New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor Tuesday broadcasters projected, on a day of key local ballots across the country offering the first electoral judgement of Donald Trump's tumultuous second White House term.
Mamdani's victory came in the face of fierce, attacks on his policies and Muslim heritage from President Donald Trump, business elites and conservative media.
And Democrats won governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey -- suggesting a shift in political mood as the country looks to next year's midterm elections when control of Congress will be up for grabs.
Mamdani, a state lawmaker for New York's Queens borough, appealed to voters by pledging to tackle the soaring cost of living, offering free city bus travel, childcare and city-run grocery stores.
He focused on living costs facing ordinary New Yorkers, building support through his informal personal style, social media savvy and a massive canvassing ground game.
The self-described socialist was virtually unknown before his upset victory to secure the Democratic nomination over former governor Andrew Cuomo who he trounced again Tuesday.
There was a party atmosphere at his results viewing gathering for supporters being held at a storied concert venue in Brooklyn, with the 34-year-old expected to speak later in the night.
Trump made an eleventh-hour intervention in the race, calling Mamdani who will become New York's first Muslim mayor when he takes office in January, a "Jew hater."
"Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!" the Republican president posted on his social media platform.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, came in third after weeks of Cuomo insisting he bow out to increase his chances.
"It's typical of Andrew, he's always blaming other people for his own failures," Sliwa told AFP ahead of the result. "Of course he's going to blame me."
Prominent business people including Bill Ackman noisily attacked Mamdani and funneled cash to his rivals, while conservative media including The New York Post published blanket negative coverage.
Turnout was high in this year's vote with 1.45 million people casting ballots by 3 pm (2000 GMT) -- more than the total number of voters in the 2021 race.
- Uphill struggle -
Mamdani's improbable rise highlights the Democratic Party's debate over a centrist or a leftist future, with some leading national figures offering only tepid endorsements of Mamdani ahead of voting.
Cuomo said there was "a civil war in the Democratic Party."
"You have an extreme radical left that is run by the socialists that is challenging what they would call moderate Democrats. I'm a moderate Democrat," he said after voting.
Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said ahead of the result mayor Mamdani would face an uphill battle "at the center of all of these nasty political controversies."
"Everybody's got their knives out, and it's a very difficult city to govern," he told AFP.
"Progressives probably would have been better served if they had someone like this win a city that was easier to govern."
In New Jersey, Democratic Party candidate Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, beat out Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a businessman backed by Trump.
In Virginia's race for governor, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger unseated a Republican incumbent to beat Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
Both sides wheeled out big guns, with former president Barack Obama rallying support for Spanberger and Sherrill over the weekend and Trump scheduling tele-rallies for both Virginia and New Jersey on the eve of voting.
Long-shot socialist
Zohran Mamdani's election as New York mayor caps an extraordinary rise for the leftist local lawmaker who emerged from relative obscurity to lead a supercharged campaign for the US megacity's top job.
Since his surprise victory in the Democratic Party primary in June, New Yorkers have become used to seeing his bearded, smiling face on television -- and on badges proudly worn by his supporters.
The 34-year-old election winner was born in Uganda to a family of Indian origin and has lived in the United States since he was seven, becoming a naturalized US citizen in 2018.
He is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding," "Mississippi Masala") and Mahmood Mamdani, a professor and respected Africa expert -- leading some of his detractors to call him a "nepo baby."
He followed a path paved by other youngsters from elite liberal families, attending the elite Bronx High School of Science followed by Bowdoin College in Maine, a university seen as a bastion of progressive thought.
Under the alias "Young Cardamom," he ventured into the world of rap in 2015, influenced by hip-hop group "Das Racist," which had two members of Indian origin who played with references and tropes from the subcontinent.
Mamdani's attempt to break into the competitive world of professional music did not last, with the performer-turned-politician calling himself a second-rate artist.
He took an interest into politics when he learned that rapper Himanshu Suri, who performed under the alias Heems, was supporting a candidate for city council -- and joined that campaign as an activist.
Mamdani went on to become a foreclosure prevention counselor, helping financially struggling homeowners avoid losing their homes.
He was elected in 2018 as a lawmaker from Queens, a melting pot of predominantly poor and migrant communities, representing the area in the New York State Assembly.
- 'Disaffected voters' -
The self-proclaimed socialist, who has been re-elected three times, forged an image that has become his trademark -- a progressive Muslim just as comfortable at a Pride march as he is at an Eid banquet.
He put the goal of making the city affordable for everyone who are not wealthy, the majority of its approximately 8.5 million residents, at the heart of his campaign.
He has promised more rent control, free day care and buses, and city-run neighborhood grocery stores.
Mamdani is also a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause, although his positions on Israel -- which he has called an "apartheid regime" while branding the war in Gaza a "genocide" -- have drawn the ire of some in the Jewish community.
In recent months he has made a point of vocally denouncing antisemitism -- as well as the Islamophobia he has suffered.
Playing the race card, President Donald Trump, who calls Mamdani a "little communist," denounced him as a "a proven and self professed JEW HATER" Tuesday as New Yorkers were heading to the polls.
Mamdani is something of an establishment "outsider," according to Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University.
"He has managed to galvanize support from disaffected voters and others in New York City who are dissatisfied with the status quo and with an establishment that they perceive to be overlooking their needs and policy preferences," he said.
Mamdani, a keen soccer and cricket fan, recently married US illustrator Rama Duwaji, and put his experience of activism to work in a strategically coordinated canvassing and leaflet campaign that he has paired with an extensive and often humorous use of social media.
"He really is a kind of an hybrid of a great 1970s campaign and a great 2025 campaign," said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University professor.