With nearly ten months passed in President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, voters nationwide are heading to the polls on Tuesday for statewide and local elections.
And the crucial contests, featuring gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, are seen, to some extent, as the initial significant referendum on Trump’s unique and provocative second-term agenda.
“NOT VOTING TOMORROW AMOUNTS TO VOTING FOR A DEMOCRAT,” the president asserted in a social media message on Election Eve while urging Republicans to cast their ballots.
New Jersey and Virginia are taking center stage as the only two states holding gubernatorial contests in the year following a presidential election. Their gubernatorial races often garner significant national interest and are viewed as a crucial indicator leading up to next year’s midterms, where the GOP will be defending its narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
TRUMP’S FINAL PUSH FOR REPUBLICANS ON THE PRE-ELECTION DAY OF 2025
Also under the political microscope on Election Day 2025 is New York City’s notable mayoral race, where 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is close to making history, the prominent referendum concerning congressional redistricting in California, the most populous state in the country, and three state Supreme Court races in pivotal Pennsylvania.
Here’s what’s at stake.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli, embarking on his third consecutive campaign for Garden State governor and who almost defeated Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years prior, is optimistic about securing a victory in the left-leaning New Jersey.
In a state where the number of registered Democrats still exceeds Republicans despite a GOP registration surge this decade, Ciattarelli seemed to be narrowing the gap in recent weeks with Democratic opponent Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
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While Democrats have historically dominated federal and state legislative elections in New Jersey, Republicans are highly competitive in gubernatorial contests, having won five of the last 10 elections.
And Trump achieved considerable gains in New Jersey during last year’s presidential election, losing the state by only six percentage points, a significant improvement from his 16-point deficit four years prior.
The president, whose approval ratings are low among New Jersey voters, headlined two tele-rallies for Ciattarelli in the campaign’s final stretch, aiming to energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are infrequent voters who often forgo voting in non-presidential election years.
“We appreciate what the president is doing to energize the base and remind them to vote, as should all New Jerseyans. Our state’s future hangs in the balance. Get out and vote,” Ciattarelli told Fox News Digital on Monday following a campaign stop in this northern New Jersey borough.
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However, in a state where Trump’s approval ratings are poor, Sherrill has consistently linked Ciattarelli to the president, arguing that her GOP rival “has truly aligned himself with the president, giving him an A.”
The race in New Jersey was disrupted earlier this autumn by a report that the National Personnel Records Center, a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill’s improperly redacted military personnel files, containing private information such as her Social Security number, to an associate of Ciattarelli.
Sherrill’s military records, however, indicated that the United States Naval Academy prevented her from participating in her 1994 graduation due to a cheating scandal.
Sherrill, who was never accused of cheating in the scandal, proceeded to serve in the Navy for nearly a decade.
The contest was further agitated during last month’s concluding debate after Sherrill alleged that Ciattarelli was “complicit” with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid-related deaths of tens of thousands of New Jersey residents, pointing to the medical publishing company he owned, which promoted content advocating for the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain.
Startling revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race, indicating the GOP’s intention to leverage the entire ballot, recently unsettled the state’s race for governor, pushing Democratic Party nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, back on the defensive in a campaign where she was considered the frontrunner against Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Virginia attorney general Democratic nominee Jay Jones was in damage-control mode following the initial report of controversial texts earlier this fall by the National Review.
Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, in which he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker, shooting him in the head.
He faced numerous calls from Republicans to withdraw from the race.
Earle-Sears seized the opportunity to connect Spanberger to Jones. During last month’s tumultuous and sole gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee urged her Democratic rival to tell Jones to abandon his attorney general candidacy.
FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS COVERAGE ON THE VIRGINIA CONTEST, VISIT HERE
“The remarks made by Jay Jones are utterly reprehensible,” Spanberger stated at the debate. However, she neither confirmed nor rescinded her support for Jones.
The victor will succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The mayoral election in the nation’s most populous city invariably attracts significant attention, especially this year as New York City may elect its first Muslim and first millennial mayor.
Mamdani’s triumph in June’s Democratic Party mayoral primary in the heavily Democratic city sent political shockwaves across the nation. He has faced criticism from Republicans and his ballot rivals regarding his far-left proposals.
Mamdani is competing against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who finished a distant second in the primary and is now running as an independent candidate. Cuomo seeks a political comeback after resigning as governor four years prior amidst several scandals.
THE LATEST FOX NEWS COVERAGE ON THE NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL ELECTION CAN BE FOUND HERE
Also running is two-time Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, a co-founder of the Guardian Angels, the volunteer-based community safety group.
Under-fire Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who was running for re-election as an independent, withdrew from the race last month. He recently endorsed Cuomo, but his name remains on the ballot.
Voters in overwhelmingly Democratic California will vote in November on whether to disband their popular nonpartisan redistricting commission for the remainder of the decade and allow the Democrat-controlled legislature to determine congressional redistricting for the subsequent three election cycles.
VISIT HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS COVERAGE ON THE 2025 ELECTIONS
The vote will culminate an effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats to establish up to five left-leaning congressional seats in the Golden State to offset the new maps that conservative Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a few months ago, which will create up to five more right-leaning U.S. House districts in the Republican state of Texas.
The redistricting in Texas, prompted by Trump’s urging, is part of a broader GOP effort nationwide to bolster their slim House majority to maintain control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power typically encounters political challenges and loses seats.
Trump aims to avoid a recurrence of the 2018 midterms, during his initial term in office, when Republicans lost control of the House.
Democrats currently hold a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court in the northeastern battleground of Pennsylvania.
However, three Democrat-leaning justices on the state Supreme Court, upon completing their 10-year terms, are running this year to retain their seats in “Yes” or “No” retention elections.
The election could reshape the court’s composition for the next decade, significantly influencing whether Democrats or Republicans have an advantage in the state’s congressional delegation and legislature, and impacting crucial cases including voting rights and reproductive rights.
While state Supreme Court elections typically don’t garner significant national attention, contests where the balance of a court in a key battleground state is at stake have attracted substantial outside funding.
The state Supreme Court showdown this spring in Wisconsin, where the 4-3 liberal majority was preserved, attracted nearly $100 million in outside funding as both parties invested heavily in the election.
