Updates: Mamdani starts transition as Trump acknowledges election setback

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If you’d like to know the key results from Tuesday’s elections, you can find our round-up here.

You can also watch our Fault Lines episode on what Mamdani’s success means for US politics here.

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events:

• Zohran Mamdani announced the leadership of his transition team, promising an administration that would be both “capable and compassionate”.
• Mamdani said he would turn to the courts to counter US President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold funding for New York and send federal troops to the city.
• Trump eased his hostile rhetoric towards Mamdani after the democratic socialist’s election victory, saying that he wants New York “to be successful”.
• Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli called Mamdani a “Hamas supporter” as a major pro-Israel US group said it launched an initiative to “monitor” the New York mayor-elect’s administration.
• Omar Fateh, a progressive state senator in Minnesota who drew parallels to Mamdani, conceded in a race challenging incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

The advocacy organisation US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Action says Mamdani’s success in the mayoral race, despite relentless attacks over his criticism of Israel, points to a larger shift in US politics, with voters more likely to share those views than punish candidates who express them.

“Zohran’s historic win in the largest city in the US proves that the people support Palestinian rights. They’re fed up with establishment politicians who arm Israel by the billions while Americans can’t afford groceries,” Ahmad Abuznaid, director of USCPR Action, said in a statement.

“They want their tax dollars to fund care for their communities, like food, housing, and healthcare — not sent to a foreign apartheid state to fuel endless war and genocide.”

Support for Israel, already facing a sharp decline among Democratic voters, has dropped across the political spectrum over the last several years amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, which a majority of US voters believe is a genocide.

Measures like ending US military assistance, which played an essential role in enabling Israel’s campaign in Gaza, are also widely popular.

Speaking during her daily press remarks, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was following the outcome of the NYC election.

“It’s very interesting, what happened yesterday, for all of us to analyse,” said Sheinbaum, whose party has won power in Mexico with a populist economic message aimed at everyday people and against a powerful elite.

Omar Fateh, a progressive state senator in Minnesota who drew parallels to Mamdani in New York, has conceded in a race challenging incumbent Jacob Frey for the position of mayor of Minneapolis.

Fateh, who focused on affordability issues and faced attacks over his identity as a Muslim and an immigrant, thanked his supporters on Wednesday.

“Thank you, Minneapolis! While this wasn’t the outcome we wanted, I am incredibly grateful to every single person who supported our grassroots campaign,” Fateh said in a social media post. “I’ll keep fighting alongside you to build the city we deserve. Onward.”

Bill Ackman – a hedge fund manager, Trump supporter and one of Cuomo’s top donors – was quick to congratulate Mamdani on his victory last night.

Today, he explained the thinking behind his conciliatory tone.

“He is going to be our mayor for the next four years,” Ackman said of Mamdani. “I care enormously about New York City, which has been very good to me and my family since we emigrated to NYC in the 1890s.”

He added that while he did not support Mamdani, he wants to do everything he can to help the city “regardless of who our mayor is”.

.@ZohranKMamdani, congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) November 5, 2025

As Trump and the Republicans grapple with the results of Tuesday’s voting, the government shutdown entered its 36th day on Wednesday, making it the longest in US history.

The poor results on Tuesday could deepen schisms within the Republican Party over the shutdown, with Trump pressing lawmakers to eliminate the filibuster despite objections from some Republican officials.

A recent CBS poll found that voters are unhappy with how both parties and President Trump have handled the shutdown, with disapproval levels of about 55 percent for all three. A majority of voters, 54 percent, said they were “very concerned” about the impact the shutdown could have on the economy, up from 49 percent in October.

Mamdani was an unlikely frontrunner in New York’s mayoral election. His promise to make life more affordable for working-class New Yorkers, combined with his outspoken criticism of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, earned him a powerful coalition of opponents who poured millions into defeating him.

Mamdani’s rise also exposed deep divisions within the Democratic Party, whose leadership either declined to endorse him or waited months before doing so.

In the end, his campaign served as a litmus test for the growing distance between what voters want and what elected officials and their donors are willing to offer.

Fault Lines‘ Bigger than Zohran takes you inside the battle for New York – and the future of the Democratic Party.

Watch the full documentary below.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna says Democrats are encouraged by the high voter turnout yesterday in an off-year election campaign.

“Democrats are pointing to what was a substantial turnout in Virginia, in New York and in California. So, this is a way in which they are seeing how the voter can be energised,” he said.

But the party continues to suffer from internal divisions that were put on full display in New York, where some key party leaders declined to endorse the progressive Democratic nominee, Mamdani.

“That is something that Democrats are going to have to be looking at,” Hanna said. “And what they’ll be looking at very closely as well is the amount of young voters that came out for New York’s mayor. That is something that the Democratic Party has been lacking very sorely.”

