”Zayed Chowdhury (no relation), who runs a cybersecurity startup in Virginia, grew up in the projects of New York in the 1980s. He can’t vote in New York any more, but the election still mattered. “We were here when there were no Muslims in New York. My grandfather has a plaque that says he’s the second Muslim ever to land on Ellis Island,” Chowdhury said. “In 85, when I was in kindergarten, they didn’t even know what a Muslim was. Thirty years later, it’s like we won the championship.”View image in fullscreenEarlier in the night, in Jackson Heights, one of New York’s most diverse neighborhoods, Cherry Ann Chishti had a Mamdani sign outside the window of her halal restaurant. “Finally someone younger, someone with new ideas, someone connected to the people has arrived to make real change,” said Chishti, 38, who also works as a behavioral analyst in Ozone Park. “The bussing. The healthcare. I work with kids with autism. Every dollar we invest in childcare has a return of $11-17. They grow up more social. And it allows their moms, their dads to focus better on their jobs. Better workers means more taxes that benefit the city.”As midnight approached, Paul Aljoon, 62, exited a bodega in Bushwick yelling: “Mamdani!” He had canvassed for the candidate since the primaries. Now he’s looking ahead to Mamdani’s inauguration, and the daunting task of making the city affordable that awaits the new mayor. “Let him settle in office,” Aljoon said. “Let him get his team together. And then, move on. He has to do stuff with sanitation, then the police department, and then hope that no virus comes back to New York.”For Daniel Dale, a 23-year-old actor from Bed-Stuy and an immigrant from Colombia, it was time to bask in the moment. “I’ve never felt in the right place,” Dale said. But Mamdani’s message has drawn him in. “It’s full of a couple simple things that everybody knows they want.” For Dale, as many others across the city, this was an emotional night. More

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      Zohran Mamdani’s historic triumph in New York City’s mayoral election – in pictures

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      ‘A historic victory’: our panel reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s triumph | Panel

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      Osita Nwanevu: ‘a historic victory of the American left’Set aside for a moment the interminable back and forth over whether Zohran Mamdani represents the future of the Democratic party. This much is beyond dispute: Mamdani represents the immediate future of New York City, America’s largest town and the financial capital of the world.His win, just as indisputably, is a historic victory for the American left, which has been buoyed in spirit and resolve since Mamdani’s underdog victory in the mayoral primary. In New York, it will have a measure of the governing power its own pessimists and its dogged opponents within the Democratic party alike have doubted it was capable of winning.And the country at large will be watching the city closely ⁠– less out of a belief in the coming apocalypse only Republicans are convinced the city is in for than out of curiosity as to whether Mamdani can actually deliver on the promise of his campaign and manage the city at least as well as an ordinary Democrat could.But the challenges sure to face him as he works to prove himself shouldn’t overshadow the significance of what he’s already done. An organizing effort that will be studied for many years to come, highly disciplined messaging, a moral stand on the genocide in Gaza that has shaken up the Democratic party’s internal politics on confronting Israel, a level of charisma and creativity unseen on the American political scene since at least Barack Obama, a conceptual bridge between the material politics of affordability and a politics of values, speaking to what it means to be a New Yorker and an American ⁠– Mamdani’s run has offered us lessons that ought to be put to work well beyond New York City’s limits.

      Osita Nwanevu is a columnist at Guardian US and the author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding
      Judith Levine: why are Democrats running from Mamdani?The last door on my canvassing turf, a Brooklyn brownstone, looked like a gut renovation: minimalist plantings, spot lighting. The woman welcomed me. Her vote for Mamdani “felt historic”, she said. And her husband? “Are you voting for Zohran?” she shouted into the house. The reply: “Just don’t raise my taxes.”There it was. Israel and Islamophobia moved voters one way or another. But in the end, it was pure class warfare.The city’s richest man donated $8m to defeat Mamdani. The New York Post predicted that Wall Street would move to Dallas if the democratic socialist won. “This election is a choice between capitalism and socialism,” Cuomo declared.Mamdani’s platform, “affordability”, is hardly radical. Indeed, Americans support what he promises: free childcare and raising taxes on millionaires. Gallup recently found that Democrats view socialism more positively than capitalism – 66 to 42%.Still, if not quite socialist, the spirit of city hall will be different: pro-immigrant, pro-tenant, pro-government, anti-billionaire. Last week, three Democratic leaders told the press they wouldn’t let the Republicans use 42 million hungry food stamp beneficiaries to force an end to the shutdown, letting healthcare subsidies lapse to bankroll tax giveaways to the rich. Then Chuck Schumer hurried out, ducking a question about whether he supported Mamdani.“A city where everyone can live with security and dignity.” Mamdani’s message, applied nationally, was the same as the message Democrats were trying to push at their press conference. In New York, it prevailed. Why are Democrats running from this gifted messenger, who embodies the only vital future for a moribund party?

