AP calls Virginia gubernatorial race for Democrat Abigail Spanberger

Democrat Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s election for governor on Tuesday, The Associated Press and other U.S. media said, the first of several contests that will serve as an early gauge of how Americans are responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tumultuous nine months in office.

Spanberger, 46, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, will be the first woman to serve as Virginia’s governor after easily defeating Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.

In addition to the call by The Associated Press, both NBC News and CBS News projected a win for Spanberger in Virginia.

Tuesday is election day in the U.S., when various state, federal and local votes are held across the country.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. ET in New Jersey’s gubernatorial contest, where Democrat Mikie Sherrill was locked in what opinion polls suggested was a tight battle with Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

Across the river in New York City’s closely watched mayoral race, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist, faces 67-year-old Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running as a more centrist independent four years after resigning as New York state’s governor.

Cuomo lost to Mamdani in the primary.

The campaign has laid bare the Democratic Party’s generational and ideological divides as it seeks to rehabilitate its damaged brand.

The polls are due to close at 9 p.m. ET in New York.

Meanwhile, on the west coast, voters in California will decide whether to give Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw the state’s congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.

Polls close in California at 8 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) on Tuesday evening.

Democrats watching results closely

Democrats were Tuesday’s results carefully, with the party locked out of power in Washington and struggling to find consensus on the best way to oppose Trump and find a path out of the political wilderness.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama, still the party’s most popular figure, headlined 11th-hour rallies over the weekend in New Jersey and Virginia, exhorting voters to elect Democrats to counter what he branded Trump’s lawlessness.

In interviews at polling stations on Tuesday, some voters said Trump’s most contentious policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally and impose costly tariffs on imports of foreign goods, the legality of which is being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

Turnout appeared high across the board.

In New York City, nearly 1.75 million ballots including early voting had been cast as of 6 p.m. ET, according to the board of elections, far exceeding the 1.1 million cast in the last mayoral race in 2021.

Early vote totals in Virginia and New Jersey also outpaced the previous elections in 2021.

The New Jersey race was the most hotly contested campaign, with the contest shattering spending records after both national parties poured millions of dollars into advertising.

Threats briefly closed polls in 7 N.J. counties

A spate of hoax bomb threats sent by email briefly closed New Jersey polling stations in seven counties in the morning, state officials said.

Trump remained top of mind for many voters despite not appearing on the ballot.

In Virginia, Juan Benitez, a self-described independent, was voting for the first time. The 25-year-old restaurant manager backed all of Virginia’s Democratic candidates because of his opposition to Trump’s immigration policies and the federal government shutdown, which he blamed on Trump.

Jennifer Manton, 47, said she had voted for Trump all three times he ran for president, and backed Republican candidates on Tuesday, citing Trump’s tariffs as a major issue.

California’s ballot measure, Proposition 50, which would install a new Democratic-backed congressional map that aims to flip five Republican seats in response to a similar move by Texas, is widely expected to pass.

Midterm elections still a year away

While Tuesday’s results will offer some insight into the mood of American voters, the midterm elections are a year away, an eternity in politics.

“There’s nothing that’s going to happen in Virginia or New Jersey that’s going to tell us much about what will happen in a congressional district in Missouri or a Senate race in Maine,” said Douglas Heye, a Republican strategist.

For Democrats, Tuesday’s candidates offer a chance to assess differing playbooks.

Spanberger and Sherrill, both moderate Democrats with backgrounds in national security, have put Trump front-and-centre, seeking to harness anger at the president’s no-holds-barred agenda.

For Republicans, Tuesday’s elections will test whether the voters who powered Trump’s victory in 2024 will still show up when he is not on the ballot.

But Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears, each running in Democratic-leaning states, have faced a conundrum: criticizing Trump risks losing his supporters, but embracing him too closely could alienate moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.