NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Zohran Mamdani Elected New York City Mayor, Mikie Sherrill Wins New Jersey Governor’s Race, and NYC School Enrollment Falls

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has been elected New York City’s 111th mayor, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani becomes the city’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in more than a century. Meanwhile, Cuomo says he’s proud of his supporters and remains skeptical of Mamdani’s agenda. In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill has won the governor’s race, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a closely watched contest. Plus, enrollment in New York City public schools has dropped again, down 2.4 percent from last year. Finally, WNYC’s Nancy Solomon joins us to talk about Mikie Sherrill’s victory in New Jersey.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, November 5th. Here's your morning headlines from Michael Hill. Democratic Socialists, Iran Mamdani will become New York City's 111st mayor, marking a history, historic victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Republican Curtis Slewell. Mamdani becomes the city's first Muslim mayor in history, as well as, its youngest in more than a century. Muhammad Hader attended an election watch party in Kensington,

organized by a South Asian civil rights group. He says he's confident Mamdani can fix the affordability crisis in the city. I feel so proud. You know, he's the first, it's like a world record. You know, New York's biggest city in the world. Mamdani will succeed, Mayor Adams, who skipped the Democratic primary and eventually dropped out of the general election and endorsed Cuomo.

Cuomo says he's proud of his supporters and continues to be skeptical of Mom Dani's agenda. It's also important to note that almost half of New Yorkers did not vote to support a government agenda that makes promises that we know cannot be met. Cuomo lost a Democratic primary to Mamdani in June, which led him to run as an independent. Republican Curtis Cliwa also lost last line. Mamdani will become the first Muslim to lead the city. He will also become the city's youngest mayor in more than a century. It soon could become or get a lot easier to build new housing in New York City. Voters approved four ballot measures meant to streamline development. WMIC's David Brin reports.

The four proposals weren't as flashy as the race for mayor, but they're likely to have a rapid impact on construction. One of the measures will speed up the approval process for 100% affordable housing projects everywhere in the city and any new housing in neighborhoods that have so far produced the fewest new units. Another will shorten review times for some apartment and condo complexes. A third will allow new developers and city planners to appeal rejections of land use applications by the city council. And a fourth measure tasked the city with digitizing its official paper maps for the purpose of streamlining rezoning proposals. They take effect immediately. And New York City voters rejected a measure that would have been the first step in aligning local elections with presidential races.

Democrat, Mikey Sherrill, is heading to Trenton, and former Navy helicopter pilot and current member of Congress becomes the second woman to become governor of New Jersey. Cheryl soundly defeated Republican Jack Chitterelli, but she says she won't shut anyone out. I know these are tough times. I know not everyone voted for me. but I'm working for everyone, every single one of you. Cheryl's victory gives the Democrats three straight terms in the governor's mansion as she succeeds. Fellow Democrat Phil Murphy next year. Enrollment in New York City Public Schools is down again.

WNIC's Jessica Gould explains. The city says roughly 884,400 students enrolled in the city's public schools this fall. That's down about 2.4% from last. year. Public school enrollment has declined by about 100,000 kids since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. Experts say the decrease is due to a mix of factors, including the affordability crisis, lower birth rates, and alternatives like charter schools and homeschool. Enrollment ticked up briefly two years ago when the city saw an influx of migrant arrivals, but that spike is gone now, a possible sign those families left the city or keeping kids home out of fear of deportation.

Close. There's more after the break. NYC. Democrat, Mikey Sherrill, will become the next governor of New Jersey, the 57th governor. The Navy veteran and member of Congress defeated her Republican opponent, Jack Chidrelli, in a race that garnered national attention. Nancy Solomon is the host of WNYC's Ask Governor Murphy and the podcast Dead End, a New Jersey political murder mystery, a must listen to. Nancy joins us.