      Judith Levine is Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism
      Malaika Jabali: ‘flicker of hope amid the gloom’If conservatives wanted to fearmonger about the specter of socialism to keep Mamdani from winning New York City’s mayoral race, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.Donald Trump, billionaire president and self-appointed foil to the new mayor-elect of New York City, has been playing games with the country’s food stamp program as families show up in droves to food bank lines. Authoritarianism, expensive healthcare and unaffordable housing have threatened the average American household, and the country’s elites have cruelly mocked them.New York City residents have felt this acutely. The city’s voters cited cost of living, and housing in particular, as the top concern as they exited the voting booths Tuesday.Mamdani’s popularity will be attributed to his social media savvy and connection with young voters. But the bigger factor is that Mamdani tapped into their economic anxieties in ways the Democratic establishment has failed to while it stubbornly commits to a neoliberal agenda.In the years ahead, Mamdani will not only face antagonism from Trump but the antipathy of his own party, home to Democratic leaders such as Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, none of whom endorsed him in the race. But for one night at least, New Yorkers can celebrate this flicker of hope amid the gloom.

      Malaika Jabali is a columnist at Guardian US
      Bhaskar Sunkara: don’t chalk this up to ‘viral moments’I spent most of tonight thinking about how improbable this once seemed. Mamdani – a democratic socialist – is the next mayor of New York City.Zohran is an incredibly gifted communicator and he built a campaign team that matched that talent. But it would be a mistake to chalk up his victory to charisma or viral moments. It was built on knocking on doors, talking about rent, wages and the everyday costs that define people’s lives. It was a reminder that the left wins when it shows that democratic socialists are laser-focused on meeting human needs, not fighting culture wars.They tried to make the race about Israel. They tried to paint Mamdani as an extremist or a threat. But he refused the bait, staying disciplined and universal in his appeal – talking about housing, transit and affordability with the same clarity to every audience. It was politics rooted in working-class issues, not posture.Does this victory matter beyond New York? Absolutely. The style will differ in deep red districts, but the lesson is the same: build politics around the pocketbook issues workers care about most.

      Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor of Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme Inequalities More

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      US elections 2025 live: Americans go to the polls, with elections in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia and California

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      We are restarting our live coverage of US politics.Americans are heading to the polls on Tuesday in a number of elections that will show where support for Donald Trump’s Republicans stands and whether Democrats have cause for hope.Much attention in the US and abroad will be on Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, who is facing off against former governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary against Mamdani earlier this year, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.In California, voters could tear up their congressional maps to turn Republican districts into Democratic ones in an effort to counter gains the GOP is expected to make elsewhere after the party gerrymandered maps in states including Texas and Missouri.Virginia and New Jersey will hold high-stakes gubernatorial and legislative elections that may serve as a proxy for voters’ views on the president.We will bring you the latest news and reactions as election day unfolds.New York City has probably the most high-profile mayor in the country, and in June, Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary in an upset over former governor Andrew Cuomo.Though Cuomo remains in the race as an independent, polls show Mamdani with a formidable lead, and if he wins, his brand of left-wing politics will be given a prominent platform.On Monday, the candidates for New York City mayor spent a frantic final day campaigning across the city. Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner, whose campaign has been centered on affordability, has maintained a commanding lead, with most polls showing him leading by double digits.The 34-year-old Democratic nominee, a state assembly member from Queens, began his Monday walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise. He was joined by the New York attorney general, Letitia James; the city comptroller, Brad Lander; as well as several city and state lawmakers and throngs of supporters.He finished the walk at city hall, where he told a news conference that “we stand on the verge of ushering in a new day for our city”, and was scheduled to join volunteers before they began a final day of canvassing in Astoria, Queens, later in the day.Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in June’s primary, kicked off the last day of the campaign with an interview on the Spanish-language radio station La Mega before heading to a campaign stop in the Bronx. He reportedly planned to visit all five boroughs on Monday.Running a distant third has been Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate and founder of the Guardian Angels, a non-profit organization dedicated to “unarmed crime prevention”. According to social media, Sliwa spent part of Monday morning at Coney Island and was set to host a tele-rally in the evening.We are restarting our live coverage of US politics.Americans are heading to the polls on Tuesday in a number of elections that will show where support for Donald Trump’s Republicans stands and whether Democrats have cause for hope.Much attention in the US and abroad will be on Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, who is facing off against former governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary against Mamdani earlier this year, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.In California, voters could tear up their congressional maps to turn Republican districts into Democratic ones in an effort to counter gains the GOP is expected to make elsewhere after the party gerrymandered maps in states including Texas and Missouri.Virginia and New Jersey will hold high-stakes gubernatorial and legislative elections that may serve as a proxy for voters’ views on the president.We will bring you the latest news and reactions as election day unfolds. More

