Leading up to yesterday’s Election Day, two closely watched governor’s races attracted attention: Mikie Sherrill’s in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger’s in Virginia.
Both candidates were centrist Democrats who rose to power in the first post-Trump wave—part of the 2018 edition of the “year of the woman.” Both emphasized their veteran bona fides, Sherrill as a veteran herself and Spanberger as the daughter of one (and herself a former CIA officer). They were even roommates on Capitol Hill.
But as Election Day drew closer, their races tightened. Some started to question whether that approach—compared to Zohran Mamdani’s high-energy race for mayor in NYC as a democratic socialist—could win voters today.
Last night, both Sherrill and Spanberger pulled it off (as did Mamdani). Their wins will tie an all-time high for women governors, with 14 soon to be in power.
While Sherrill and Spanberger are more centrist than leftist, they still ran on issues driving voters right now: namely, affordability, with promises to lower costs of health care, housing, and utilities. Spanberger told supporters after her win: “We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship.” Sherrill saw how historic this pair of wins was for “the little girls who come up to me and say they’re going to be a governor, or they’re going to be a president.”
Meanwhile, in NYC, voters chose universal child care, one of the three pillars that drove Mamdani’s unlikely race—even chanting it back to the new mayor during his victory speech. And voters soundly rejected, in Andrew Cuomo, a candidate who the DOJ found to have sexually harassed 13 women over his tenure as governor.
It was women who drove these election results. In Virginia, 65% of women cast their ballots for Spanberger (whose opponent was also a woman, GOP lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears). In New Jersey, Sherrill earned 62% of the female vote. In NYC, young voters delivered the most striking outcomes. Within that, young women stand out—84% of 18- to 29-year-old women went for Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor and, at 34, its youngest in a century.
After months of debate among Democrats over how to reach young male voters, the podcast manosphere, and the male discontentment that brought Trump back to a second term, these results can serve as a wake-up call: Sure, Democrats should try to reach those men—but don’t leave women behind. We still have power as candidates and at the polls.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
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PARTING WORDS
"In my work, I’ve always given myself that permission to kindly and lovingly ask for what I need. But when it comes to my real life, that is where I don’t know how. It’s been a work in progress for years."
— Ariana Grande, who's getting ready for the release of Wicked: For Good this month