Here’s how you know Zohran Mamdani’s rise attracted national attention: Kentucky voters had to be reminded that they couldn’t vote in New York.
Yes, the secretary of state in bluegrass country was forced to issue a message on Tuesday that “We’re getting calls about the polls being closed. They’re closed because we don’t have an election today… You can’t vote today in Kentucky for mayor of New York.”
Gotham’s mayoral race, which gave Democrat Mamdani a nine-percentage-point lead with nearly all the votes Tuesday night, reverberated across the country, as liberal Democrats scored the first major victory of the Trump II era. And, needless to say, it reverberated throughout Hollywood.
The liberal core of the entertainment industry is divided over the democratic socialist’s candidacy and the extent to which the ideology should be the face of the anti-Trump resistance. Mamdani’s victory should perhaps heal some of these divisions.
It’s not the only race in which media and entertainment professionals are participating: The gubernatorial race in New Jersey’s suddenly booming manufacturing area and the fight over Proposition 50 as an anti-Trump tool in California have also gripped the city. Here is The Hollywood ReporterHere is the breakdown of these three key races as their results are released on Tuesday evening.
new York
Zohran Mamdani came out of nowhere earlier this year to lead the Democratic field for New York City mayor just weeks before the crowded June primary. He won that Oscar ranked voting race handily and never looked back.
Although there was Meryl Streep-level drama when Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams entered the race (and in Adams’ case, withdrew from the race) as independents, Mamdani never relinquished her grip on the lead.
The 34-year-old congressman from Queens (also, of course, the son of Monsoon wedding And The namesake director Mira Nair), brought together a coalition of Gen Z New Yorkers, Muslims, South Asians, and progressive Democrats to achieve victory; with nearly 90% of the vote Tuesday night, he held a nine-point lead over his closest challenger, Cuomo. All major media outlets called Mamdani’s race, and he held above the 50 percent mark, suggesting a popular mandate in the three-way race with Republican Curtis Sliwa.
In addition to his cinematic pedigree (to learn how a Nair film had a formative influence on his politics, read THR story here), Mamdani’s trajectory carries a whiff of Hollywood, the little-known figure suddenly rising to the forefront of so many sports films. And of course, he cleverly used both social media and Hollywood tropes; he and his young team launched many popular TikToks, often on the streets of New York, while also running more traditional ads The Bachelor and other entertainment hits. And don’t forget its Bollywood-style campaign visuals.
Mamdani also provided something of a model for how to deal with Trump and trolls in general, often smiling but rarely giving ground — and, with his themes of affordability, rarely breaking the message. Indeed, of all the contrasts with the president who is his ideological foil, Mamdani’s greatest may be his approach: the leader who never encountered a tangent he didn’t like versus the upstart whose rhetoric rarely strayed from the path.
However, for all of Mamdani’s skill and appeal, his victory is a reminder of the constellation forces in politics that are beyond the control of anyone in politics. The return of Trump (itself due to the disarray of a national Democratic party), the war in Gaza, and the affordability crisis caused by speculation and housing market dynamics all added momentum to Mamdani’s candidacy in a way that no elected official could orchestrate.
As for Hollywood figures, Mamdani has certainly become a hero to some of the most politically outspoken artists. Spike Lee, Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Emily Ratajkowski and Lupita Nyong’o all supported him; Ilana Glazer and Mark Ruffalo did a phone bank for him. Many of them are people who have supported other progressive upstarts in the past; The interesting question now, alongside that in the broader political landscape, is whether more moderate celebrities will also rally to Mamdani’s side. History, and especially Hollywood, tends to love winners, and the candidate’s victory will inspire those who might have been hesitant before (and, okay, also a few supporters of the movement).
But Mamdani has taken some positions that might also prove distasteful to some celebrities, including his stated belief that Israel should not exist as a Jewish-majority state. And many celebrities have generally taken a much more muted approach to activism than during the first Trump administration, either out of fatigue or tactical restraint; it remains to be seen whether Mamdani will encourage them to change their habits.
But the biggest determining factor might be the elected mayor himself. How effectively Mamdani governs will go a long way in determining whether the entertainment industry will accept him. The only thing Hollywood loves more than a winning candidate is a popular leader.
