Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral race, capping a meteoric rise from a little-known state politician to one of the country’s most visible Democratic figures.
Mr Mamdani will become the first Muslim mayor of the largest US city.
He defeated Democratic former Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mr Mamdani in the primary election.
The campaign served as an ideological and generational contest that could have national implications for the Democratic Party.
People vote at a polling station in Manhattan
He has focused on reducing living costs for ordinary New Yorkers, building support through his informal personal style and social-media-friendly clips of him walking the streets chatting with voters.
Mr Mamdani was on about 44% in the latest polls, several points ahead of Mr Cuomo.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, was on 24% – a margin that could sway the vote if enough of his backers shifted to Mr Cuomo.
Turnout by 3pm local time (8pm Irish time), with six hours of voting remaining, was 1.45 million, exceeding the total of 1.14 million votes cast in 2021, which saw the election of current Mayor Eric Adams.
Read more: Trump threatens to restrict federal funds for New York City if Mamdani wins
Mr Adams bowed out of the current race after his re-election campaign was hit by scandals and corruption allegations. He endorsed Mr Cuomo, 67.
Outside a school polling station in Republican stronghold Staten Island, Rocco Napoli, 61, a retired city worker, said Mr Sliwa was the “common sense candidate” – but acknowledged Mr Cuomo’s claim that a vote for the Republican was a vote for Mr Mamdani “could be true.”
“But I blame the Republican Party for giving us Curtis again,” he said.
Polls close at 9pm local time (2am Irish time).
Mamdani’s improbable rise
The race has centred on cost of living, crime and how each candidate would handle Mr Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from New York.
Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said a Mr Mamdani win would set up a clash with Mr Trump.
“Trump will treat New York City more aggressively,” he said. “There will be some kind of political showdown.”
Former state governor Andrew Cuomo is several points behind Zohran Mamdani in the latest polls
Mr Mamdani’s improbable rise highlights the Democratic Party’s debate over a centrist or a leftist future.
“I think that this has to be a party that actually allows Americans to see themselves in it,” Mr Mamdani said last week.
But Mr 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.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, won Virginia’s election for governor.
Ms Spanberger, 46, will be the first woman to serve as Virginia’s governor after easily defeating Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey’s contest, Decision Desk HQ, a nonpartisan forecaster, projected that Democrat Mikie Sherrill would defeat Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Other news outlets had yet to name a winner.
In California, voters were deciding whether to give Democratic policticans the power to redraw the state’s congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that could determine which party controls the US House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.
Ms Spanberger will succeed outgoing Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who could not run for consecutive terms under state law.