WASHINGTON—This shouldn’t come as any great surprise, but the Nov. 4, 2025, balloting for the Virginia and New Jersey governorships are being turned into referendums on the incumbent president, Donald Trump. The same is starting to happen with several other key elections as well, including the New York City mayoral contest, the Prop. 50 vote in California, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court races.
Making the two gubernatorial elections into an anti-MAGA verdict is a key push of the American Federation of Teachers, following the union’s pattern in past off-off-year elections.
In a recent e-mail exhorting members to phone bank after hours and to get out on the hustings in both New Jersey, for Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and in Virginia for former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the elections team at the 1.8-million-member AFT pulled no punches.
It said the outcomes would help keep the momentum going against Trump following the turnout of monstrous crowds coast-to-coast for No Kings Day on Oct. 18.
Besides the gubernatorial races, Trump is a factor in the congressional redistricting referendum, Prop. 50, in California. Ruling Democrats designed it to counter Trump-ordered GOP gerrymandering in Texas. Polls show a close race in California, as many Democratic-voting electors favor non-partisan remapping.
Trump’s a topic, too, in New York City’s mayoral vote, where state legislator Zohran Mamdani, 34, the Democratic nominee and a Democratic Socialist, is running on a strongly progressive platform. He faces scandal-scarred ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 67, who’s on the ballot as an independent.
Trump has threatened to invade New York City with federal troops and cut off federal aid if Mamdani wins. Waving the old GOP flag of red-baiting, Trump calls Mamdani a Communist. He likes Cuomo and claims a Mamdani win would be a “political gift” for Republicans.
In a mass rally on Oct. 26 in Queens, strong Mamdani supporters Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., both cited Trump, the billionaire oligarchs backing him, and Cuomo and the GOP’s president’s authoritarianism as reasons to elect the young progressive.
Teachers take it to Trump
“More than seven million people joined our ‘No Kings’ day of action to demand a democracy that serves working people, not just the wealthy few,” AFT’s e-mail declared, reviewing all the elections set for next week.
“The creativity, courage, and solidarity you brought to the streets showed what real power looks like, but this fight isn’t over. Congressional extremists are still pushing” the partial federal government shutdown, which will hit one month on Nov. 1, “that threatens health care, schools, and the public services our families rely on.
“Now, all eyes are on New Jersey and Virginia. This moment can shape what comes next in the fight against federal overreach” by the Trump regime “and do-nothing congressional Republicans.
“Every phone bank, every conversation, every vote matters. Let’s keep building that power at the ballot box and beyond. Because in America, we don’t answer to kings: We build power together.”
The “king,” of course, is Trump. His repression of dissent, racist stereotyping of people of color, violent ICE roundups, and revenge tactics against political “enemies” have led to that description and more-justified descriptions, such as “fascist.”
Trump has also illegally stripped union contracts covering more than a million federal workers, fired at least 175,000 of them for no cause, and defied the Constitution by yanking back or withholding money it earmarked for spending on various programs. Federal food program funds expire Nov. 1.
He also pushed through Congress, on party-line votes, a $4.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and the 1%, to be partially “paid for” by deep cuts in everyone else’s health care.
All this on top of a partial federal shutdown that has sent at least 700,000 federal workers home and forced the rest to work without pay for a month and counting.
Statewide races a preview of 2026
The gubernatorial races are important for several reasons. One is their influence on state policies and politics: Both states concentrate large power in the governor’s office. With a dysfunctional government in D.C., that’s important. And both governors can wield political clout in 2026. That’s even though Virginia prevents governors from seeking second consecutive terms.
Furthermore, though, analysts read the results of those two gubernatorial races as “tea leaves” about the 2026 elections for two-thirds of the governorships nationwide, a third of U.S. Senate seats, and the entire U.S. House. Republicans hold slim majorities in all those political offices.
The late headline event in the two gubernatorial races may well be on Nov. 1. That’s when the New Jersey Democratic Party, with strong union support, stages a rally in Newark featuring former President Barack Obama openly endorsing the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Sherrill.
