What the big race election night results tell us about the future. The Supreme Court takes on Trump's signature economic policy. And, the conservative American families searching for a new home in wartime Russia.
Here's what to know today.
The winners, losers and takeaways of election night
Off-year elections provide the first chance for voters to make their voices heard after a presidential election — and shed early light on some major questions ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Here is everything we learned last night, and some clues as to what the results might mean to the future of both parties.
Big blue victories
Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayoral race, NBC News projected, after the 34-year-old democratic socialist energized progressives in the city. Now a nationally known political figure, Mamdani will attempt to enact the sweeping policy platform that inspired his supporters while managing an enormous municipal bureaucracy — and influencing national politics.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger is projected to defeat Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and flip control of the Virginia governorship, becoming the first woman to lead the state. Spanberger's campaign and allied groups attacked Earle-Sears over her conservative record on social issues and her fealty to Trump.
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Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the New Jersey governor's race, NBC News projected, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli after a hard-fought contest in which Trump loomed over voters. Sherrill worked to make the race a referendum on the president, casting Ciattarelli as a Trump acolyte who would not stand up to him.
California voters approved a new congressional map drawn by Democrats, NBC News projected, giving the party the chance to gain up to five House seats in next year's midterm elections and counter Republican redistricting efforts in other states.
What these results mean for both parties
Democrats attacked Trump's agenda to help them score victories across the country as they try to build on a data-based narrative that the president and Republicans have tanked the nation’s economy and gone too far right ahead of the 2026 midterms. Last night was the beginning of the Republican Party’s future without Trump on the ballot, leaving Democrats riding high.
The counterpunch for Republicans is the fact that off-year elections — those held in odd years not during traditional general elections — get less attention and are often poor measures for the overall mood of the electorate. That's amplified by the fact that the Democrats' biggest wins, the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, were in states that generally lean Democratic.
But for both political parties, last night will remain a predictable Rorschach Test: You see what you want to see.
Read more takeaways from election night.
Exit polls show dissatisfaction among voters
In the first major elections of Trump's second term, voters in Virginia, New Jersey, California and New York City expressed broad dissatisfaction with Trump — and with both political parties, according to results from the NBC News Exit Poll.
Most voters in those elections are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today, and they continue to express concern about financial issues and the economy.
The results will offer an early, though limited, window into how voters feel about Trump's efforts to reshape Washington and the country, providing clues for candidates on both sides ahead of pivotal midterm elections next year.
More election news:
- Democrat Jay Jones won the election for Virginia attorney general, NBC News projected, overcoming a text message scandal that threatened to derail his candidacy in the final stretch of the race.
- Pennsylvania voters are projected to approve the retention of three state Supreme Court justices, preserving Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the battleground state’s high court.
- Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim-American woman elected to statewide office in the U.S. with her victory in the state's lieutenant governor's race, NBC News projected.
- Texas voters approved two state constitutional amendments in statewide votes, NBC News projected. The ballot measures amend the state's constitution to clarify that only U.S. citizens can vote and to enshrine parental rights.
Supreme Court showdown over tariffs
Trump's signature economic policy comes under Supreme Court scrutiny today as the justices weigh whether he has the authority to impose sweeping tariffs on imports under a law designed for use during a national emergency.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority that has regularly backed Trump on various contentious cases since he took office for his second term, but many legal observers think the tariffs dispute is a close call. The consequences are huge for Trump and the economy at large, with Americans increasingly anxious amid signs that the tariffs are contributing to, rather than alleviating, higher costs.
A new NBC News poll found that 63% of registered voters believe Trump is failing to live up to expectations on the economy, after he ran on lowering prices, in part, through tariffs. Other recent polls showed a majority of Americans oppose the tariffs, which disproportionately burden small businesses.
Yet even if the justices rule against the duties, analysts argue there's no guarantee that things will return to normal for consumers and businesses.
More politics news:
- The lengthy standoff between Trump and congressional Democratic leaders is now the longest government shutdown in American history.
- But some senators predicted that the shutdown could end this week.
- At least two FBI agents involved in past investigations into Trump were told they had been fired, only to learn later in the day that those terminations had been reversed or put on hold.
At least seven dead after UPS plane crashes during takeoff at Louisville airport
At least seven people are dead after a UPS plane crashed as it was taking off in Louisville, Kentucky, causing a large fire and hitting an area with two businesses, officials said.
UPS Flight 2976, with three crew members on board, crashed around 5:15 p.m. while departing Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Video from the scene showed a large fire and huge plume of black smoke rising from the crash site. The plane had around 38,000 gallons of fuel on board, officials said.
UPS has a large presence in Louisville. UPS Air Operations is headquartered in the city, where it also has its main hub.
Read All About It
- The Israeli military's top lawyer was arrested for her role in the leak of a video showing alleged sexual abuse in a notorious Israeli prison, sparking a public reckoning on how Israel's caustic culture wars are deepening its political fault lines.
- The Trump administration is expected to announce a deal with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to lower the price of their weight loss drugs in exchange for limited Medicare coverage.
- An American teacher and his teenage son have been stung to death while on holiday in Laos.
- Team leaders of Los Angeles' Angel City FC expressed disappointment in what they called a "racist and transphobic" editorial from their teammate calling on the National Women's Soccer League to implement "gender standards."
- The New York Jets traded Sauce Gardner, a two-time All-Pro cornerback, to the Indianapolis Colts before trading defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, a two-time Pro Bowler, to the Dallas Cowboys.
Staff Pick: From culture warriors to soldiers
For some Americans, the United States is not socially and politically conservative enough, so they've moved their families to Russia.
Almost 1,500 people from what Russia calls "unfriendly countries," including 127 Americans, have applied for residence in the last year by declaring they "share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values." Many of these Americans are posting about their new lives on social media: sightseeing in the capital, swimming in the local pond and receiving gifts of mushrooms foraged by their Russian neighbors. Some cite Russia's repressive laws against public displays of LGBTQ identity the major draw, saying they made the move to shield their kids from what they consider harmful elements of American culture.
But life as a culture war refugee comes at a price. One family got drawn into the war in Ukraine, becoming the subject of widespread online rumors that the father had been killed fighting for the Russian cause. Another told me that they had found it hard to know who to trust in their new country, struggled finding a place to live, and lost all their savings in a pyramid scheme soon after arrival. While "it's not a perfect country," they still maintain that the future is brighter for them in Russia. – Caroline Radnofsky, supervising reporter, social newsgathering
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