After Tuesday’s off-cycle elections, the United States recorded a few marquee results: The first woman elected governor of Virginia, in a chain of governors going back to 1776. The first Muslim woman elected to a statewide office (also in Virginia). The first Muslim, the first South Asian, and the youngest person in a century elected mayor of America’s most populous city: New York.
In other voting, Californians passed a resolution to allow midcensus redistricting by politicians instead of by a citizens panel. New Jersey elected its second woman governor by a wider-than-predicted margin. And local elections in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Maine racked up some unexpected wins for the political left.
“Hungry voters were ready for some sign of progress, for some sign of change,” one pollster told The Wall Street Journal, referring to New York’s contentious mayoral race.
“People are sensing that the politics of disruption and chaos is not delivering results,” a reader wrote in to the same publication, as the U.S. marks its longest-ever federal government shutdown over partisan budget disputes.
Amid elation (among Democrats) and concern (among Republicans), there is cause for both optimism and caution. For starters, despite recent polls indicating that Americans fear and expect increasing political violence, Tuesday’s electoral activities were peaceful. Voter engagement saw an uptick: 2 million New Yorkers voted, the most for a mayoral race since 1969; several precincts in Virgina reported a doubling in the number of ballots over the 2021 governor’s race.
Meanwhile, across the country, Californians’ yes to off-cycle redistricting positions Democrats to gain five congressional seats in 2026 – as a counter to several red states’ earlier gerrymanders of their voting maps. But such tit-for-tat moves risk delegitimizing nonpartisan approaches to protecting voter representation and rights.
A more reliable key to winning lies in identifying and responding to American voters’ core concerns. These vary from place to place, and don’t always divide neatly along party lines. While Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy drew the most attention for its socialist bent, the governor’s races run by New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill and Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger were avowedly centrist. The two women hold tough-on-crime positions, while Mr. Mamdani is moderating his stance on some issues.
“What this is showing is that we can have candidates who have different prescriptions and different styles,” former secretary of transportation and presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg told The New York Times. “The big lesson is to focus on the things that matter most to voters.”
And that focus can draw in support from other corners, too. “Massive credit to [Mr. Mamdani] for enthusing the electorate,” Wall Street financier Ralph Schlosstein told the Financial Times. “He offered hope and opportunity. … It’s time for everybody to pull together and help.”
