Voters shifted sharply to the left across Virginia, New Jersey and New York City in elections Tuesday (November 4, 2025), sweeping into office Democrats who focused on affordability and capitalized on frustration with President Donald Trump.
More than 2 million New York City voters – the most since 1969 – turned out to elect a democratic socialist as mayor, rejecting a former governor who was once a standard-bearer for the Democratic Party.
Four years ago, Republicans saw a wave of support that gave them the governorship in Virginia and kept the New Jersey race much closer than Democrats expected, while a moderate Democrat replaced a more liberal one in New York City Hall. This time, the energy in all three places shifted distinctly toward Democrats and the left of the party.
In every county and independent city in Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger racked up more of the vote than Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat who lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin in the 2021 race for governor. She outperformed him across those counties by a median of 13 percentage points, according to a Washington Post analysis.
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Spanberger outperformed Kamala Harris, last year’s Democratic presidential nominee, in more than 95 percent of Virginia counties and independent cities, topping her vote share by a median of three percentage points. She flipped six counties or independent cities that Trump won last year, including three that went from President Joe Biden to Trump – Prince Edward, Surry and Lynchburg.
Spanberger’s gains were comprehensive. She won Democratic and swing areas and chipped into support in Republican counties. The shifts came in rural, suburban and urban areas.
She locked up huge numbers in the large D.C., Richmond and Virginia Beach metro areas. In 2021, McAuliffe won those areas by 251,000 votes. Spanberger was leading them by about 700,000 votes, according to incomplete tallies that were available as of Wednesday morning.
Spanberger also flipped 15 counties that McAuliffe lost, most of which lie in metropolitan areas, including Virginia Beach; Stafford; and Spotsylvania, which Youngkin won in 2021 by 20 points. In other counties, Spanberger lost by less than McAuliffe did, outperforming him by nearly 20 points in Republican-dominated Southwest Virginia areas, including Bristol and Montgomery.
Spanberger dominated in Loudoun County, winning it by 29 percentage points. McAuliffe won the county by just 11 points four years ago and Harris won it last year by 16 points. Jay Jones, the Democrat who won the attorney general’s race but lagged behind Spanberger, also beat Harris’s margin in Loudoun County, winning it by 19 points despite bipartisan condemnations of violent texts he wrote years ago.
In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill won by a much wider margin than Gov. Phil Murphy (D) did when he narrowly secured a second term four years ago. Both faced Republican Jack Ciattarelli, but Sherrill won more comfortably by securing support across much of the state.
Sherrill outran both Murphy and Harris in every county in the state. She did the best compared with Harris in counties that shifted the most toward Trump last year. These included Passaic and Hudson counties, where Latinos account for more than 40 percent of the population. Trump last year made big gains in those counties and flipped Passaic. But Sherrill won both, outperforming Harris by 11 points in Hudson and by nine points in Passaic. She won four other counties that went to Trump a year ago.
In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and member of the State Assembly, beat former governor Andrew M. Cuomo by a larger margin Tuesday than he did five months ago in the Democratic primary. Mamdani expanded on his earlier coalition of younger, college-educated and liberal voters in Manhattan and nearby gentrifying neighborhoods.
Mamdani performed better in precincts with fewer voters over the age of 60. Younger precincts also saw higher turnout this election compared with 2021.
Mamdani carried four of the city’s five boroughs, according to early, unofficial results. Cuomo carried Staten Island, the city’s most conservative borough, which Trump carried in each of his elections.
Cuomo tried to rebuild the successful coalition that Mayor Eric Adams formed four years ago, primarily of non-White and conservative-leaning voters in the outer boroughs. He got help when Adams withdrew from this year’s race and Trump gave him a last-minute endorsement and told Republicans they should ditch their nominee, candidate Curtis Sliwa. The gambit was unsuccessful, with Cuomo losing by a wider margin than Sliwa’s total share of the vote.
In the Bronx, Mamdani gained the most ground relative to Cuomo in the general election.
Cuomo supporters hoped highlighting Mamdani’s criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza would blunt the energy Mamdani generated as he sought to become the first Muslim elected mayor of New York City – and its youngest in a century. While Democratic Party leaders were slow to fully embrace Mamdani’s candidacy, it appeared to draw support from across the city – and it cut into areas where Trump gained ground a year ago.
Mamdani made significant gains among Black and Hispanic voters, with a 35-percentage-point gain compared with the primary in areas with a Black plurality and 11 points in Hispanic areas.
Democrats see the off-year victories as a sign that voters are unhappy with Trump and ready to give them the House majority in next year’s midterm elections. Republicans control the House 219-213, and a handful of races could determine who will be in charge.
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