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Zohran Mamdani is New York City’s mayor-elect. Andrew Cuomo’s political comeback attempt is over. And Curtis Sliwa wasn’t the spoiler after all.

Gothamist reporters spread throughout the city and beyond to capture the scene on Election Day, where Mamdani’s big win fired up his supporters, Cuomo’s loss ended a political dynasty (or did it?) and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill trounced her Republican opponent.

Here’s what we learned.

Cheers, chants and tears as Mamdani’s supporters celebrate

A few thousand Mamdani supporters gathered at the Brooklyn Paramount for an invite-only party to take in the results and watch their candidate deliver his victory speech.

But the story of what fueled Mamdani’s campaign to victory can be told in the watch parties across the five boroughs that erupted in jubilation when they realized he had won.

Take the Bangladeshi supporters who gathered in a basement in Kensington, Brooklyn, before taking to the streets to chant “My mayor, your mayor” in Bengali. Or the largely Latino crowd at a party in Corona, Queens, which chanted “Sí, se pudo!” (“Yes, we did!”)

“Zohran Mamdani is a Muslim, but he’s not just for Muslims,” said Ahsan Bachu, a 60-year-old Muslim at the Kensington party. “He’s for all people in New York, everybody.”

Is Andrew Cuomo really done?

In his victory speech, Mamdani said he “toppled a political dynasty.” He vowed to never utter Cuomo’s name again.

But is Cuomo really finished? Time will tell.

The former governor and son of a governor did not strike a conciliatory tone in his concession speech at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. He took clear swipes at his rival, noting that “almost half of New Yorkers did not vote to support a government agenda that makes promises that we know cannot be met.”

Cuomo did chastise his supporters for booing Mamdani when he briefly congratulated him on the win. But the overall tone suggested the former governor will be waiting in the wings, ready to pounce should Mamdani falter.

“This coalition transcended normal politics,” he said. “ No one and nothing will ever divide us, and this campaign was necessary to make that point — a caution flag that we are heading down a dangerous, dangerous road.”

Mamdani, meanwhile, said he wishes Cuomo “all the best in private life.”

For Mamdani, now comes the hard part

The youngest New York City mayor in more than a century will take office with expectations to deliver on his campaign promises of universal child care, fare-free buses and a rent freeze for rent-stabilized units.

He’ll have to do it as he manages the nation’s largest city with a famously impatient citizenry, all while some leaders of his own party refuse to get on board and President Donald Trump threatens to punish the entire metropolis that elected him.

On the Republican side, Mamdani poked the bear during his speech.

“Donald Trump, because I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” he said to raucous applause.

As for his own political party, Mamdani’s win highlighted a generational divide. His supporters were clearly upset that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn resident, didn’t endorse him publicly.

“I respect all of the work that [Schumer’s] done in our party, but you have to know when it's time for you to hang it up,” India Walton, a democratic socialist who ran for mayor of Buffalo in 2021, told Gothamist’s Elizabeth Kim at Mamdani’s victory party. “And now is probably the time.”

Mikie Sherrill breaks New Jersey’s third-term curse

For more than 60 years, the New Jersey governor’s office has ping-ponged back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

Neither party had won three consecutive terms as the Garden State’s chief executive since 1961, when Democrat Richard Hughes scored an upset over Republican James Mitchell.

That changed with Democrat Mikie Sherrill’s victory Tuesday night.

Sherrill’s comfortable win over Trump-backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli means she’ll succeed Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who served two terms of his own. The third-term curse is officially broken.

“This was a tough fight, and this is a tough state,” Sherrill told her supporters. “But I know you, New Jersey, and I love you.”

Republicans look ahead

It was a tough night for the GOP, which lost the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia as well as a redistricting ballot proposal in California.

An exception was on Long Island, where Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Trump ally, cruised to reelection.

Blakeman had used Mamdani’s image liberally throughout his campaign. At one point, his supporters wore orange t-shirts that said “Keep Mamdani Madness out of Nassau.”

Expect that to continue in the midterm elections in 2026, when all congressional seats and the New York governor’s office will be up for grabs.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a northern New York Republican, has been openly flirting with a challenge to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani.

“Kathy Hochul is now owned lock, stock, and barrel by the radical Far Left Socialist takeover of the New York Democrat Party under her abysmal watch,” Stefanik said in a statement Tuesday night.

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