While a presidential election did not take place this year, gubernatorial elections, state legislative elections and mayoral races delivered victories for the Democratic Party Nov. 4, which the New York Times dubbed as “A Good Night for the Democrats.”
Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City’s mayor and the passing of Proposition 50 in California sparked debate about Democratic success under a majority Republican government. President Trump has expressed his distaste for Mamdani, who is a Democratic Socialist, by calling him a “communist lunatic” and speaking ill of his appearance. Mamdani has also called Trump a “despot” during his victory speech, but acknowledged he will be working with Trump to form an agenda that will best benefit New Yorkers.
After Trump urged red states to gerrymander for more House seats, 64.4% of California voters approved Proposition 50 to introduce legislatively drawn congressional maps in 2026, which was backed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Supporters of the proposition, including Artemis Center activist Bridgette Levy (’27), view it as a Democratic countermeasure. However, critics like former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger argue it dilutes minority voting power and mirrors Trump’s tactics.
“It’s a complicated measure because, on the one hand, it’s undoing some precedence that’s been set. But, I think that it really was the best course of action for leveling the playing field in terms of congressional districts,” Levy said. “And then New York and the other elections — I personally am a Democrat, so it was really good to see. It was very interesting to see such a major shift to the left across all competitive districts: New York, New Jersey, Virginia, all of them.”
Stella Leland (’26) said they were surprised to see that Proposition 50 passed, given how many of the Democrats they knew had expressed doubts about its purpose.
“Within my family, we were talking about how there weren’t really a lot of options for what to do — it started with gerrymandering, so it was going to end with gerrymandering, and I compared it to fighting fire with fire. Except, there wasn’t, at least in my opinion, many other options,” Leland said. “Within my circle, I know people who voted for it, even though they didn’t necessarily agree with it, because they thought it was for the greater good in a world of bad.”
Mamdani was elected as the mayor of New York City Tuesday, Nov. 4. He previously served as a representative of New York’s State Assembly since 2021. The election served as a historical landmark: Mamdani will be the city’s youngest mayor since 1892, as well as the city’s first Indian American and Muslim mayor. Levy described her observations about voter turnout in the mayoral election.
“I’d say it’s a start. It shows that Democrats are ready and willing to vote because there are fewer people who turn out to vote for non-presidential elections. But if you saw New York, voter totals came out to [the highest] in a mayoral election since 1969, so it’s been a hot [second],” Levy said. “It’s definitely good to see that there are people who are very interested and civically engaged. That said, [the] work is not done, but I think that there’s definitely been some momentum on the party after these past elections.”
Eighth grade history teacher Aidyn Kulick said change has been a strong theme of this year and is especially welcome to ensure more perspectives are being represented within the government.
“To me, the Democratic Party, as with any political party, is a large umbrella that represents a lot of different views. So I think success can be defined in many different ways,” Kulick said. “There are certainly successes for some, and anything that connects to more human rights for all is definitely an advancement in the right direction.”
According to a 2025 Pew Research Center fact sheet, Americans are currently split between the Democratic and Republican parties at 45% and 46% respectively. Levy noted that although the political divide remains sharp, the rise in civic engagement reflects an important commitment to democratic participation. At Archer, Levy said she tends to encounter more students with liberal perspectives.
“There are a wide plethora of views, especially on more specific topics, but by and large, we’re very liberal campus. There has been a lot of excitement over what’s happened, but I will say there’s a lot of people who have very different opinions on Prop 50 — even among our students here, as you could have seen in our ArtemisEngage,” Levy said. “In general, people have been happy about the results of the elections, but there is still there a spectrum of opinions.”
Leland said they saw Mamdani’s win as a small victory within the the chaos of the Trump administration.
“It’s sometimes a little hard to see the hope in the future. But, three more years to go — three more years and we’re out of this place. So I do think there is hope, even if it’s a little hard to see,” Leland said. “With Mamdani too, I do think that’s something to be hopeful about: a Democratic socialist being elected in such an influential and large city shows a shift in politics, sort of away from what we’re currently experiencing.”
According to exit polls, young voters (ages 18-29) provided Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani support toward his historic victory, as 78% of youth voted for Mamdani, compared to 18% for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and 4% for Republican Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani won the three-way race with 50% of the overall vote; young people were his strongest supporters out of all age groups.
In response, The Oracle sent out a survey to see if Archer’s body felt similarly about Mamdani’s mayoral election. There were not enough form responses to come to conclusions about how the student population feels about these two events; however, there were a few students who provided long-form answers, providing some context about the student experience.
“The elections in New York, I feel, have created hope that future generations can start making way in politics because they have an opportunity to see themselves in a younger, more progressive candidate,” a responder, who stated they are educated on the topic, wrote. “Also, [it] can be seen as a win for the Democrats because the population of New York voted against the candidate that was endorsed by the current president, which could point to disapproval in his leadership at this point.”
Voters were 10-30% less likely to know about events that negatively reflected their own political parties, according to 2020 study conducted by MIT Sloan School of Management. Instead, they primarily consumed news that affirmed their preexisting views. Levy said it is important for people to engage in thorough research before voting.
“A lot of people, if they’re registered Republican, will just click the Republican candidate. Same with liberals,” Levy said. “No matter what your political persuasion is, do research. There’s tons of stuff online. Try to ignore the ads as much as possible on both sides because they’re super short — they don’t really give you a complete rundown of what’s actually being proposed. So definitely look at candidates’ pages, look at their positions on different things, do the research. That’s honestly the best way to figure out what you want. But at the end of the day, it is your decision.”
ArtemisEngage is a Harkness-style discussion that is open to upper school students and is a way for students to talk about political topics. ArtemisEngage topics have included the pros and cons of Proposition 50, the relevance of the Electoral College and whether hate speech should be considered free speech.
These discussions are sponsored by the Artemis Center, a student activism group that Levy is a member of. Levy said the Artemis Center plans to reach out to more grade levels to encourage wider participation in these discussions.
“In the future, it would be great if we could discuss things more openly. One of the downsides of being such a liberal campus is there isn’t always a lot of room for debate, so most people talk along party lines and agree with the majority of Democrats or liberals,” Levy said. “Opening ourselves up to debate and healthy discourse, even if it doesn’t align with our political parties’ views or our own views, is important. It shouldn’t be about convincing others, but about exploring different perspectives.”
