5 key races to watch on Election Day 2025

"When we vote, we win," Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill told supporters.

And her Republican rival, Jack Ciattarelli, told his supporters that "championship teams finish strong… let's win this race."

Also in the political spotlight this November is New York City's high-profile mayoral election, the ballot box proposition over congressional redistricting in California and three state Supreme Court contests in battleground Pennsylvania.

Democrats, who are aiming to exit the political wilderness following last year's election setbacks when they lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, are highlighting their success so far this year in special elections.

But Republicans point to the multitude of problems facing the Democratic Party.

Here's a closer look at 2025's top elections.

In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, a recent public opinion poll suggested Ciattarelli narrowing the gap with Sherrill in the race to succeed the term-limited Murphy.

While Democrats have long dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five out of the past 10 elections.

And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year's presidential election, losing the state by only six percentage points, a major improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.

Trump headlined a tele-rally with Ciattarelli a week ago, on the eve of early voting. Trump's teaming up with Ciattarelli may help energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are low propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.

The race in New Jersey was rocked a couple of weeks ago by a report that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill's improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

But Sherrill's military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid a cheating scandal.

Sherrill, who was never accused of cheating in the scandal, went on to serve nearly a decade in the Navy flying helicopters.

The showdown was jolted again at last month's final debate after Sherrill's allegations that Ciattarelli was "complicit" with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans, as she pointed to the medical publishing company he owned that pushed content promoting the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain.

And Trump recently set off a political hand grenade in the race, as he "terminated" billions of federal dollars for the Gateway Project, which is funding a new train tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York.

Sherrill, holding a news conference at a major commuter rail station just a few miles from the site of the tunnels in one of the busiest train corridors in the nation, called the project "critical" as she took aim at Trump and Ciattarelli.

Virginia attorney general Democratic nominee Jay Jones was in crisis mode after controversial texts were first reported a couple of weeks ago by the National Review.

Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, when he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

But he faced a chorus of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race. 

Earle-Sears hasn't wasted an opportunity to link Spanberger to Jones.

And during last month's chaotic and only gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his attorney general bid.

"The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent," Spanberger said at the debate. But she neither affirmed nor pulled back her support of Jones.

Earle-Sears has kept up the pressure.

"Abigail Spanberger should have been the first to call for Jay Jones to step down. Instead, she doubled down - because deep down, she's OK with what he said," Earle-Sears argued recently in a social media post.

Also running is two-time Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, a co-founder of the Guardian Angels, the non-profit, volunteer-based community safety group.

Embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who was running for re-election as an independent, dropped out of the race last month. He recently backed Cuomo, but his name remains on the ballot.

The redistricting in Texas, which came after Trump's urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad their razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Polls suggest majority support for passage of what's known as Proposition 50.

But three Democrat-leaning justices on the state Supreme Court, following the completion of their 10-year terms, are running this year to keep their seats in "Yes" or "No" retention elections.

The election could upend the court's composition for the next decade, heavily influence whether Democrats or Republicans have an advantage in the state's congressional delegation and legislature, and impact crucial cases including voting rights and reproductive rights.

While state Supreme Court elections typically don't grab much national attention, contests where the balance of a court in a key battleground state is up for grabs have attracted tons of outside money.

The state Supreme Court showdown this spring in Wisconsin, where the 4-3 liberal majority was maintained, drew nearly $100 million in outside money as both parties poured resources into the election.