Election Day is upon us. Though we are still a year away from the vital 2026 midterm congressional elections, there are still a number of races garnering national attention for one reason or another.
Will President Donald Trump’s 2024 red shift in blue states continue? Will the Democratic Party lurch further to the left?
Here is a quick preview of what races to watch on Tuesday.
Minneapolis Mayor Race
Two mayor races have become prominent in this election cycle. While Minneapolis perhaps doesn’t quite reach the level of attention of a New York City, it has its own version of Zohran Mamdani who looks to pull the Democratic Party even further to the left.
The city’s ranked-choice voting system has ensured that the top two candidates will be Democrats. The first is incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, a man who already veers far to the left and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement when the city was hit by riots in the summer of 2020.
Challenging him is democratic socialist Omar Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants who became the first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate after his victory in the 2020 election.
My colleague, Tyler O’Neil, wrote about Fateh in his preview of the mayor’s race:
A self-declared democratic socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Fateh is running on a platform of raising taxes ‘to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.’ He champions ‘environmental justice.’ …
The state senator seems to be leveraging the influence of the small but influential Somali Muslim community in Minneapolis. The Minnesota insider described the Somali community as a ‘very important voting bloc’ that is ‘not the majority’ of the city but extremely influential. Members of this community reportedly went to train with the terrorist group al Shabaab in Somalia and the Islamic State, but law enforcement has partnered with the community to oppose radicalism.
NYC Mayor Race
It’s rare that a mayor’s race garners so much national attention, but this is a big one in the Big Apple.
In one corner, you have 34-year-old New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who ran a successful insurgent campaign in the Democrat primary. He’s been the front-runner since his June victory.
In the other corners are Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who was defeated in the Democrat primary and now is running an independent campaign, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican. Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, an anti-crime organization started in the late 1970s.
Mamdani staked out a position of resistance to President Donald Trump and federal immigration law enforcement. His platform leads with his message about housing being too expensive and offers mostly government solutions to the problem that boils down to tax the rich and tax the whites in a city held to be the financial capital of the United States. Not only that, but he’s also made himself cozy with radical Islamists and refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the Intifada.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who has entered what’s looking like a close race for New York governor in 2026, commented on Mamdani’s unseemly connections.
Cuomo has taken up the position as the experienced choice who knows how to govern and has condemned Mamdani’s radicalism.
Sliva has maintained that he is the true anti-Mamdani choice and is the only candidate who has been consistently serious about stopping and preventing crime in the city.
Recent polls show that the race may be tightening, though many polls also showed Cuomo winning the primary. One way or another, what happens in the New York mayor’s race will have repercussions not just for the city but the country.
New Jersey Governor Race
Few states shifted more dramatically to the right in 2024 than New Jersey. While the Garden State still ended up casting its electoral college votes for former Vice President Kamala Harris, the dramatic voter shift was notable. Is New Jersey a purple state now? Is it maybe even leaning red?
Those are the questions looking to be answered in the New Jersey governor’s race where Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli face off to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, who is being term-limited out of office. Ciattarelli came close to beating Murphy in the last election.
Most polls show that Sherrill leads Ciattarelli, but the race has tightened considerably since it began. According to RealClearPolling, Sherrill began with a 21-point lead in June, but current polling averages show an under four-point separation between the candidates.
The race has been close enough that even former President Barack Obama went on the campaign trail to help Sherrill over the finish line.
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came out to help Ciattarelli.
“New Jersey is a state with a lot of Republicans who just don’t know yet that they’re actually Republicans,” Ramaswamy said when visiting in mid-October.
Virginia AG Race
The Virginia attorney general race has become one of national importance not just because Virginia is a key electoral battleground, but because of a singular issue that has changed the race.
Democrat Jay Jones, who is challenging incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, came under scrutiny after a series of his texts were published by National Review where he said he wanted the former Republican speaker of the Virginia House and his children to be shot.
The texts were from 2022 but surfaced not long after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Despite calls for Jones to leave the race, he apologized and decided to continue his campaign. Virginia Democrats have refused to call for Jones to abandon the race.
According to polls, Miyares opened up a significant lead over Jones after the texts surfaced and maintains that lead into election day.
There are two major questions about this race heading into Election Day. What can be expected of an elected official who has wished violent death on his opponents once he’s in office? That Jones trails badly in the race may resolve that issue, but another question is whether his comments will drag down the rest of the Democrat ticket.
Virginia Governor Race
The race for Virginia governor is shaping up to be a possible bellwether for the 2026 midterms, so it’s received a great deal of attention.
Republican Gov. Glenn Younkin was ineligible to run due to Virginia’s unique ban on consecutive terms for governor. Set to replace him are his Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears or Democrat candidate Abigail Spanberger.
Spanberger is a congresswoman and a former CIA agent. She’s been leading in the polls throughout the race, but her lead has narrowed in recent days. This is likely in part due to the aforementioned attorney general race.
Spanberger has run as a defender of federal employees, an issue particularly salient in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington. But she’s been unwilling to address major issues that Earle-Sears has campaigned on. The first is the issue of transgender ideology, which in part vaulted Youngkin to office in 2021. Spanberger has essentially punted on the issue and refuses to address it.
The second issue is the comments by Jones. Not only has she continued to support Jones, but she refused to engage Earle-Sears on the issue when it came up during their October debate.