While Mamdani’s victory in New York comes amid wider gains for Democrats across the country, progressive challengers in particular are seeing his success as a model to emulate.

In a social media post on Wednesday, David Morales, a candidate for mayor in the town of Providence, Rhode Island, shared a video praising Mamdani’s focus on affordability and the defeat of powerful interests that mobilised against him.

“Zohran was able to overcome oligarchs and corporate interests by organising tens of thousands of volunteers to knock on millions of doors,” Morales said.

Speaking to reporters, democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders said that other candidates could likewise win their races without the support of the establishment wing of the Democratic Party.

He used Graham Platner, a candidate for US Senate in the state of Maine who has leaned into populist appeals and is currently leading Governor Janet Mills, a 77-year-old preferred by party leadership, as an example.

“Party leadership did not support Mamdani in New York and he won,” Sanders said. “Party leadership did not support Platner in Maine, and I think he’s going to win.”

Easing away from his confrontational rhetoric against the city and Mamdani, Trump said he wants to see New York succeed and may offer assistance to the new administration, though he did not offer specifics.

“We’ll help him, a little bit maybe,” Trump said during a speech at the American Business Forum in Miami, adding that “we want New York to be successful”.

Mamdani’s election as New York City’s mayor inspires politicians and youths in Uganda, where an authoritarian president is seeking to extend his nearly 40-year rule.

Read our report here.

New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker has handed in his resignation after Mamdani’s victory, and according to Bloomberg News, the decision was driven by the mayor-elect’s stance in opposition to Israeli human rights abuses.

Bloomberg cited an unidentified source as saying that Tucker’s resignation “was influenced by his Zionist views and belief that he could not continue to serve under Mamdani”.

In his official statement, Tucker did not provide a reason for his decision, which will go into effect on December 19.

“Between now and then, I will continue to lead the greatest fire department in the world and will ensure an orderly transition,” he said.

While the races that generated the most interest have all been called, some municipal elections across the country remain undecided.

In Seattle, where a progressive challenger, Katie Wilson, aims to topple incumbent Bruce Harrell in a race that has drawn parallels to New York, votes are still being tallied. Harrell maintains a lead, but remaining ballots could favour Wilson and help her close the gap.

Last year, Trump won Dearborn, Michigan – home to a large Arab American community – in part due to voters’ growing frustration over the Democratic Party’s unconditional support for Israel.

But this year, Abdullah Hammoud, the progressive mayor of the Detroit suburb, easily fended off a challenge from a pro-Trump candidate.

Hammoud received 71 percent of the votes in the city of more than 106,000 people.

His opponent Nagi Almudhegi, an IT manager, had tried to court Republicans and model himself after Trump.

Ironically, despite embracing patriotic themes and Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, Almudhegi, who is Yemeni American, regularly faced Islamophobic attacks online.

How did Zohran Mamdani win, and what could come next? Watch this explainer from Sandra Gathmann and the Start Here team.

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case that could have major consequences for the international economy: a lawsuit challenging the legality of Trump’s tariffs.

Trump has relied on emergency powers to impose additional tariffs on dozens of countries across the world, but some states and businesses are questioning his authority.

The US president’s critics argue that the power of taxation, which includes tariffs, lies with Congress.

If the court rules against Trump, it would deliver a major blow to his economic agenda.

Lina Khan, who won the praise of US progressives with her challenges to economic concentration and corporate monopolies while serving as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) during the administration of US President Joe Biden, has been announced as one of the leaders of Mamdani’s transition team.

Mamdani’s transition website calls Khan the country’s “leading anti-monopoly champion” who led “efforts to reinvigorate anti-trust and consumer protection enforcement” during her time as FTC chair.

“I think what we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outside corporate power and money too often,” she said during a press conference.

New York City has elected its first Muslim mayor and its first mayor of South Asian descent in Mamdani.

In Virginia, a woman was elected as governor for the first time, as Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger won the contest. The state, which neighbours Washington, DC, also elected the first Muslim candidate to a state-wide office, with Ghazala Hashmi winning the race for lieutenant governor.

In New Jersey, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill became only the second woman to be elected governor of the state.

Public opinion pollster John Zogby says that Mamdani won over voters by focusing on everyday issues and the city’s sky-high cost of living.

“He talked about affordability, and he stuck with it. He never went off message.

There were many attempts during the campaign to knock him off message, to get him involved in international ideas, to portray him as anti-Israel, but in the final analysis, he was able to put together a winning coalition on the issues that really matter to New Yorkers,” Zogby told Al Jazeera.

“He represents the changing demographics of New York City and this nation. Someone with a Muslim background, a different ethnicity, someone who is young, someone who is not part of the establishment, I think that all played on his behalf,” he added.