NEW YORK – Voters were casting their ballots in traditionally high-profile polls on Tuesday, including the New York map, new maps for California and the governor in Virginia, states whose states could reflect the direction of the country’s political winds.
For voters and political watchers alike, race has become increasingly important during a tense political season, when Democrats and Republicans are divided along national lines. Despite President Trump not appearing in any of the statistics, some view Tuesday’s races as a referendum on him and his hot second term in the White House.
In New York, self-described democrat Zohran Mamdani, 34, was tipped to win the mayoral race after winning a low-profile Democratic mayoralty in June. Such an outcome would galvanize the Democratic establishment and Rielican Republicans in equal measure, serving both former GOV opponents.
On Monday’s polling day, Trump threatened that a Mamdani win would disrupt the flow of dollars into the city, and took the sweet step of endorsing Cuomo over Curtis Sliwa, a Republican in the race.
“If the person who pays for the Communists Zohran Mamdani wins the election of Mayor of New York City, it is very likely that I will contribute money, because, this and the survival of the zero success of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote in his Protyrication Social truth monday.
The SLIWA vote “voted for Mamdani,” he added. “Whether you are Andrew Cuomo himself or not, you have no choice. You have to vote for him, and hope he does a good job. He knows it!”
Mamdani, a Ugandan-born US and New York State senator who has already defeated Cuomo once, has promised a brighter day for New Yorkers with better transportation, more affordable housing if he wins. He hit the billionaires and other interests of the city with the goals of the city, which have been absorbed by him, and he rejected the “darkness of politics” that they say threatens the country under Trump.
He also makes fun of Trump’s synchronization of Cuomo – Calling Cuomo’s “Puppet” “Cuomi’s,” and “Parrot.”
Samantha Markero, a 35-year-old yorker you life of a yorker, who was included in more than ten people Tuesday morning in his voting building in Brooklyn in Mamdani, recommends accepting people of color.
Marrero said he cares deeply about housing and housing insecurity in the city, but also that it was ‘really meaningful to have someone who handles and plays like us or anyone who used to be like us. “That has become very important.”
New York Mayor Andrew Cuome speaks to reporters as he casts his ballot in New York on Tuesday.
(Richard Drew / Associated Press)
And he said it’s a big part of why people across the country watch the New York race.
“We are definitely a beacon in this kind of fascist task that is happening all over the country,” he said. “People from other countries and other cities have their eyes on what is happening here. Mamdani is clearly doing something right. And it should be together.”
Elsewhere on the East Coast, voters were electing governors in Virginia and New Jersey, races that have also drawn the attention of the President.
In the New Jersey race, Trump endorsed the Republican incumbent, a former governor. Jack Ciattarelli, over democratic elections, rep. Mikie Sherrill, former President out. Long blue, New Jersey had been swinging to the right, and the polls showed a tight race.
In the Virginia Race, Trump did not endorse the Republican Lt. Gov
“Why would someone vote for the new Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial candidates, Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everyone, men playing in women’s sports, the highest crime rates, and the most expensive prices in the world?” Trump has recently written in social reality, repeating some of his attacks which I like from the Democrats from the Democrats from the presidential campaign last year.
At the Spanberger meeting in Norfolk, VA.
“We don’t have to think about the dangers in our community. We don’t have to wonder if the people who are at risk will be late and realize what our culture can be. “We all have more power than we think. We just have to use it.”
Voting continued in the provinces, but with some disruptions. Bomb threats disrupted voting in some parts of New Jersey at first, temporarily closing a string of polling places across the state before enforcing the laws dictated by the threats.
In California, voters were asked to change the state constitution to allow Democrats
Leading Democrats, including OBAMA and GOV
Trump urged California voters not to cast ballots by mail or early voting, arguing that such practices are “dishonest,” and on Tuesday morning hinted at a social reality that in itself was unconstitutional.
“The unconstitutional voting in California is the biggest fraud in that process, especially the voting itself, rigged,” Trump said, without providing evidence of the problems. Email “all email-in ‘bavots, where the Republiphars of that state’ are locked up, ‘under legal and criminal review. Stay tuned!”
Both individually and collectively, the races are widely viewed as potential indicators of political correctness and enthusiasm for next year’s election, with the Democrats’ ability to gain back-to-back votes after Trump’s Representative Harris last year.
Voters, too, see races as major stakes in the country’s current state of affairs.
Michelle Kim, 32, who has lived in a blue-green neighborhood in Brooklyn for three years, stood in line at a polling station early Tuesday morning – waiting to cast her vote for Mamdani.
Kim said he cares about transportation, land use and the rising cost of living in New York, and appreciates Mamdani’s broader message of possible, if not guaranteed, solutions.
“My hope is not, like, ‘oh, you’re going to solve it, like all our problems,'” she said. “But I think being able to stand up for people and give hope is part of it.”
Lin reported from New York, a reporter from San Francisco. Times Cast Writer Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta contributed to this report.
