Good morning. Last night was a big one for Democrats.
A rebukeZohran Mamdani, 34, will be the next mayor of New York City, the youngest in more than a century. The democratic socialist will also be the city’s first Muslim mayor. Abigail Spanberger will be Virginia’s first female governor. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill cruised to victory in a governor’s race that polls had projected would be neck and neck. And in California, voters passed a ballot measure to redraw the state’s maps in Democrats’ favor, which is likely to yield as many as five House seats for the party next year. Turnout was extraordinary: The New York mayor’s race drew more than two million voters, almost double the 1.1 million people who voted for mayor four years ago. The New Jersey governor’s race topped three million votes for the first time. As my colleague Lisa Lerer wrote, the results showed that Democrats — beaten soundly in all seven presidential battleground states just a year ago, losing control of the Senate and failing to win the House — can still accomplish the most important goal in politics: “They can win. And win big.” The results amounted to a loud rebuke of President Trump’s first year back in office. A year ago, he won the White House on promises to fix the economy. Yesterday, his party’s losses showed the high political price that a party in power can pay when voters are still feeling squeezed. New York’s moment
Mamdani wasted no time celebrating voters’ rejection of establishment politics and the dawn of a new era. He’d toppled New York’s elite. “This city belongs to you,” he told supporters in his victory speech at the Brooklyn Paramount theater. He all but dared Trump to challenge him. “To get to any of us,” he said, “you will have to get through all of us.” The crowd roared. And he took a shot at Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary and then ran in the general election as an independent. “I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life,” Mamdani said. “But let tonight be the final time I utter his name.” The line to get into Mamdani’s victory party stretched over a quarter mile around the venue. Emiliano Gomez, 21, traveled in from New Haven, Conn., with four pals. “We’re just excited by the energy,” he said. “It feels like being part of something. It’s a cool feeling.” Gomez isn’t alone. That’s something my colleagues Emma Goldberg and Benjamin Oreskes wrote about yesterday: The Mamdani campaign gave a lonely generation something to bond over. “Addicted to their screens, strapped for cash, spiritually unmoored and socially stunted by the pandemic, young New Yorkers needed a reason to get out of the house. They found it in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral run,” they wrote.
“Hope is alive,” Mamdani said in his speech. Voters, he said, chose “hope over tyranny” and “hope over despair.” Religion was a defining theme of the race — sometimes by design, as Mamdani spoke proudly of his Muslim heritage, and sometimes against his will, as he faced accusations of antisemitism over his stance on Israel. Now that he will be mayor, my colleague Elizabeth Dias wrote, “the most prominent face of progressive religion in the Democratic Party is not a liberal Christian but a Muslim.” A California road mapThe California redistricting measure, which voters supported by a nearly two-to-one margin, according to the latest count, gave Democrats a road map for the gerrymandering battle to come. And it further elevated the man behind the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considering a run for president in 2028. People waited in long lines to vote — in some cases, after the outcome of the only question on the ballot had already been called. “What a night for the Democratic Party,” Newsom said after the victory, “a party that is in its ascendancy, a party that is on its toes, no longer on its heels.” The governorsThe two new governors are not on Mamdani’s end of the Democratic spectrum. But they also found success taking aim at Trump’s policies. In New Jersey, Sherrill’s campaign railed against Trump’s demand that a major transportation project be “terminated.” She labeled her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, the “Trump of Trenton.” And she energized Democratic strongholds in the state, Nick Corasaniti and Tracey Tully wrote, turning what was expected to be a close race into a blowout. (Get to know her.)
Spanberger won in Virginia by focusing on Trump’s firing of federal workers and the impact of the government shutdown on her state. But in her victory speech, she strove for bipartisanship. She praised her opponent in the race and pledged to be a governor for the voters who opposed her. “My goal and my intent is to serve all Virginians,” she said, drawing a contrast with Trump’s with-me-or-against-me ethos. Late last night, when nearly all of the state’s votes had been accounted for, Spanberger had improved on Kamala Harris’s 2024 margins in 119 of 124 counties and cities in Virginia. (Get to know her, too.)
The Times’s newsroom buzzed through all of it, fueled by Mexican food and many, many coffees. Top editors walked the room. The election analytics editor smiled through the glass pane of an office where he had quarantined himself with a cold. A managing editor vibrated with intensity. She loves an election: “This is my high holy day,” she said. More results
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The news of Dick Cheney’s death broke just as we were about to send you yesterday’s newsletter, and we got to include the obituary of the most powerful vice president in American history. In the hours since, we’ve published a trove of fascinating material about Cheney, who also served as defense secretary, White House chief of staff and Wyoming’s congressman.
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Recovered history: A terrible storm slammed into western Alaska last month, killing at least one person and displacing hundreds. It also swept away thousands of artifacts from an archaeological site along the Bering Sea, depositing them on local beaches. Now the Native community there is struggling to save as many of the objects as residents can find. Chasing waterfalls: The island of Madeira is only 35 miles long, but its mountains are full of scenic trails and inviting villages. And it’s beautiful. Ghostly work: The photographer Sara Terry died at 70. She captured images of the aftermath of war in the faces of those who survived it and in the haunted places where the fighting had passed.
Two— That’s the number of identical dogs Tom Brady has had. He announced this week that he had cloned a pet, as Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton have also done.
N.F.L. trade deadline: Teams including the New York Jets and the Indianapolis Colts made big moves. College basketball: As the season kicks off, Loyola Chicago won its first game without Sister Jean, who died last month at 106.
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