Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has conceded the governor’s race in Texas, clearing the path for Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the ruby red Lone Star State.
Decision Desk HQ had yet to call the race as of 11:15 p.m. EST, but Hinojosa was leading by roughly 8 points with 80 percent of the vote in.
“There are still votes to be counted, but mathematically, we’re not going to be able to win this election,” Abbott told supporters. “I let Gina know that I would assist her and her team in a period of transition.”
Hinojosa is set to flip the Texas governor’s mansion for the first time in more than 30 years, depriving Abbott, who was backed by President Trump, a fourth term.
The stunning gubernatorial flip comes as Democrat James Talarico was projected to win the Texas Senate race against state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
Major forecasters looked to the Texas Senate race as a toss-up in the closing days of the cycle, with Talarico expected to benefit from Paxton’s controversy-laden campaign. Hinojosa, on the other hand, was seen as having a tougher fight to oust Abbott, who had outspent her.
But Democratic momentum in Texas and across the country changed the tides on Tuesday, helping deliver the party control of both the Senate and the House, plus a series of key gubernatorial upsets.
Hinojosa’s Tuesday night win bucks the DDHQ polling average that had her slightly behind the incumbent heading into Election Day.
New Yorkers voted in favor of five ballot proposals selected by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s handpicked commission that will rewrite City Hall’s rulebook, including measures to speed up approvals for street safety projects and outdoor dining sheds.
The proposals were developed by the 15-member Commission on Government Efficiency, or COGE, appointed by Mamdani after he opted to dissolve the charter commission left by his predecessor former Mayor Eric Adams.
New Yorkers casting their ballots at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan on Oct. 24, 2026.James Keivom for NY Post Mamdani said he voted yes on all five — but some neighborhood groups opposed all of them — with the United Neighbors of Prospect and Crown Heights issuing a statement that it “cannot support changes to the City Charter that further restrict or block public participation.”
“Our elected officials should not be willing to trade in ‘so called efficiency’ for democracy when it silences their constituents,” another local advocacy group, Brooklyn for All of Us, said.
Proposal 1 – Passed
Outdoor dining and public space. This proposal makes public hearings optional for permits covering sidewalk cafes, ramps and other uses of public space and removes the Council’s ability to veto sidewalk cafes.
Instead it gives local officials 15 days to comment.
Government watchdog groups have differing opinions with Reinvent Albany saying it supported the simplified approvals process, while Common Cause New York was against losing Council and community oversight.
The vote passed with over 63% of the vote at roughly 89% reporting.
Proposal one makes public hearings optional for permits covering sidewalk cafes, ramps and other uses of public space and removes the Council’s ability to veto sidewalk cafes.Christopher Sadowski for NY Post Proposal 2 – Passed
City contracts. This charter change would let the city’s contracting officials change contractor questionnaires, require quarterly meetings of the city’s contracting policy board and allow certain mayoral approvals be handled by agency staff.
It eliminates a public hearing on agencies’ social service contracting plans and, starting in 2030, the board could raise or lower the $100,000 cutoff that determines which contracts require public comment.
The proposal passed Tuesday with over 61% of ‘yes’ votes at roughly 89% reporting.
Proposal 3 – Passed
Streets, city property and offices. The proposal would give the Department of Transportation significant leeway to start projects like bike and bus lanes before presenting them to local community boards, if the agency’s boss decides there is “risk of significant injury.”
The DOT instead would just have to make “best efforts” to notify local officials and brief community boards.
It also removes the requirement for DOT to consult with local firehouses and says a street project cannot be thrown out simply because DOT failed to consult another city agency.
These changes have attracted scrutiny with neighborhoods groups protesting, saying the changes would jeopardize safety and remove community power.
Streets, city property and offices. The proposal would give the Department of Transportation significant leeway to start projects like bike and bus lanes before presenting them to local community boards, if the agency’s boss decides there is “risk of significant injury.”Bloomberg via Getty Images
The proposal also shifts final approval of certain city property sales and leases from the City Council to the City Planning Commission, including deals that let developers buy unused building rights from city-owned landmarks to make buildings on other sites taller or larger.
Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, a Democrat, opposed the loss of community power.
“Communities deserve a voice in changes to their neighborhoods. Proposal 3 weakens existing requirements for community input and oversight, and no current or future mayor should be given even more authority to disregard the voices of the people most directly impacted by these projects.”
Reinvent Albany backed faster street improvements but objected to making the proposal so broad by bundling it with the real estate changes.
Proposal 3 passed with nearly 62% approval and over 90% reporting.
Proposal 4 – Passed
Building permits. This proposal calls for one online place to apply for construction permits from different city agencies.
It also moves waterfront construction oversight from Small Business Services to the Department of Buildings and lets more deputy and borough commissioners approve building paperwork.
Common Cause and Reinvent Albany supported it, but Brooklyn for All of Us and United Neighbors of Prospect and Crown Heights opposed it.
The proposal passed with roughly 68% of the vote with over 90% reporting.
Proposal 5- Passed
Emergency savings goals. This charter change would set a reserve “goal” for the mayor to set aside at least 12% of the previous year’s tax revenue in the city’s rainy day fund or other reserves.
Deposits would follow a new city written formula and budget approval process, but it doesn’t guarantee the savings.
Common Cause supported it, but Reinvent Albany said it leaves too much room for City Hall to avoid putting money away.
Mamdani’s promotion of the five ballot proposals has drawn scrutiny.
His videos appeared on LinkNYC kiosks as part of a $1.6 million campaign that Councilman Phil Wong wants investigated for possible taxpayer-funded electioneering.
City Hall called it voter education and said it consulted city lawyers.
Voters approved proposal 5 at 72.3% with over 90% reporting.