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      It’s clear why Zohran Mamdani is leading in the New York mayoral race | Margaret Sullivan

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      For someone who exudes positive energy and seldom stops smiling, Zohran Mamdani certainly does provoke a lot of negative reactions.“He’s not who you think he is,” one TV ad glowered over gloomy images of the 34-year-old state assemblymember who is the clear frontrunner for New York City mayor. The ad doesn’t make clear precisely what the supposed disconnect is, but the tagline clearly is meant to give voters pause.“Never ran anything,” former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo charged, as he dissed his opponent on Fox News. “There’s no time for on-the-job training when any given morning, God forbid, you could have a mass murder or a terrorist attack.” Cuomo’s campaign yanked an ad that went further, using racist stereotypes to depict Mamdani supporters.And the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has been on an anti-Mamdani run for many weeks, churning out opinion pieces like this one from conservative columnist Peggy Noonan: “New York, You’ve Been Warned.” Or this one from Journal editorial board member Joseph Sternberg: “Sorry Republicans, There’s No Silver Lining to a Mamdani Win.”Another Murdoch-controlled newspaper, the New York Post, has not confined its views to the opinion pages but rather shouted them on its tabloid front pages. “SCAMDANI”, read one cover story, with a subheading quoting Mayor Eric Adams calling the state assemblymember a “snake oil salesman”.The pro-Trump billionaire Bill Ackman has warned New Yorkers that Mamdani’s personality is a fraud. “The whole thing is an act,” Ackman posted on X after the mayoral debate last month. “After watching him recreate his fake smile, your skin will start to crawl.” Ackman gave $1m to the anti-Mamdani effort through the Super Pac Defend NYC, while former mayor Mike Bloomberg has contributed more than that to efforts to thwart Mamdani’s rise; Bloomberg gave $1.5m to a pro-Cuomo Super Pac, after spending millions to help Cuomo in June’s primary.But if you ignore the ads, the headlines and the social media posts, another story emerges, as researchers from the Harvard Institute of Politics found when they spoke to young people during the recent early-voting period.“I think my life could really improve if he wins,” enthused one young woman, quoted in an ABC News story about the Harvard focus group. Another respondent compared him in one respect to Donald Trump: “There’s no flip-flopping.”And another approvingly described Mamdani as “badass”.The democratic socialist holds a double-digit lead in the race and right now looks like a shoo-in.It certainly feels that way to this New Yorker. I live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, an area that split its vote in the Democratic primary between Cuomo and Mamdani, and I also spend a lot of time on a university campus. What I’ve noticed is that Mamdani energizes people and while some of that reaction is skeptical, a lot of the people I encounter – from students to seniors – want to give the newcomer a chance.New York City, after all, is unaffordable for too many, so Mamdani’s relentless focus on the cost of rent and groceries has struck a nerve. Mamdani’s embrace of his Muslim faith, his advocacy for Gaza and his willingness to stand up for immigrants has solidified his appeal.There’s a clarity about it that stands in sharp contrast to most Democratic politicians, noted Astead Herndon, editorial director at Vox who wrote a recent New York Times magazine cover story titled The Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani.“He works from the premise of his beliefs,” Herndon said on CNN. “A lot of Democrats … have mastered this triangulation dance … where it feels like sometimes, they’re trying to say nothing.” And what’s more, since the primary, his campaign has become more inclusive, as he reaches out to constituencies and powerful figures who have had serious doubts about him. He’s won at least some of them over.Others, of course, will never be won over, but are becoming resigned to the reality of a Mayor Mamdani.Governor Kathy Hochul, whose political instincts are well-honed and practical, endorsed Mamdani in mid-September despite significant policy differences. (At a rally in Queens, chants of “tax the rich” interrupted Hochul’s speech and the Times described the progressive crowd’s response to the centrist governor as “tepid”.)Hochul carried on, though, and got a better reaction when she praised the candidate for refusing to “get down in the gutter” with his many critics, especially those who try to weaponize his faith or ethnicity.Instead, Hochul said: “He rises up with grace and courage and grit.”Hochul is expected to run for re-election next year.She surely has calculated that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have the Democratic mayor of New York City in her corner. And there is little doubt who that will be.

      Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist covering US media, politics and culture. More

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      Obama calls Mamdani and offers to be ‘sounding board’ if he wins mayoral race

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      Zohran Mamdani, who holds a lead in polling ahead of New York City’s mayoral election on Tuesday, reportedly received a call Saturday from his fellow Democrat Barack Obama – and the former president offered to be a “sounding board” if his advantage turns into victory.Obama also praised the campaign Mamdani had run against his main independent rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.The call was first reported by the New York Times and then confirmed to Reuters by Mamdani’s spokesperson.“Zohran Mamdani appreciated President Obama’s words of support and their conversation on the importance of bringing a new kind of politics to our city,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said.Mamdani, a Uganda-born state assembly member, has polled well ahead of Cuomo and Sliwa prior to Tuesday’s general election. A recent Atlas poll estimated Mamdani (40%) had about a six-point edge over Cuomo (34%) and a 16-point advantage over Sliwa (24%).Cuomo, who resigned as governor amid sexual harassment allegations, is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, a non-profit organization dedicated to unarmed crime prevention.Mamdani, a democratic socialist, shocked political observers on 24 June with a convincing victory in the primary. Since then, his candidacy has won endorsements from party holdouts such as former vice-president Kamala Harris and New York governor Kathy Hochul, and he has received a steady stream of financial backing from small donors.Mamdani’s policies range from hiking taxes on New York City’s wealthiest, raising the corporation tax, freezing stabilized apartment rental rates and increasing publicly subsidized housing. The finance community has expressed concerns that the city’s competitiveness will suffer if Mamdani wins the mayoral election.Meanwhile, his rise is two-sided coins for Democrats on the national stage, who know they need to appeal to young voters but could become more vulnerable to Republican attacks due to Mamdani’s criticism of Israel and his democratic socialism.Mamdani was out late into the night Saturday dropping in on bars and night clubs campaigning, with Sunday marking the last day of early voting, as the New York Times reported. One video reported on by the Times showed him standing behind a DJ booth and saying into a microphone, “Are we ready to beat Andrew Cuomo?” He was met with cheers, the video showed.For his part, Obama on Saturday rallied alongside New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, who is competing in a closely contested race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli. He also attended a rally for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger.

      Reuters contributed to this report More

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      John F Kennedy grandson says Julia Fox’s bloody Jackie Halloween costume ‘disgusting’

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      Political writer and commentator Jack Schlossberg has said it was “disgusting, desperate and dangerous” for actor Julia Fox to wear a Halloween costume evoking the assassination of president John F Kennedy, his grandfather.Fox, however, has defended her controversial decision to wear a replica of the blood-stained, pink suit that former first lady Jackie Kennedy was seen wearing when her husband was shot dead by a sniper while the couple rode in a motorcade in Dallas in 1963. The Uncut Gems star has said she dressed as Jackie Kennedy as “a statement” about the poise and “extraordinary bravery” she showed when subjected to unimaginable “brutality”.Fox wore the ensemble in question to a 30 October Halloween party in New York City. Many online met an image of Fox in the outfit with negative reactions, with TikTok users dismissing the look as “a terrible idea” and “disrespectful”.One particularly notable reaction came from Schlossberg, the son of the Kennedys’ daughter Caroline, who wrote in part on X: “Julia Fox glorifying political violence is disgusting, desperate and dangerous.”View image in fullscreenFox was unbowed by the commentary from Schlossberg and others, with the 35-year-old actor and model saying in an Instagram post that she dressed as Jackie Kennedy “not as a costume but as a statement”.“When her husband was assassinated, she refused to change out of her blood-stained clothes, saying, ‘I want them to see what they’ve done,’” the post read. “The image of the delicate pink suit splattered with blood is one of the most haunting juxtapositions in modern history.“Beauty and horror. Poise and devastation. Her decision not to change clothes, even after being encouraged to, was an act of extraordinary bravery. It was a performance, protest, and mourning all at once. A woman weaponizing image and grace to expose brutality. It’s about trauma, power, and how femininity itself is a form of resistance. Long live Jackie O ♥️”.After JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy indeed refused to take the suit off at Dallas’ Parkland hospital where her husband was pronounced dead and as she flew with his body on Air Force One to Washington DC.“Let them see what they have done,” she is reported to have said before exiting the plane in the US capital.The pink suit then became fashion history’s most iconic piece of first lady clothing despite its dark past. The day of the assassination, the former first lady also wore blue shoes, a pair of bloodied stockings and a blue blouse that were folded and stored without cleaning.The suit is often claimed to be made by Chanel. But it was actually an authorized copy of a Chanel design. It is said that this was a strategy employed by Jackie Kennedy, who died in 1994, to circumvent public disapproval of her taste for European style.All of these items are preserved in a climate-controlled vault at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, as materials of historical importance. Documents have shown that the Kennedy family wanted to keep the suit from public viewing until 2103.The controversy surrounding Fox’s Halloween garb surfaced as political violence has become one of the most prominent topics of public discussion in the US.It attained that status in part after Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts while successfully running for a second presidency in 2024. Other such cases were the firebombing in April of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home, the murders in June of Minnesota state house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the killing in September of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. More