Democrats scored sweeping victories in three key contests on Tuesday, the first major elections since Donald Trump returned to the White House, offering the struggling party a surge of momentum ahead of next year’s congressional midterms.
In New York City, 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the mayoral election, rising from a little-known state lawmaker to a leading figure in the party. In Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill also won their governor races by wide margins.
Mamdani’s Historic Win
The midterm elections are a year away, an eternity in the Trump era. And the contests on Tuesday all unfolded in Democratic-leaning regions that did not support Trump in last year’s presidential election.
In a sign of how Zohran Mamdani’s campaign had energized many voters, more than 2 million ballots including early voting were cast across the city, according to the board of elections, the most in a mayoral race since at least 1969.
Republicans have already signaled they intend to present Mamdani as the face of the Democratic Party. Trump has incorrectly labeled Mamdani a “communist” and vowed to cut funding for the city in response to Mamdani’s ascension.
In a social media post on Tuesday night, Trump blamed the losses on the fact his name was not on the ballot and on an ongoing federal government shutdown.
Trump Looms Over Race
Spanberger, who beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, will take over from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. New Jersey’s Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli and will succeed Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.
Both Sherrill and Spanberger had sought to tie their opponents to Trump in an effort to harness frustration among Democratic and independent voters over his chaotic tenure.
Trump gave both candidates some late-stage grist during the ongoing government shutdown.
His administration threatened to fire federal workers — a move with an outsized impact on Virginia, a state adjacent to Washington, D.C., and home to many government employees.
For Republicans, Tuesday’s elections served as a test of whether the voters who powered Trump’s victory in 2024 will still show up when he is not on the ballot.
But Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears, both running in Democratic-leaning states, faced a conundrum: criticizing Trump risked losing his supporters, but embracing him too closely could have alienated moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.
Trump remains unpopular: 57% of Americans disapprove of his job performance, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. But Democrats are not gaining support as a result, with respondents evenly split on whether they would favor Democrats or Republicans in 2026.
(With inputs from Reuters)
