New Yorkers are projected to elect Democrat Zohran Mamdani as mayor on Tuesday, opening a new front in opposition to United States President Donald Trump and raising the spectre that the president will retaliate against the city where he made his name. While Mamdani’s rise is dominating headlines, off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey will be seen as even more critical gauges of the US political mood nearly 10 months into Trump’s bruising right-wing reign. Democratic wins there will be seen as signals that the beleaguered opposition is coming back to life ahead of next year’s midterm elections to decide control of Congress. Mamdani, who describes himself as a socialist and campaigned on reducing costs for ordinary New Yorkers, was leading by seven points on 41 per cent in the latest AtlasIntel poll. Former state governor Andrew Cuomo trailed the 34-year-old with 34pc. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, was polling at 24pc — a marg...