Americans in more than a dozen states are heading to the polls Tuesday.
In New Jersey and Virginia, voters will decide on a new governor. New York City's mayoral race is being closely watched, Californians are voting on a redistricting measure and voters in several other states will cast ballots on local leaders or statewide measures.
Polls show the Democratic candidates are favored to win the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia.
"Especially if these races go the way that we expect... I think national Democrats are really going to want to point to where people like Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger as sort of the future of the Democratic party," said Jessica Taylor, Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report. "These are both women who were elected in the 2018 blue wave. They both sort of were part of this cohort of national security Democrats."
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Tuesday's elections are taking place amid the ongoing federal government shutdown, which is increasingly weighing on many Americans.
86 percent of respondents say they're concerned about the shutdown's impact on the economy, according to a new CBS News poll. More than seven in ten say Congress is not working to end the shutdown.
Affordability has taken center stage in the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.
"When I go to the grocery store, everything is high, high, high, high," a voter said.
And the economy and cost of living is the top issue for nearly half of voters.
"The economy is a big thing in this community, too," said another voter. "You see people that are barely making it paycheck to paycheck, and the problem is that the cost of living is going out of this roof."
