2025 Gubernatorial Elections: Big Wins & New Faces

Written by: Praharnya Shankar Karthik

Gubernatorial elections took place during November in multiple states including New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. All had hotly contested elections that attracted national attention.

Governor Phil Murphy has already served two terms and is thus term-limited, making way for

Democrat Mikie Sherrill. On the Republican side, 2021 Gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli was bad for another try. Other candidates included Libertarian candidate Vic Kaplan and Socialist Worker Party candidate Joanne Kuniansky. Sherrill ended up winning by about 500,000 votes. Sherrill won 56.9% of votes while Ciattarelli received 42.5% of the votes. Somerset county voted for Sherrill by 19.4 points. Ciatterelli won 7 out of 21 NJ counties.

New York City elected its new mayor, Democrat Zohran Mamdani. He ran against former governor Andrew Cuomo who ran as an independent candidate after losing in the Democrat primaries to Mamdani. The Republican opposition was Curtis Silwa. Other candidates included Eric Adams, Irene Estrada, Jim Walden, and Joseph Hernandez. The election was split with Mamdani winning with 50.4% of the votes. He won by about 180,000 votes. 

Virginia had its gubernatorial election with the major candidates being Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. Spanberger won, making her Virginia’s first female governor. Spanberger won with 57.5% of the votes and by about 520,000 votes. In the Lt. Governor election, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi ran against Republican John Reed and won by 5.55 points (390,000 votes). In the attorney general election, scandal-ridden Democrat Jay Jones ran against Republican Jason Miyares. In the end, Jones won 53% of the votes, which was about 220,000 more votes than the opposition. 

All in all, Democrats have achieved sweeping wins in all of these elections, winning by huge margins. While many controversies surrounded the elections, we hope to see the new officials make a difference!