Democrats swept the three major local elections in the US on Tuesday by wider-than-expected margins, giving the beleaguered party a much-needed boost 10 months into President Donald Trump’s second term.

From New York’s City Hall to Virginia, where Democrats picked up a gubernatorial seat, and out to California, the victories will bolster morale in a party that’s been reeling after failing to win the White House, Senate and House of Representatives just a year ago.

In New York, voters elected 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as mayor after he deployed a social media-savvy campaign and joined up with two progressive icons, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

For reaction and analysis, host Doug Krizner speaks with:

- Jeanne Sheehan-Zaino, Democracy Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center and Bloomberg Politics Contributor

- Greg Giroux, Bloomberg Government senior reporter

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On today's podcast:
1) Zohran Mamdani’s lead heading into the New York City mayoral election has withstood a furious push from Republicans, establishment Democrats and a coalition of Wall Street dealmakers. Aspects of Mamdani’s campaign that some thought would doom his candidacy — his vociferous criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, his past calls to defund the police and his refusal to flee from the political label of socialist — haven’t turned off a plurality of New York voters, despite a torrent of campaign spending from some of the city’s wealthiest residents. Instead, the 34-year-old assemblyman’s campaign — with its focus on core economic concerns combined with an online charm offensive and occasional searing barb at his critics — is working well enough that some political observers see a model for future Democratic candidates and races. Nationally, Tuesday’s results could provide a muddled message for Democrats.
2) Governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey and California’s redistricting ballot measure are among the elections on ballots Tuesday, providing a barometer of voter sentiment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. While Mamdani’s progressive campaign has given him a lead in New York, the candidates leading the polls in governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia — Representative Mikie Sherrill and former Representative Abigail Spanberger, respectively — come from the more centrist range of the Democratic spectrum.
The race in New Jersey has tightened in the past few weeks between Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli, as voters express dismay over high electricity bills and general affordability issues under the state’s current Democratic governor. Republicans would love to eke out a victory there — even as polls narrowly favor Sherrill — after President Donald Trump endorsed Ciattarelli and called him “100% (PLUS!)” on the MAGA agenda.
In Virginia, Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger looks likely to prevail over the Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. The huge number of federal workers in Northern Virginia, frustrated by the government shutdown and the DOGE cuts, gave Spanberger a built-in constituency. And she’s made sure to talk about issues key to local voters — inflation, schools, health care — rather than solely going with an anti-Trump message. If Democrats lose one of these races, expect even more hand-wringing over the party’s tarnished national brand and its inability to capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity.
3) As the government shutdown enters its 34th day, lawmakers face mounting pressure to reach a resolution. Major US airports are facing staffing shortages leading to ground delays, the distribution of food assistance is up in the air, and more federal workers are missing paychecks as the shutdown is on track to become the longest in history. Senators are increasingly optimistic about finding a path to reopen the government, but any resolution will likely have to wait until after tomorrow’s off-year elections, which could sway either side to move depending on the results.

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On today's podcast:
1) President Trump sat down with CBS' 60 Minutes - as heard on Bloomberg Radio - for a long-ranging discussion on the government shutdown, tariffs, and border security. Trump says immigration raids “haven’t gone far enough” despite videos showing physical confrontations among federal agents, immigrants and protesters. Trump also said that he could use the Insurrection Act to use professional military, instead of the National Guard, to US cities “if I wanted to.” The president’s comments come after his administration expanded a federal program that deputizes local police to enforce immigration laws, signing up nearly 16,000 officers across 40 states as part of an effort to boost deportations, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg News.
2) President Trump said he would skip attending the Supreme Court hearing this week over the legality of his worldwide tariffs regime. The court is scheduled on Wednesday to hear Trump’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that many of his “Liberation Day” tariffs exceeded the president’s emergency power to regulate imports. Trump had said he felt an “obligation” to watch in person as the Supreme Court weighed his power to impose tariffs. If he had attended, he would have been the first sitting president in US history to attend oral arguments at the high court.
3) The summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump was a breakthrough in bilateral relationship where the Asian giant was treated as an “equal partner” of the US, according to David Daokui Li, a regular policy adviser to Beijing. Speaking to Bloomberg TV on Monday, Li described a sense of enthusiasm among his peers in Beijing following the leaders’ meeting in South Korea last week. The exchange led to a one-year trade truce, although it didn’t address core differences between the world’s two largest economies.

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Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend with Host Nathan Hager take a look at some of the stories we'll be tracking in the coming week

• In the US – a look at how earnings are impacting global markets
• In the UK – we preview the Bank of England rate decision
• In Asia – looking ahead to the RBA Decision and Chinese economic data

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On today's podcast:

1) The mood in US stock markets has been lifted again by strong earnings from Apple and Amazon to round up the week of mega-cap results. Futures for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were higher after both indexes sunk on Thursday. Apple forecast a major surge in sales for the holiday season to provide assurance to investors that the iPhone remains a growth driver, while Amazon’s cloud division notched its best quarterly growth in almost three years. That’s smoothed out the setback in the big tech and AI narrative from the mixed reception to results from Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Alphabet.

2) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang still hopes to sell chips from the company’s Blackwell lineup to customers in China, though he has no current plans to do so, he told reporters Friday. Blackwell is Nvidia’s latest generation of artificial intelligence semiconductors, figuring prominently as a potential bargaining chip in trade talks between the US and China. Licensing the sale of those products did not figure in the discussion between President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week, with the US leader saying Nvidia and the Chinese government will have to keep talking about the $5 trillion company’s access to the Asian nation’s market.

