Meet the candidates aiming to make history in the 2025 Elections

There’s plenty on the line on Election Day 2025, with the top ballot box contests viewed as crucial barometers ahead of the battle for Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

Bragging rights and political momentum are at stake for Democrats and Republicans as two states will choose new governors, while the nation’s most populous city will vote for a new mayor in a high-profile showdown.

And California, the country’s most populous state, will decide whether to jump into the bitter battle over congressional redistricting that’s pitting President Donald Trump and the GOP against the Democrats.

But this year’s elections could also be one for the record books, as a handful of top candidates aim to make history.

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Zohran Mamdani

The 34-year-old democratic socialist state lawmaker from the New York City borough of Queens shocked the political world in June with his convincing win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates to capture the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination.

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Now Mamdani, the Ugandan-born frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race, could make history as the city’s first Muslim and first millennial mayor.

Winsome Earle-Sears

Virginia’s Republican nominee for governor made history four years ago when she won election as the state’s first female lieutenant governor.

Earle-Sears, who was born in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. as a 6-year-old, served in the Marines and is a former state lawmaker, would make history again if she wins Tuesday’s election.

She would become the nation’s first Black woman to win election as a governor, as well as Virginia’s first female governor.

Abigail Spanberger

The former CIA officer and former three-term member of Congress, who is the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nominee, would also break barriers with a win.

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If she secures victory, Spanberger would also become the first woman elected governor in Virginia.

Mikie Sherrill

New Jersey has elected a woman as governor.

Republican Christine Todd Whitman won two terms in the 1990s.

But Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, her party’s gubernatorial nominee this year in New Jersey, would become the first female Democrat to win the Garden State’s governor’s office if she comes out on top in Tuesday’s election.

Virginia Lt. Governor’s race

Both major party nominees for Virginia lieutenant governor will land in the record books if elected.

Democratic nominee state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi would make history as the first Muslim and first Indian American elected as Virginia lieutenant governor.

And Republican nominee John Reid would become the first openly gay man elected lieutenant governor.

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Minneapolis mayoral race

Omar Fateh has already landed in the record books as the first Somali American and Muslim elected to the Minnesota Senate.

He would make history again if he is elected as Minneapolis’s first Muslim and Somali American mayor.