What you need to know
• Big wins for Democrats: Zohran Mamdani will win New York City’s mayoral race, CNN projects, while Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill will win their respective gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. Californians also voted to approve Democrats’ redistricting push.
• Test for Trump: The elections were seen as the first major electoral tests of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Speaking earlier today, he said, “I don’t think it was good for Republicans.” Yesterday, the president blamed the results on the government shutdown, now officially the longest in history, and his absence from the ballot.
• Historic firsts: Mamdani will be New York City’s first Muslim mayor and the first South Asian to hold the office. Spanberger will become Virginia’s first female governor and Sherrill will become New Jersey’s first female Democratic governor. Democrat Ghazala Hashmi, projected to be Virginia’s lieutenant governor, will become the first Muslim woman elected statewide.
Our live coverage has ended. You can read more about the results of Tuesday’s elections here.
Mikie Sherrill says she's entering New Jersey governorship with a mandate
New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill said she believes she is entering office with a mandate from voters after a strong election win last night.
“Yes, I do, a very big one,” when asked if she considers herself having a mandate.
Sherrill, who defeated Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman and ally of President Donald Trump, touted voter turnout in key areas of the state.
“What I saw was that our message was resonating,” she said today. People want to be able to get good jobs, have good schools and be able to afford a home, Sherrill said, and those are the issues she feels like she has a mandate to work on.
The Democrat said she’s also committed to making safety a priority. Part of that is addressing ICE and other federal agents in the state, she said.
Sherrill said she met with current Gov. Phil Murphy today “because we really wanted to hit the ground running.” She announced the head of her transition team will be her running mate and the incoming lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell.
The governor-elect said she hasn’t spoken with President Donald Trump yet, but said she would focus on getting federal resources back to the state, specifically for infrastructure projects.
Biden calls Mamdani to congratulate the mayor-elect
Former President Joe Biden called New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday to congratulate him on his win, a source familiar with the call said.
The former president offered his first public comment about the off-year elections in a social media post Wednesday afternoon.
Biden largely stayed quiet about this year’s elections as the Democratic party continues to grapple with its path forward after his single term in office and President Donald Trump’s win in 2024.
CNN previously reported Biden made calls to Governors-elect Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday night.
Detroit will have a new mayor for the first time since its 2013 bankruptcy
Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield won the city’s mayoral election Tuesday to succeed longtime mayor Mike Duggan.
Duggan was elected mayor in 2013 shortly after Detroit filed for bankruptcy. He stepped down after three terms and is running for governor of Michigan as an independent.
Duggan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett for a joint interview Wednesday to announce JPMorgan is relocating its headquarters in Detroit to Hudson’s, a new skyscraper downtown.
JPMorgan in 2014 invested $100 million in Detroit and re-upped its investments in the city in the following years. On Wednesday, the company said it had surpassed $2 billion in investments in Detroit.
Dimon said he called Duggan and offered to help Detroit. It was one of the first calls Duggan received as mayor.
“I was surprised he even knew my name,” Duggan said.
Dimon said that JPMorgan’s investment was a “small part” of broader business and philanthropic investment in Detroit following its bankruptcy.
“Michael Bloomberg was here. Dan Gilbert, God bless him, what he’s done for the city,” Dimon said.
Trump suggests openness to helping Mamdani after threatening funding cuts: "We want New York to be successful"
President Donald Trump cast a softer tone on the future of federal support for New York City following Zohran Mamdani’s sweeping election victory, suggesting openness to helping the city after previously threatening funding cuts.
“The communist, Marxist socialists and globalists had their chance, and they delivered nothing but disaster. And now let’s see how a communist does in New York,” Trump said during remarks to an economic conference in Miami.
He added: “We’re going to see how that works out. And we’ll help them. We’ll help them. We want New York to be successful. We’ll help them a little bit, maybe.”
Those comments come after Trump had warned before the election that he could limit federal funding to his hometown “other than the very minimum as required” if Mamdani won.
