Takeaways from Tuesday’s elections: Democrats win across the spectrum as voters reject Trump
Voters up and down the East Coast delivered Democrats a sweep on Tuesday, electing candidates across the party’s ideological spectrum in a vivid show of discontent with President Donald Trump nearly a year into his second term.
In Virginia, moderate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger turned in the strongest Democratic performance in the state’s recent history as she coasted to victory. And in New Jersey, another moderate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, busted apart the coalition Trump and her Republican rival, former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli, had put together to close the Garden State’s gap in recent elections.
In New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win marked the second time this year he’d defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — first in the Democratic primary, and then in the general election, with Cuomo running as an independent backed by Trump.
Late Stage Capitalism has won this for the Democrats.
The poor and poorly educated that Trump appeals to are being hurt economically and rather than lean into identity politics alienation, Zohran went for economic justice over social justice.
Zohran’s policies of free public transport, free childcare, rent freezes, unionism, government backed supermarkets appeal because late stage capitalism is crushing people.
In real terms wages in America have not gone up in 30 years!
Because the Democrats refused to rebuild after Covid to acknowledge the universal sacrifice all had made, the Democrats just rebuilt the old inequalities and because so many Americans live in poverty, that burnt them twice as bad.
There are 650 000 homeless Americans, 120 000 of those are kids, 40% of the entire country lives month to month knowing 1 financial crisis will make them homeless.
When those people in need turn to the Democrats, what were they fixated with? Identity Politic hierarchy and the appropriate virtue signal dogma.
No poor people are sitting around the kitchen table cancelling each other for pronouns.
They are trying to pay the Bills.
Trump leaned into that working class resentment because he has felt that resentment from the other Billionaire class all his life.
Zohran has offered actual solutions by subsidising those costs of living in a way that makes living possible.
Class based Economic Justice, not middle class intersectional identity politics will win the Left elections.
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Zohran’s election speech was one of the best I have ever listened to. New Yorkers are privileged to have this man standing up for them and working for them ! It puts all of the current political leadership of this country in perspective. It really is that bad in Aotearoa.
Expect Zohran to continue for Bernie when he stands down. The knives are being sharpened but they will need to get through the people of New York before they get to him such is his appeal and strength of message.
1% of New Yorkers pay 28% of the tax. What happens when many leave? Good luck New York, you’re going to need it. You’ll be London on 2 years
And the costs Trumpo has thrown on all of America haven’t turned it into London, good grief.
Let them leave, where will they go. Greed doesn’t share so good luck to them when they leave , they’re going to need it.
Meanwhile here in NZ thousands have shut down because of right wing policy and now the CoC and it’s borrowing has hit rock bottom.
No doubt billions will be spent to take this man down and the lies will be rolled out and sex stories will be made up by some low rent bimbo paid for by the money men .
Its great to see this happen and is a message that NZ needs to take on board .
Fix poverty and the rest will follow .If the greedy rich invested in fixing poverty they would have more earners they could fleece down the track .
“All [New York] politicians say, ‘New York is the greatest city in the world’, but what good is that, if nobody can afford to live here”
Zohran Mamdani
(All New Zealand polticians say New Zealand is the greatest country in the world, but what good is that, if we can’t afford to live here. And our best and brightest are voting with their feet and leaving)
So what is Mandani’s solution?
Free – The Buses
Freeze – The Rents
Free – Universal Child Care
Lower – The Cost of Food, (with city owned grocery stores)
Raise – New York city’s minimum wage to $30 US (NZD $52.40) by 2030
Tax – The Rich
Why can’t we do that?
Comparing the Big Apple with the Big Kiwi
(Figures cut and pasted from Google AI)
Population of New York in 2025 – 8.478 million people
Population of New Zealand in 2025 – 5.33 million people
As of August 2025, the total number of employed individuals in New York City is approximately 4.9 million
As of the September 2025 quarter, New Zealand’s employed population was approximately 2.9 million people.
New York unemployment rate June 2025, 4.0%
New Zealand unemployment rate September 2025, 5.3%
New York City has approximately 1.43 million residents aged 65 and older
New Zealand has approximately 870,000 residents aged 65 and older
There were approximately 347,000 millionaires in New Zealand in 2021, defined as those with a net worth of over US$1 million
New York City is home to nearly 350,000 millionaires,
As of January 1, 2025, the minimum wage in New York is $16.50 per hour in New York City
As of April 1, 2025, the minimum wage in New Zealand is NZD $23.50 per hour for adults, which is approximately USD $13.49 (following Mamdani’s prescription, the mimum wage in NZ dollars in 2030 would be $52.40 NZD, more than double)
Over 3 million New Yorkers were born overseas, which makes up about 38% of the city’s total population. This foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, permanent residents, and other non-citizens.
As of 2023, nearly 30% of New Zealand’s population was born overseas, with 1.4 million people born abroad.
Mamdani’s election as Mayor of New York City has implications for the whole world.
The above statistics show that NZ and New York are not that different.
Left wing New Zealand politicians have a year to see if Mamdani can implement what he has promised.
If Mamdani succeeds in fulflling his promises, Labour, Greens and TPM here, will know that they can advocate the same radical program for NZ in their election campaigns and point to New York as evidence that they can fulfill their promises.
“We don’t want to elect politicians to tell us what they cannot do”
“This is New York, We can afford to dream” Zohran Mamdani
This is New Zealand. And if New Yorkers can dream of what they can do, we can too.
Zohran Mamdani will be the Tory Whanau of US politics. The Gubernatorial races were in blue states during an off-election year during a government shutdown. Sure the democrats have made some ground but in 3yrs time they have to find an electable candidate for the middle of America.
“Sure the democrats have made some ground but in 3yrs time they have to find an electable candidate for the middle of America.”
That’s easy anyone but Trump or should I say King Trump?