Democrats sweep top races in off-year election

What happened

Democrats won every major election Tuesday, sweeping the races to run Virginia, New Jersey and New York City. Pennsylvania voters also reelected all three Democratic-backed state Supreme Court justices on the ballot, and California voters approved Proposition 50, allowing Democrats to redraw more favorable congressional districts.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) cruised to a double-digit victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) will be Virginia’s first woman governor after beating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, and Democrats also flipped the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general offices and significantly expanded their majority in the House of Delegates. Virginia’s incoming lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi, became the first Muslim elected statewide anywhere in the country. Zohran Mamdani will be the first Muslim to serve as New York City mayor after defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Who said what

Democrats “routed the Republicans” in a “blue tide” that “washed further than most pollsters had predicted,” said Semafor. From democratic socialist Mandami to centrists like Spanberger and Sherrill, “every victorious Democrat ran on ‘affordability,’ betting correctly” that voters “would be angry” that President Donald Trump has not brought down prices, as promised.

“The Democratic Party is back,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on social media. “TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,” Trump posted, citing pollsters. Democrats still have “plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter,” wrote former President Barack Obama.

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What next?

The “demoralized” Democratic Party showed it could “still accomplish the most important goal in politics: They can win. And win big,” said The New York Times. But the party “still hasn’t coalesced around a coherent political identity or a clear electoral playbook,” and an “intraparty battle may be looming” next year and beyond. The election was a “barometer of how Americans are responding to Trump’s tumultuous nine months in office,” Reuters said, but the “midterm election is a year away, an eternity in the Trump era.”