Trump breaks silence on Mamdani’s win as he criticizes Democrats' politics
President Donald Trump lashed out against New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in remarks from Miami Wednesday, suggesting the Democratic socialist’s politics more broadly reflected the views of Democrats in Congress.
“If you want to see what Congressional Democrats wish to do to America, just look at the results of yesterday’s election in New York — where their party installed a communist as the mayor of the largest city in the nation,” Trump told an audience at the American Business Forum. “Remember, I said we will never have a socialist elected to any post in our country? I used to say that … we skipped socialists, we put in the communists instead.”
“Take a look at what’s happening in different parts of the world – but now the Democrats are so extreme that Miami will soon be the refuge for those fleeing communism in New York City,” he continued.
The comments mark the first time Trump has substantively addressed the New York mayoral race since Mamdani defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa and former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and who Trump backed just one day before polls closed.
In remarks earlier Wednesday at the White House, Trump avoided any explicit mention of Mamdani’s victory. That changed in Miami.
“After last night’s results, the decision facing all Americans could not be more clear – we have a choice between communism and common sense,” Trump said. “And as long as I’m in the White House, the United States is not going communist in any way, shape or form.”
After GOP losses, Trump focuses on a different election — his own
A day after widespread Republican election losses, Trump’s focus at an economic speech in Florida was on a different contest: the one he won a year ago.
“We won a resounding mandate to make America great again, which is what we’re doing,” Trump said in Miami.
It was exactly a year ago Trump won another term in office. But 365 days later, he is grappling with an underwater approval rating and, as of Tuesday evening, a record of election losses for his party.
Trump didn’t dwell on that as his speech began. Instead, he called November 5, 2024, “a magnificent night” that punctuated the “most consequential election in American history.”
“The American people reclaimed our government,” he said of last year’s contest.
New York State's Democratic Party chair didn't endorse Mamdani. Now, he's congratulating the mayor-elect
New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs extended an olive branch to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani following his win Tuesday, months after the party chair refused to back Mamdani’s general election bid
In refusing to back Mamdani during the election, Jacobs broke with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the highest ranking Democrat in the state and his de facto boss. Hochul endorsed Mamdani in September, several weeks before the election.
Jacobs’ refusal to endorse reflected an ongoing nervousness among some New York Democrats that Mamdani’s win could set off Republican challenges in key swing districts in the suburbs of New York City.
Jacobs had specifically cited Mamdani’s position on Israel and Mamdani’s alignment with the Democratic Socialists of America as his primary reasons to not endorse him.
In his statement Wednesday, Jacobs encouraged voters to give the incoming mayor a chance.
“I urge all New Yorkers to give him the chance that he has earned through the democratic process to win everyone’s trust and support for the government and policies that his administration will bring to the greatest city in the world,” Jacobs said.
Jeffries declares “Democrats have all of the momentum in the world” after Tuesday wins
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared Democrats “have all of the momentum in the world” after the party saw major pickups in Tuesday’s elections.
“Republicans woke up this morning and realized that they are no longer in a 2024 electoral environment. That’s over, and they’re done,” the New York Democrat said.
He continued, “They’ve lost any temporary progress that they’ve made with working class Americans. Gone. Any progress that they’ve made with the Hispanic community. Gone. Any progress that they’ve made with younger Americans. Gone. Because the American people have had enough of the extremism, enough of the lies, enough of the broken promises, enough of putting the wealth and the excess in the face of the American people.”
Jeffries welcomed California voters’ approval of Proposition 50, which will clear the way for California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional maps in the party’s favor. He dismissed a new legal challenge to the maps, filed by California Republicans, as “a frivolous lawsuit.”
He contrasted it with Texas legislators’ efforts to redraw the Lone Star State’s maps, which he deemed unconstitutional. He told reporters, Texas’ situation was “very different… than what the people decided in California, to make sure that they had a fair map, that would be determined by them as individuals, citizens of California, and not Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists,” he said.
Sanders argues Mamdani's victory showed progressives can win without backing from party leadership
Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN on Wednesday that Zohran Mamdani’s victory shows progressives can win even without their party leadership’s backing.
