Democrats claimed a series of victories in off-year elections on Tuesday night, turning contests across the country, and up and down the ballot, into an enthusiastic display of opposition to President Donald Trump that they hope will turbocharge their march toward next year’s midterms.
In California, voters blessed a midcycle redistricting effort intended to partially neutralize a push by Trump to draw up more safe Republican House seats before next year’s election. And two Democratic women in closely watched governors’ races, Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, handily beat Republicans who aligned themselves with the president.
The wins were vital for a party desperate to show it still has a pulse — and is on track to rebuild — a year after Trump won back the White House and secured unified control of Congress.
The main contests, though, mostly unfolded in states lost last year by Trump, who had kept his distance by not campaigning in person alongside the major Republican candidates. As the race calls rolled in from The Associated Press on Tuesday night, he offered an analysis of the results from the sidelines. “TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,” Trump wrote on social media, citing “Pollsters.”
But Democrats also got their way in other contests that will shape future elections. In Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state, voters decided to retain three Supreme Court justices, preserving the Democratic majority. And in Maine, voters decided against new voting restrictions, including requiring photo IDs for in-person voting and tightening rules on absentee voting.
The governor’s race in New Jersey was hard fought, particularly after Trump’s better-than-expected performance there in 2024. Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican, echoed aspects of the president’s rhetoric in an effort to recreate his coalition there, and the loss may portend a longer-term challenge of keeping Trump’s supporters in the Republican fold without him atop the ticket.
In her victory speech, Sherrill said Ciattarelli called her soon after the results were announced. She credited him for “stepping up” as she reached out to his supporters.
“I know that not everybody voted for me,” she said. “But I’m working for everybody.
Spanberger, who will become the first female governor in Virginia, said Virginians had chosen their “commonwealth over chaos.”
Her win, while not a major surprise, came in a state that is home to scores of federal workers, contractors and others whose lives are intertwined with the federal government. It could reflect a rebuke of the president’s downsizing of the federal government in his backyard — and, as Trump seemed to acknowledge in his social media post, could potentially result in fresh pressure on his party to end the shutdown of the federal government.
“To those across the Potomac who are attacking our jobs and our economy,” Spanberger said, “I will not stand by silently.”
Read more about Tuesday’s races:
— New York mayor: Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a rematch of June’s Democratic primary, as New Yorkers soundly rejected a man who was once the state’s most powerful figure for the second time in five months.
— California redistricting: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California praised voters in his state for backing the redistricting ballot measure, Proposition 50. He pushed for the measure after Trump called on Texas this summer to redraw its congressional map to gerrymander five districts toward the Republican column. “After poking the bear, this bear roared with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result,” said Newsom, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run.
— Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court: Three justices who were elected as Democrats to the state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania will keep their seats for additional 10-year terms (or until they reach mandatory retirement age). The outcome means Democrats will hold on to their 5-2 advantage on the court through the next presidential election, a critical victory for Democrats in the biggest swing state in the country.
— Virginia attorney general: Jay Jones, a Democrat whose candidacy was roiled by a texting scandal, won the state’s attorney general race, defeating Jason Miyares, the Republican incumbent. Democrats in the state’s House of Delegates also defended a majority for the first time since the 1990s.
— Mayoral contests, ballot measures and more: There were plenty of other questions and contests being decided Tuesday. Mayor Andre Dickens won reelection in Atlanta and Detroit elected its first new mayor in 12 years. Miami, Minneapolis and Seattle also had mayoral races. In Jersey City, New Jersey, a disgraced former state governor, Jim McGreevey, advanced to a runoff in his bid to stage a political comeback and lead the city. In Maine, voters backed a red flag law for firearms.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