Now, hi, Nancy. Hey, Michael. So we were expecting a tight race, but Cheryl secured victory quickly and decisively last night. What does that tell us about the race overall? Democratic turnout, basically. It worked to Cheryl's advantage that the polls predicted such a close race. And, of course, Democrats were very motivated to elect someone who will fight President Trump. You know, I've been hearing in the last couple of weeks that,

the Cheryl campaign had a very good get-out-the-vote operation. And last night, I stopped by a watch party held by activists from Soma Action. And they had been canvassing for weeks and months for Cheryl. And they told me that in the last couple weeks, there were tons of volunteers, and that included a lot of union people who were blanketing heavily Democratic districts in Newark. Essex County, Patterson, Trenton. So I really think, you know, that made the difference last night. So was this a city versus suburbs split? I know the Republican Jack Chitterelli was expected to do well in suburban communities. You know, that's what I expected to, but no. Cheryl beat Chittorelli in the suburbs as well, notably in Morris and Somerset, which is Chittorelli's home turf and Bergen. County. And there were six counties that had voted for Trump last year that flipped back blue for

Cheryl. That's Gloucester, Cumberland, Atlantic, Morris, Passaic, Hunterden. You know, Cheryl is a moderate with a military background. So she has a lot of appeal to moderate swing voters. And, you know, the New Jersey suburbs are full of them. You know, but I also, you know, as I mentioned, the ground game in the last couple of weeks, by picking that up, by focusing on the urban vote, I mean, you know, that's a tough combination for a Republican to beat in New Jersey. What local issues did Cheryl focus on that ultimately resonated with voters, Nancy? Well, there was that very local issue called Donald Trump, and I think, you know, that's key. But, you know, probably she talked a lot about affordability, freezing electricity rates, making government work.

for people. You know, at times, the campaign, you know, I thought that her policy platform seemed thin and she often talked like she didn't really want to be pinned down on exactly what she would do. But she gave a very strong victory speech last night. I think the strongest speech I've ever seen her give talking about making government work for people. She even mentioned protecting immigrants, although kind disorder because she talked about the Statue of Liberty and you know, but she didn't really like come out forcefully on immigrants, and that was one of the criticisms of progressives during the campaign. But, you know, and she talked about making the state's economy work for the poor and the middle class in New Jersey. So, you know, a lot of

issues there. Cheryl Ran as a moderate and defeated a candidate who was tied to Donald Trump. What does her win tell us about the current political environment, if anything? Well, I don't think you could look at the election results last night and not see that this was a very bad night for Donald Trump. You know, in the New Jersey race specifically, Trump spoke at a teletown hall this past week for Chittarelli and made fun of Cheryl's name because Mikey is unusual for a woman. And Cheryl campaigned forcefully against Trump tying Chittarelli to him at every turn. Cheryl made the calculation that she could best sway voters by criticizing Trump. And Chittarelli made the calculation that he could win by embracing Trumpism. And now I think we know who made the right call.

You know, it's still a long way to go to next year's midterm elections, but Democrats have to be feeling good about last night. But it's, Nancy, it's one night. What can they draw from this? because in New York City you have a Democratic Socialist who won, and frankly, there appears to be Democrats across the country who are fearful of touching that, and you have moderates in Virginia and New Jersey who won. So what message do Democrats across the country get in terms of the midterm elections and trying to be successful next year? Well, it's a big tent, I think, is it should be the message. I think different places are going to put up different kinds of candidates who can be successful for different reasons.

And I think that's clearly what you see with a Mikey Cheryl victory and a Mamdani victory. And, you know, I think so that's a big one right there. You know, Mikey Cheryl is a good candidate for a New Jersey electorate. That's just plain and simple. We have a lot of moderate voters in this state. You know, I always say this. There are just as many registered independence as there are Democrats. And so, you know, and those are the swing voters, and she does very well with them because her politics are a good match.

And, you know, so that I think is one of the messages of last night. And I also think, you know, this, there was a lot that was said about there was low Democratic voter enthusiasm and that the party was really weak going into this election. And that just turned out to be false, flat out false. Yesterday's turnout and the decisive win shows that Democrats are very unhappy with the direction the country's going, are very unhappy with President Trump. Nancy Solomon is the host of WNMIC's Ask Governor Murphy in the podcast, Dead End, Under Jersey political murder mystery. Nancy, thank you. Thanks, Michael.

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