3) President Trump called on Senate Republicans to vote to get rid of the filibuster in the upper chamber, amid a government shutdown that has lasted nearly a month. Because of the filibuster rule in the US Senate, most legislation needs 60 votes to pass. While a majority of lawmakers could revise those rules, both parties have largely resisted doing so to preserve their ability to shape legislation when outside of the majority. During the recent funding showdown, Democrats have refused to support a Republican bill offering stopgap funding unless the GOP agrees to extend healthcare subsidies.

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On today's podcast:

1) President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to extend a tariff truce, roll back export controls and reduce other trade barriers in a landmark summit on Thursday, potentially stabilizing relations between the world’s biggest economies after months of turmoil.
In the first sitdown between leaders since Trump’s return to the White House, the pair agreed China would pause sweeping controls on rare-earth magnets in exchange for what Beijing said was a US agreement to roll back an expansion of restrictions on Chinese companies. The US will also halve fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods, while Beijing resumes purchases of soybeans and other agricultural products.

The US is also extending a pause on some of its so-called reciprocal tariffs on China “for an additional year,” the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a statement, adding that China “will properly resolve issues related to TikTok with the US side.” Trump said he would visit China next April, with Xi planning to head to the US afterward. Despite speculation that Trump might make additional concessions — including the US opening access to Nvidia Corp.’s most advanced Blackwell line or changing its policy toward Taiwan — the president indicated that those issues hadn’t been part of the discussions. Trump and Xi did discuss access to some of the chipmaker’s other products, however, with the US president saying he planned to speak with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

2) The largest technology companies are betting on an AI future powered by gigantic complexes of data centers filled with humming servers. Now that the staggering cost of this push is coming into sharper focus, it’s testing nerves on Wall Street. Three bellwethers from different corners of the technology world – Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — together racked up some $78 billion in capital expenditures last quarter. That’s up 89% from a year earlier. Most of that cash was destined for data center construction and graphics processing units and other gear to fill them. Each increased their forecasts for future outlays. That was enough to rattle investors conditioned to expect enormous spending.

3) Treasuries fell the most in nearly five months after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cast doubt on a December interest-rate cut, even as a sagging labor market prompted policymakers to bring down borrowing costs Wednesday. While the central bank delivered a widely expected reduction in the benchmark lending rate to 3.75%-4%, Powell’s hawkish outlook ruffled the $30 trillion US bond market. At his afternoon press conference, Powell said a further reduction in rates at the December meeting “is not a foregone conclusion,” sending yields across tenors up by the most since June.

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On today's podcast:
1) President Trump said the US has a “special bond” with South Korea as he addressed a meeting of corporate leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Wednesday in Gyeongju. Trump’s visit to the conference comes as he’s looking to work through a series of outstanding issues in his trade deal with South Korea, and prepares for a high-stakes meeting on Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Trump said he expects to lower tariffs the US has imposed on Chinese goods over the fentanyl crisis and speak with China’s Xi Jinping about Nvidia Corp.’s flagship Blackwell artificial intelligence chip, as leaders of the world’s biggest economies seek to ease tensions in a meeting on Thursday. Nvidia shares rallied in premarket trading on Wednesday, putting the stock on track to breach $5 trillion in market capitalization, making the semiconductor giant the first public company in history to hit the milestone.
2) Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba less than a day after it became the strongest recorded storm to strike Jamaica, where it left hundreds of thousands without power and forced hospitals to evacuate. Melissa crossed the coast in eastern Cuba as an “extremely dangerous” storm, the US National Hurricane Center said in a statement at about 3:10 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. As much as 25 inches (63 centimeters) of rain and storm surges up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) above normal are expected.
3) Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday he expects the Trump administration to pay military personnel on Friday, even as the government shutdown shows no end in sight. The administration circumvented Congress and moved about $8 billion in research and development funds to cover the military’s payroll on Oct. 15. But Republicans have cautioned that they could not guarantee paychecks for troops if the shutdown persisted.

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On today's podcast:
1) President Trump hailed the US’s alliance with Japan, reaffirming ties with a longstanding partner and praising new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on her plans to ratchet up defense spending as the pair met in Tokyo. Trump also offered optimism that the two sides had overcome their trade disputes. The pair later signed documents on trade and critical minerals intended to formalize some elements of a trade deal brokered under Takaichi’s predecessor, which includes a nebulous pledge for Japan to fund $550 billion in US projects. But documents from the White House on Tuesday suggested that the agreements remained ill-defined. The trade document simply “noted with satisfaction swift and continued efforts by both countries, and confirmed their strong commitment to implementing” their trade deal.
2) Jamaican officials urged residents to brace for Hurricane Melissa as it tracked toward the island at Category 5 strength, packing intense rains and winds and threatening to cause widespread destruction. The storm’s winds are likely to cause “total structural failure,” the center said. That’s especially true for higher-elevation areas exposed to the brunt of the storm, where wind speeds could register as much as 30% stronger. If it maintains its strength, Melissa would be the first confirmed Category 5 storm — the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale — to hit Jamaica.
3) The Federal Reserve is expected to deliver a second straight interest-rate cut this week to support a wobbly job market. Any push to extend the easing cycle past October, however, may face renewed opposition from a group of officials who remain anxious over inflation. While the Fed’s dovish faction is, for now, winning the debate and securing lower rates, their rival camp of policymakers worry the cutting will go too far. Fresh data on consumer prices released Friday showed underlying inflation in the US rose in September at its slowest pace in three months. While that reaffirms the Fed’s plan to cut rates next week, the overall flat-lining of progress on cooling prices doesn’t bolster arguments for multiple additional cuts.

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