Recently, and breaking with tradition that says former presidents do not comment on their successors’ actions and policies, Obama has been criticizing Trump for a variety of actions—such as trashing U.S. allies and federal workers—which he says damage the country.
Sherrill, who will also speak, finds herself in an unexpectedly close race against a MAGA Republican in normally blue New Jersey. Sherrill, a “moderate” with a military background, defeated three other heavyweight candidates, including progressive Newark Mayor Raz Baraka, in the party primary there.
Labor for Mamdani
In New York, AFT, AFSCME District Council 37, the New York City Central Labor Council, and the state AFL-CIO are also pushing get out the vote operations. Union leaders joined Mamdani, Sanders, and Ocasio-Cortez at the rally in Queens.
“It is not a coincidence that the very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd. She called Trump’s reign “an authoritarian, criminal presidency fueled by corruption and bigotry, and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement.”
Sanders said Mamdani would represent workers, not “the billionaire class,” which backs Cuomo. “In the year 2025, when the people at the top have never, ever had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working-class people, to come together and defeat these oligarchs?” he asked. “You’re damn right we can,” New York City native Sanders declared.
Democratic nominee Mamdani proposes building more housing for low- and moderate-income people, providing free bus service, hiring thousands of new teachers, freezing rent increases, experimenting with city-run supermarkets—which he says would be cheaper—and fighting higher prices in general. He also wants to increase taxes on the ultra-rich, a common proposal from Sanders on the national scale.
Backed by the GOP financiers of Wall Street—and, semi-covertly, by Trump—Cuomo flings charges of antisemitism against Mamdani, who is a Muslim-American. Cuomo cites Mamdani’s past statements supporting the Palestinians, who suffer from massive Israeli death and destruction in Gaza.
Cuomo’s also pitched his candidacy to residents of the city’s outer boroughs. The city Chamber of Commerce and a handful of unions have endorsed him, calling Cuomo better for job-creation. He touts that, without mentioning unions or praising workers.
Mamdani has countered with legions of volunteers, including from the United Auto Workers members from the city’s colleges and universities, plus unionists joining in for phone-banking.
Turnout will be key
In the governors’ races, public polling so far indicates Spanberger of Virginia has a healthy lead. Beginning her congressional career as a moderate Democrat, after years working for the CIA, Spanberger moved in a somewhat more progressive direction as her district moved left. She resigned to run for governor.
Her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, recently tried to distance herself somewhat from the president’s massive ICE roundups but has made other Trump themes part of her campaign, like opposition to LGBTQ equality, support for DOGE cuts to the public service, and opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In New Jersey, the race is closer. Her opponent, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, is making his second run for the governor’s seat. The president and other leading MAGA figures are going all-out to show their support. Ciattarelli has adopted Trump-style rhetoric in the race, calling Sherrill a “fake and corrupt radical left Democrat” who would send the state into a “death spiral.”
In addition to the national Republicans intervening in her race, Sherrill also must deal with a recent GOP trend in statewide races in New Jersey. The incumbent Democratic governor was barely re-elected four years ago, and Trump ran a closer race there in 2024 against Vice President Kamala Harris than he did in 2020 against Joe Biden.
There’s another set of Eastern races of interest to workers. In Pennsylvania, the state AFL-CIO mustered volunteers to phone-bank and hit the streets for elections for judges on the commonwealth’s top courts.
The state fed aims to keep a progressive majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court—where its judges can reject anti-worker and anti-voting lawsuits and other schemes from the state GOP.
“Don’t guess! Vote ‘Yes!” the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO urges. It explains that when people vote for a judge for an open court seat, “you are electing someone new. This is your opportunity to support candidates who align with labor values.”
But once a judge is in office, the judge must win a later retention election, with just “yes” or “no,” but no named foe, on the ballot.
“When you vote ‘YES’ to retain a judge, you are deciding whether a current judge should stay on the bench. If a judge has a record of protecting workers’ rights and respecting union issues, voting YES helps keep them in place,” the fed said.
All of these elections will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
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