California
As of Tuesday evening, California’s Proposition 50 — which would change the congressional map and potentially reduce the number of Republican representatives from nine to just four — appears to be in good shape.
Polls show that many left-leaning California voters have mixed feelings about Proposition 50 after it authorized an independent commission to draw congressional maps about 15 years ago. But they feel they have no choice given Republicans’ gerrymandering efforts in other states.
Proposition 50 amends the California constitution to allow elected officials to redraw the map only once in the middle of the decade. It is designed to counter efforts by Republican lawmakers in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Missouri and North Carolina to redraw the congressional map to increase the number of Republican seats in those states.
Governor Gavin Newsom has staked his political future on this measure. Newsom has already said he is considering a presidential run and that a no vote on Proposition 50 would be catastrophic for his chances.
In September, the drama around Proposition 50 picked up steam when former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (and the last Republican to hold that office) spoke out publicly against the measure.
But a group of famous Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Chris Murphy, were featured in an ad supporting the measure that covered the state during the World Series.
Celebrity enthusiasm has remained relatively muted. Nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish took to Instagram to urge her followers to vote yes, prompting backlash from actor James Woods and former reality star turned podcaster Spencer Pratt, who called Eilish’s comments “stupid.”
Even billionaire real estate developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, hardly a partisan Democrat (he has changed his affiliation several times over the past two decades) has become a proponent of Proposition 50 ahead of a potential gubernatorial run next year. That left Schwarzenegger, who as governor helped lead efforts to create the commission, as one of the only dissenting public voices.
With the support of Charles Munger Jr., a longtime Republican donor who gave $30 million to an anti-Prop 50 campaign, Schwarzenegger appeared to have ammunition to work with. But no significant opposition ever really materialized.
“There’s very little room to organize a campaign against this because it’s a referendum on Donald Trump in a state where his approval rating is 26 percent. That’s what it’s about,” says Steve Caplan, a strategic communications consultant who teaches at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. “Changing that narrative to talk about good governance is not a message that will resonate in this political climate.”
New Jersey
The Garden State has a generous film tax incentive program, which has attracted massive investment from Hollywood production companies in recent years.
But Gov. Phil Murphy, the Democrat who oversaw that boom, is heading to Barnegat Bay after eight years in office, as Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill vie to take his place. On Tuesday evening, media outlets called the race for Sherrill, a congresswoman who was once a prosecutor and naval officer. She led by more than 12 points with almost all votes counted, scoring a resounding victory over her Trump-backed opponent. A few hundred miles to the south, Democrat Abigail Spanberger scored a victory of similar magnitude in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.
Also aboard the ship is key Murphy cabinet member Tim Sullivan, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), who previously announced he would step down at the end of 2025. It was Sullivan, an investment banker turned business advocate, who truly spearheaded the state’s movie incentive program.
They leave behind a major legacy. Netflix is reinventing the shuttered Fort Monmouth military base in central New Jersey, redeveloping hundreds of abandoned and mostly dilapidated acres into a massive $848 million production facility. (The Hollywood Reporter was there in May when the streamer debuted.) And last week, Paramount revealed itself as the anchor tenant of the giant 1888 Bayonne production campus. Corporations don’t come for the music of Springsteen and Bon Jovi: Thanks to Murphy and Sullivan, New Jersey’s film incentives are among the most attractive in the country, offering qualified productions up to a 40 percent tax credit.
And it works. In terms of production spending during the first half of 2025, New Jersey ranks fourth in the nation, behind only California, New York and Georgia. Those who take advantage get many New York City locations, at a fraction of the rates.
The consensus is that Sherrill won’t back down from incentives given the amount of growth they stimulate, although a new administration of course always brings its own ideas. (No one in the film and television industry has endorsed either candidate, perhaps as a strategic move in a close race.)
Entertainment professionals from The Garden State expressed satisfaction with the form of the race.
“The Screen Alliance of New Jersey (SANJ) Board of Directors met with each of the candidates and they both expressed a strong desire to maintain the state’s film and digital media tax credit and support the growth of the film industry in New Jersey,” said Nick Day, SANJ President. THR. “They both recognize the industry as an important growth sector of the economy and a pathway to creating more jobs. »
