National spotlight shines on NYC mayoral race as voters make final decisions
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(NEW YORK) — Eyes are on New York City as Election Day arrives, marking the final opportunity for voters to weigh in on the high-stakes mayoral race.
While New Yorkers are focused on solving key issues of affordability and public safety, the implications of this race could stretch beyond the Big Apple.
Along with gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, this local off-year election has garnered national attention and is considered representative of political headwinds ahead of the 2026 midterms. Particularly in New York City, one of the most high-profile races to watch on Election Day, candidates are zeroed in on navigating the impacts of President Donald Trump’s second term.
State assemblyman and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has remained the front-runner since his upset victory in the June primary. The 34-year-old democratic socialist is running on a progressive economic platform with a remarkable social media charm, though he has faced questions from mayoral opponents and others on the feasibility and effectiveness of his policies, in addition to backlash for comments about Israel and his stance toward police.
Though Mamdani has scored endorsements of notable Democratic leaders, his candidacy has shed light on how the Democratic Party has struggled to balance its progressive and moderate sides.
If elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. His identity has been a topic of scrutiny throughout the course of the campaign, with Mamdani accusing Independent candidate former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as Vice President JD Vance, of engaging in Islamophobic attacks.
Trump has called Mamdani a “communist lunatic” and threatened to withhold federal funding to New York City if he wins. Though, his dislike for Cuomo has been evident, the president declared his preference for Cuomo over the other candidates in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night.
The president endorsed Cuomo on Monday in a social media post. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.
Cuomo, 67, has attempted a political comeback following his 2021 resignation from New York’s governorship amid sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct allegations — allegations he has denied and charges dropped. Cuomo has also faced backlash for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during his tenure as governor.
After losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June, he attempted his return once more — this time as an Independent candidate. Backed by multiple billionaire donors, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Cuomo touts his experience and ability to work with Trump as cornerstones of his campaign.
While Mamdani has consistently held a healthy lead over Cuomo, a Quinnipiac poll published Wednesday shows polls beginning to tighten between the two.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, 71, who ran an unsuccessful campaign against current Mayor Eric Adams in 2021, is keen on improving public safety — a goal that has been top-of-mind ever since he founded The Guardian Angels in the 1970s, a nonprofit crime prevention organization.
In addition to garnering criticism from Trump and consistently facing low polling numbers, Sliwa has faced numerous calls to exit the race — which he has refused to do.
Adams, who suspended his re-election campaign in September, remains on the ballot as an Independent due to his late withdrawal. Despite previous harsh words, he endorsed Cuomo last month and campaigned alongside him.
New York City has already seen a massive increase in early voting, with five times as many people voting early in 2025 compared to the 2021 mayoral race, according to the New York City Board of Elections.
(WASHINGTON) — With almost a year as vice president — and one year until the midterm elections, JD Vance’s supporters say he is settling into his role in the Trump administration, being used as the president’s “fixer” and “enforcer,” a source familiar with their relationship told ABC News.
“Vance really has been an enforcer and fixer for the president and his administration, and he’s been able to do it on a wide variety of topics,” the source, someone familiar with the relationship between Vance and Trump, said. “Unlike past vice presidents who demanded a specific policy portfolio, Vance never did that, which allows the president to put JD in the game whenever he sees a need for him to be put in the game.”
This has allowed Trump to dispatch Vance to advance his agenda, the source said.
“I think that dynamic has benefited the president, the vice president and the entire administration,” the source added, saying trust between the two — and others in the administration with whom Vance has forged relationships for years — has led to Vance’s role.
Vance’s role in the Trump White House has sharpened as the 2026 midterm elections approach and his name has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate — even by Trump himself.
Proponents of Vance say his role as the “enforcer” and “fixer” was on display last summer as the White House worked to push Trump’s massive tax and spending bill through Congress.
In the days leading up to the bill’s passage, Vance — who served as a senator from Ohio before becoming vice president — held a series of meetings with conservative and moderate holdouts and with Senate leadership to help move the bill forward.
“He was a big part of getting it across the finish line and then promoting it afterwards,” a former White House official told ABC News about Trump’s megabill.
When asked by ABC News how they view Vance’s role in the administration, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement that Vance is Trump’s “trusted partner” who has helped deliver on Trump’s agenda.
“Vice President Vance is a trusted partner to President Trump and has played a critical role in helping the President keep all of the promises he made to the American people including delivering the largest tax cut in history for middle and working class Americans, securing the border, and putting American workers first,” Huston said.
Vance also took the lead in facilitating the TikTok framework that would transfer majority ownership of the app to Americans, but the deal has not been fully solidified. Vance was heavily involved in developing a strategy to reach the TikTok framework leading up to the U.S.-China summit in Madrid, where officials discussed the matter and joined Trump in the Oval Office when he signed the executive order on the framework.
A critical moment for Vance during this past year was his angry exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office where he chastised the world leader for not being thankful for the support the U.S. has provided to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said to Zelenskyy in February. “Right now, you guys are going around enforcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
The eyebrow-raising exchange underscored Vance’s willingness to publicly defend Trump and the lengths he would go to do so. But Trump appeared to shut down Vance in the meeting: “But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important,” Trump said.
Vance and Trump have not always been aligned. In March of this past year, Vance showed a rare instance of appearing to break with Trump in a Signal group chat with other top US officials and questioned whether the president recognized that a unilateral U.S. attack on the Houthis to keep international shipping lanes open was at odds with his tough talk about European nations paying their share of such efforts.
Still, Vance’s skills as a communicator have been useful for the administration — especially during the ongoing government shutdown, the former White House officials said.
