Students react to NYC, NJ, and VA victories
Democrats swept the 2025 state and local elections Tuesday night by large margins, delivering a significant setback to Republicans and reversing President Trump’s gains in these states during the 2024 election.
In Virginia, Democrat U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger flipped the governor’s mansion for the Democrats, defeating incumbent Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears by a 15-point margin, wider than what pre-election polls had predicted. In the Attorney General’s race in that state, Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee who had faced backlash for wishing death on a political opponent and his children, won handily. His final margin was on track to be over five points.
A Notre Dame junior, Anthony Fedoruk, expressed concerns of Democratic hypocrisy in response to Spangberger’s victory, telling the Rover, “Despite being a strong woman of color campaigning to lead Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears was given no attention by Democratic voters who constantly flaunt their championing of minority voices.”
In New Jersey, a state where Republicans had expected to make gains, Congresswoman Mikie Sherill defeated former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli by a double-digit margin. The result was a swing of more than six points towards Democrats from Kamala Harris’s 2024 performance and roughly nine point shift from the previous governor’s race in 2021. Sherrill had consistently commented throughout her campaign that the race should be viewed as a “referendum on President Trump.”
Perhaps the most watched result last night, however, came in New York City, where self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated New York’s former Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, in the race for mayor. Mamdani—a state assemblyman who has advocated for far-left policies such as government-owned grocery stores, a universal rent-freeze, and higher taxes specifically on white neighborhoods—received just over 50 percent of the vote with over 90 percent of votes counted, compared to around 42 percent for Cuomo and seven percent for Sliwa.
Before Mamdani was a member of the New York State Assembly, the Ugandan-born politician was a hip-hop producer and produced soundtracks for his mother’s films. Mamdani’s campaign has sparked controversy for his previous advocacy on social media for abolishing prisons and private property, his defense of former Al-Qaeda leaders, and his advocacy for the decriminalization of prostitution. Mamdani also has a relationship with a local Islamic Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, who was an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He will become the first Muslim mayor in the city’s history.
Mamdani’s controversial record even caused President Trump to endorse Democrat and former rival Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo, despite being a member of one of the most powerful political families in New York and having won previous New York state elections, was forced to run on an independent line because of his loss in the Democratic primary to Mamdani.
Mamdani’s large victory appeared to have been driven by massive margins among young voters, ethnic minorities, and people who cited the cost of living as the most important issue to their vote. Additionally, in a poll performed by Patriot Polling, 62 percent of foreign born voters supported Mamdani and only 31 percent of native-born New Yorkers supported the socialist candidate, suggesting that demographic change also helped lay the groundwork for Mamdani’s victory.
In response to Mamdani’s victory, many New Yorkers, both conservative and liberal, have expressed that they will be planning to move from America’s most populous city due to Mamdani’s policies and the harsh effects of his proposed tax hikes. Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, has already anticipated a mass migration from New York City to Texas by joking on X that, “After the polls close tomorrow night, I will impose a 100% tariff on anyone moving to Texas from NYC.”
When asked about Mamdani’s victory, Notre Dame junior, Simon Weid, told the Rover, “Zohran Mamdani brings an extreme, socialist approach to New York City that risks quickly turning the world’s financial center into a community that punishes hard-working Americans.” Another student, a sophomore living in Siegfried Hall, said, “I think Mamdani winning is actually a good thing for conservatives because it will show the country how crazy his policies and his ideology actually are. … Socialism has worked nowhere and will definitely not work in New York City.”
President Trump responded to the results by saying that he is “not on the ballot” and attributed Republican losses to the ongoing government shutdown in a TruthSocial post he made Tuesday night.
Raymond Webber is a sophomore philosophy major. His favorite hobby is pondering philosophical questions on long walks. He can be reached at rwebber2@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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