Gov. Kathy Hochul sailed to re-election Tuesday — beating back a Republican challenge from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — and declaring “this is how we take back our country.”
Hochul’s victory was called just as polls closed at 9 p.m. by The Associated Press, and soon after Mayor Zohran Mamdani heaped praise on her at New York Democrats’ election night party at the Hilton hotel in Midtown.
“She has embraced new ideas,” the socialist mayor told the crowd, as he lauded his odd-couple “partnership” with the moderate Democrat, who cruised to a second, full four-year term.
“She is navigating lawlessness for mass federal agents intent on rolling back our rights,” Mamdani railed, “Cruel budget cuts to Medicaid and SNAP by Republicans who only care about making the rich richer, and threats to the free infrastructure that powers our economy.”
Hochul is sure to immediately face pressure from the left-wing of the party — including Mamdani and his Democratic Socialists of America comrades — to fulfill their “tax the rich” wishes come the new legislative session in January.
Gov. Kathy Hochul reacts after winning her reelection campaign at a Democratic election night party in Manhattan, New York, Nov. 3, 2026.REUTERS The lefty mayor endorsed Hochul and stumped with her in New York City in the final days of the campaign, appearing to give her a late boost with his base.
Hochul thanked Mamdani “for standing with me and bringing a whole new energy to New York City” as she took the stage shortly after 10:30 p.m. to Kelly Clarkson’s pop anthem “Stronger.”
“This is how we take back our country,” she said, as she taunted President Trump.
“He told New Yorkers to pretend he was on the ballot. Well, Mr. President, you got your wish!”
Bruce Blakeman arrives for an Election Day event at The Lannin in East Meadow, N.Y. on Nov. 3, 2026.Stephen Yang for NY Post
Hochul, the state’s first woman governor, was badly burned in 2022 when she performed relatively poorly against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin and was blamed by top Dems for the party’s losses in the state.
But this time, Hochul appeared to have dramatically widened her lead against her GOP opponent. As of 10:42 p.m., she had a 25-point lead, 62-38, over Blakeman, with 70% of the vote counted.
“Tonight wasn’t the result that we all wanted,” Blakeman said to a crowd at his watch party on Long Island, adding that he called Hochul to tell her “she ran a great race.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gov. Kathy Hochul secured a second full four-year term Tuesday.Getty Images
“You win some, you lose some,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that now we pull together, we move forward.”
Blakeman, an ally of Trump’s who was endorsed by the president, seized on the tax issue during the campaign, even signing a “no new taxes” pledge on Friday and daring Hochul to do the same.
But Hochul refused to take a hard line against raising taxes, dodging questions about whether she’d give more to Mamdani next year — after bailing him out during his first budget with state goodies that included a pied-a-terre tax on luxury second homes in the Big Apple.
Hochul told her supporters, “this is how we take back our country.”Tamara Beckwith / NY Post
Blakeman also repeatedly hit Hochul over New York’s sky high cost of living and Democratic policies on energy and immigration.
But his message failed to sway the large swaths of independents and disaffected Dem voters needed to carry a state where 48% of registered voters are Democrats.
Polls showed Hochul pulling away from Blakeman in the final few weeks leading up to Election Day, as his most favorable nine-point deficit in a Siena University poll taken in September gave way to a 14-point lead for Hochul in a survey released by the pollster last week.
Bruce Blakeman concedes at an Election Day event in East Meadow, Long Island, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.Stephen Yang for NY Post
But the same poll showed only 41% of New Yorkers indicating they think the Empire State is heading in the “right direction.”
That number is virtually unchanged, up from 39%, from when Siena asked it in October 2022, a month before Hochul won her first full term.
That year, Hochul faced a surprisingly fierce challenge from then-Long Island Rep. Zeldin, only winning by a narrow six points.
But Blakeman’s campaign struggled to gain similar momentum, lacking name recognition in other parts of the state and continuously being tied to Trump by Hochul.
Hochul geared her re-election platform toward “affordability” after Trump’s 2024 victory smacked Democrats across the face with the reality that voters are fed up with out-of-control cost of living, including in wealthy and expensive liberal states like New York.
The race was called for Hochul shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m.Stephen Yang for NY Post She also jumped on flashpoint front-of-mind issues this year like data centers and the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement initiatives — rolling a quickly slapped together one-year moratorium on new data centers and approving a raft of sanctuary state measures meant to resist ICE.
Hochul — who was thrust into power upon the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid a sexual misconduct scandal in 2021 — came under fire the following year when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that her underperformance against Zeldin cost Dems control of the chamber.
Hochul formed an alliance with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after endorsing him during last year’s mayoral race against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
Over her first, full term, she was forced to navigate not only Trump’s return to the presidency, but Mayor Eric Adams’ turbulent four years running the Big Apple, and the rise of Mamdani.
Her uncomfortable, and in some cases divisive, endorsement of Mamdani following his primary victory over Cuomo last year, laid the groundwork for a public-facing detente between the two — and ultimately helped her beat back a left-wing challenge from her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.
She ultimately chose former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her lieutenant governor running mate.
Blakeman appeared with President Donald Trump at three separate rallies in New York during the campaign in Rockland, Nassau and Onondaga Counties.Bloomberg via Getty Images In her victory speech, she gave props to Adams as well as to state Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who also won their respective races.
The four-year term secured by the pair will run through 2030, marking over nine years since she first took office. Should she complete the term, Hochul’s tenure would be roughly as long as Cuomo’s 10 years and eight months in office.
The Buffalo-area native is the the first upstate Democrat to serve as governor since Grover Cleveland in 1885 and the first female governor – or first “mom” governor, as she’s often called herself.
“Thank you for once again putting your trust in me,” she told her supporters. “Serving as your governor has been a privilege of a lifetime and I will never, ever, ever take your faith for granted.”