“I would say one thing there that sort of ties to where he’s been in general as a help in the administration, is that he’s a very good communicator, and like you saw when he took the podium at the beginning of the shutdown to talk about, you know, the White House’s position on it,” the official said.
Joel Goldstein, a vice-presidential scholar and former professor at Saint Louis University Law School, told ABC News that Vance follows the footprint of vice presidents as an administration spokesperson — but takes it even further.
“Vice presidents are generally spokespersons for the administration they serve, but Vice President Vance seems unusually active in this regard, including on social media, and more confrontational than most recent vice presidents in some of his rhetoric against political opponents and the discourse he uses or doesn’t rebuke,” Goldstein said. “He has also performed in visible diplomatic roles as have his predecessors, but has often been more confrontational towards traditional allies as he was at the Munich Security Summit and in the Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy.”
Republican political operatives said Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference was a breakout moment as vice president.
In February, Vance delivered a stinging message to European allies, saying that the biggest threat to Europe did not come from Russia or China, but from within Europe itself, and that he was concerned Europe was moving toward censorship and away from democracy.
Vance added another title under his portfolio when he became the Republican National Committee finance chair, a key fundraising role in the organization and the first time a sitting vice president has held the position.
In a statement to ABC News, RNC press secretary Kiersten Pels said that Vance will be critical for the national party heading into next year’s midterms — calling Vance a “fundraising powerhouse for the RNC.”
Vance has also been involved in trying to maintain Republicans’ slim majority in the House ahead of next year’s midterm elections. In August, Vance traveled to Indiana, where he made the pitch to Republican lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map.
With a year until the midterm election, a source close to the vice president said Vance will be involved.
“I think you can probably expect, as we get closer to midterms, for the vice president to be a regular presence on the campaign trail for Trump-endorsed candidates across the country,” the source said.
Next year’s election will also be critical for Vance as he’s viewed as a possible 2028 candidate and someone who could take on the mantle of leading the MAGA movement once Trump leaves office.
In a recent interview with Pod Force One, Vance shared that during a private lunch at the White House six months ago, Trump floated the idea of him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the Republican ticket in 2028.
“It feels so premature, because we’re still so early. And what I always say to people is, if we take care of business, the politics will take care of itself,” Vance said to podcast host Miranda Devine.
Trump himself recently said Vance and Rubio would be “great” options as 2028 presidential candidates.
“I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two,” Trump said on Oct. 27 of Vance and Rubio. “I think if they ever formed a group it would be unstoppable.”
Chinese President Xi jinping (R) shows the way to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre on September 1, 2025 in Tianjin, China. (Photo by Suo Takekuma – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump took to his social media platform as Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared together in Beijing for China’s largest-ever military parade on Wednesday.
Trump accused Xi of “conspiring against” the United States as they attended the parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
“May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump wrote on social media as the parade was underway.
Trump referenced America’s involvement in World War II in his post on, saying, “The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader.”
“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!” the president wrote.
In his remarks at the parade, held in front of the Tiananmen Gate, Xi hailed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army as a “heroic force” and spoke of nations and treating each other as equals.
“The Chinese nation is a great nation that does not fear violence, and that stands independent and strong,” Xi said. “In the past, when confronted with a life-or-death struggle between justice and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction, the Chinese people stood united, rose up in resistance, and fought for the survival of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation and the cause of human justice.”
Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Putin, dismissed Trump’s conspiracy allegations.
“I want to say that no one organized any conspiracies, no one was weaving anything, no conspiracies,” Ushakov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, who is close to the Kremlin and has previously interviewed Putin. “Moreover, no one even had that in their minds, none of these three leaders had that,” Ushakov said.
“Everyone understands the role that the United States, the current administration of President Trump and President Trump personally play in the current international arrangements,” Ushakov said in a video posted by Zarubin to his Telegram channel.
Kim, Xi and Putin gathered for the military parade amid Ukrainian and Western concerns over the collaboration of the three nations in bolstering Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022.
Putin sent an invitation to meet with Kim on the sidelines of the military parade, according to Putin’s top foreign policy aide. The two leaders met after the event, according to a Kremlin readout published Wednesday.
Putin thanked Kim for sending North Korean troops to fight Ukraine’s incursion in Russia’s western Kursk region last year. “I would like to emphasize that your soldiers fought valiantly and heroically,” the president said, according to the Kremlin’s readout. “We will never forget the sacrifices made by your armed forces and the families of your military personnel.”
In response, Kim said, “As I said during our previous meeting, if there is anything we can do to help Russia, we will certainly do that, and we will regard this as our fraternal duty. We will do everything in our power to assist Russia.”
After the meeting, Putin and Kim hugged in front of reporters, with the Russian leader inviting Kim to visit Russia. “Come back again,” Putin said.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a Wednesday statement that Kim was “enveloped in an atmosphere of the warmest friendship and enthusiastic welcome” on his arrival in Beijing.
Ukrainian and Western governments have accused North Korea of supplying significant amounts of ammunition and troops to support Russia’s war, while Kyiv and its NATO backers have identified China as Moscow’s prime source of materiel and a vital economic lifeline.
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Somayeh Malekian and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday moved to allow Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to remain on the central bank board into 2026, saying it would take up President Donald Trump’s appeal seeking to remove her for cause during a hearing in January.
The Court did not explain its decision. There were no noted dissents.
The decision to let Cook stay on the job pending the outcome of the case marks a sharp break with how the justices have handled other cases involving Trump’s removal power at independent federal agencies. In those cases, a majority of the Supreme Court showed deference to Trump’s firing power, at least on an interim basis, while the litigation plays out.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