“The party leadership did not support Mamdani in New York, and he won. Party leadership is not supporting Platner in Maine, and I think he’s going to win. So I think it is, you know, I think there is a growing understanding that leadership and defending the status quo and the inequalities that exist in America is not where the American people are,” argued Sanders.
Sanders added, “Of course, there’s an establishment, and of course there’s a division within the Democratic Party, there’s no secret to anybody here. What are we seeing in Maine? What did you see in New York City? What are you going to see all over this country?”
He insisted that the message to take from Democratic victories on Tuesday is that “people all over this country are rejecting Trumpism,” and that grassroots movements can win.
On the shutdown, Sanders reiterated that Democrats should not accept the promise of a vote on extending enhanced health care subsidies in exchange for reopening the government, calling a standalone vote a “meaningless gesture.”
California Republicans sue to block Prop 50 congressional map that boosts Democrats
A group of California Republicans has filed a lawsuit challenging the congressional map approved this week by the state’s voters that aims to help Democrats flip five GOP-held US House seats.
The federal lawsuit — brought Wednesday by the California Republican Party, Fresno-area state Assemblymember Dan Tangipa and 18 individual voters — argues the map violates the US Constitution. They contend the map’s lines favor Latino voters, which they argue amounts to an improper racial gerrymander.
The plaintiffs are seeking to block the map from taking effect for next year’s midterm election.
The litigation, available here, marks the latest salvo in the ongoing nationwide battle over redistricting.
On Tuesday, California voters backed the effort to redraw congressional maps by a wide margin. Its proponents, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pushed the new lines as a counteroffensive to efforts by President Donald Trump to encourage redistricting in Republican states to boost the party’s chances of retaining their majority in US House after the 2026 congressional elections.
Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control of the chamber and obtain the power to block parts of Trump’s agenda in the final two years of his presidency.
Democrat Jacob Frey will win third term as Minneapolis mayor after ranked-choice tabulation
Results continue to come in from Tuesday’s elections, including in mayoral races.
Democrat Jacob Frey will win a third term as mayor of Minneapolis, the city announced Wednesday after tabulating the unofficial ranked-choice voting results.
Frey had the most first choice votes, but he didn’t win a majority officials tabulated voters’ other preferences to determine a winner.
In Minneapolis, all candidates run on the same ballot, and voters can rank up to three in order of preference. When the results are calculated, the candidate with the least number of first choice votes is eliminated with those votes transferred to voters’ second choices. The process continues until a candidate surpasses 50% of the vote.
Frey, who was backed by prominent state Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, defeated a crowded field headlined by state Sen. Omar Fateh, whose progressive campaign earned US Rep. Ilhan Omar’s endorsement.
As mayor, Frey has overseen the city through the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the summer of protests that followed and ongoing police reform efforts.
Mamdani: "I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously"
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pushed back on criticism of his campaign rhetoric toward Israel and the war in Gaza, saying, “I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously.”
Mamdani said he has not spoken with Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt, whose organization issued a statement on the outcome of the mayoral race, criticizing Mamdani and saying that “we will approach the next four years with resolve.”
Mamdani said that in his speech last night, “I spoke about how my city hall will stand steadfast with Jewish New Yorkers in fighting the scourge of antisemitism across the city.”
And the mayor-elect criticized Greenblatt in turn, remarking that “anyone is free to catalog the actions of our administration.”
“I have some doubts in Jonathan’s ability to do so honestly, given that he previously said I had not visited any synagogues, only to have to correct himself,” Mamdani continued.
GOP leaders look to tie congressional Democrats to Mamdani
GOP leaders this morning are seeking to tie Democrats in Congress to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Here’s what they’re saying:
House Speaker Mike Johnson said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is “apparently a socialist now,” since Jeffries endorsed Mamdani.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called Mamdani “the new leader of the Democrat Party.”
House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain said, “Over the past year, Democrats have wandered around with no plan, no vision and no leader but today they finally found their leader, the radical communist mayor of New York City.”
Mamdani asks for donations to fund his transition team
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called on his supporters to start donating to his cause again in order to fund “a transition that can meet the moment of preparing for January 1.”
“There were a few months ago where I told supporters across the city to stop donating, and today I am asking them to start once again,” Mamdani said.
He explained that his transition team will require staff, research and infrastructure — all of which need funding.
“And I’m excited for the fact that it will be funded by the very people who brought us to this point, the working people who have been lost behind by the politics of the city,” Mamdani added.
Mamdani says while the White House hasn’t reached out, he’s interested in having a conversation with Trump
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said while the White House hasn’t reached out after his win, he is open to speaking with President Donald Trump.
“I look forward to having those conversations and to making clear that if there is ever anything to be spoken about that could benefit the people of the city, I am ready and willing to speak to anyone about it,” the mayor-elect added.
Mamdani says he's spoken to Sliwa and is looking forward to talking to Adams — but excludes Cuomo
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani recounted his election night conversations at Wednesday’s press conference, noting that he’d heard from GOP rival Curtis Sliwa and was “looking forward” to conversations with outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, notably excluding Independent Andrew Cuomo.
“I am looking forward to having conversations with Mayor Adams and his administration about the work of the transition to ensure that the handover is a seamless one,” Mamdani said.
He noted that he watched the results come in last night with his wife and members of his team.
“I spoke briefly with Curtis Sliwa, and then I headed to address the thousands of New Yorkers that were there waiting to hear of what this new era of government will look like, Mamdani said.
But Mamdani did not mention Cuomo, after remarking during his victory speech last night that it was a name he’d hoped never to have to say again.
Mamdani's lesson for Trump: "It's not enough to diagnose the crisis"
Asked what he believed the lesson from yesterday’s election results was for President Donald Trump, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said “it’s not enough to diagnose the crisis in working class Americans lives. You have to deliver on addressing that crisis.”
“This is a president who ran a campaign on the promise of cheaper groceries, and now … has gone so far as to cut SNAP benefits for close to 2 million New Yorkers,” Mamdani said at a news conference this morning. “Someone who is literally making it harder to afford those same groceries whose price he was decrying not that long ago. “
“What scares Republicans across the country is the fact that we will actually deliver on this agenda. And the contrast is something that they cannot bear to witness,” the mayor-elect added.
Earlier today, commenting on the election results across the country, Trump said, “I don’t think it was good for Republicans.” Yesterday, the president blamed the results on the government shutdown and his absence from the ballot.
Vance says "it’s idiotic to overreact” to Tuesday elections but GOP needs to do better at turnout
Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that “it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states,” but he also warned that the GOP needs “to do better at turning out voters than we have in the past.”
“I said it in 2022, and I’ve said it repeatedly since: our coalition is ‘lower propensity’ and that means we have to do better at turning out voters than we have in the past,” Vance posted on X the morning after Democrats’ big wins in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City.
President Donald Trump has chalked those GOP losses up to the government shutdown and him not being on the ballot — raising questions for his party about how it will turn out his coalition when he’s not on the ballot.
“The president has done a lot that has already paid off in lower interest rates and lower inflation, but we inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that’s the metric by which we’ll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond,” Vance wrote.
His comments come after Trump hosted a breakfast meeting with Republican senators, where he urged them to eliminate the filibuster — which leadership has opposed.
“The infighting is stupid. I care about my fellow citizens–particularly young Americans–being able to afford a decent life, I care about immigration and our sovereignty, and I care about establishing peace overseas so our resources can be focused at home. If you care about those things too, let’s work together,” Vance said.
Mamdani announces all-female transition team
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that his transition team would be directed Elana Leopold, whom he touted as a “a key part of our campaign,” and announced a series of prominent co-chairs.
The all-female team of co-chairs include former Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan, former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, United Way of New York City head Grace Bonilla and Melanie Hartzog, who is a former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.
Mamdani also previewed the announcement of other “leaders who will implement our agenda,” saying that “some of these people will have familiar names, others will not.”
“We will cast a wide net,” Mamdani said. “We will speak to the organizers on the front lines of the fight to improve our city government, veterans with proven track records, policy experts from around the country and the world, and working people who know better than anyone what their neighborhoods need.”
