Abigail Spanberger’s comfortable win in the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, and Mikie Sherrill’s in New Jersey , gave Democrats their biggest electoral triumphs since Trump’s return to power.
Meanwhile in New York City , the center of American capitalism, self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor.
The so-called off-year contests are part referendum, part barometer, part guidepost and possibly part springboard. Republicans will look for clues on how Americans grade Trump’s governance — as well as what the future may hold when he’s no longer on the ballot.
Spanberger, a former congresswoman, won in a state particularly sensitive to Trump’s attempts to downsize the federal government, and highlighted the economic argument that Democrats are likely to employ when voters decide control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2026. Both are currently, narrowly, controlled by Republicans .
“Tonight, we sent a message,” Spanberger told supporters in Richmond . “We sent a message to every corner of the commonwealth, a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country. We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos.”
An Associated Press poll of voters in Virginia and New Jersey found that about six in 10 said they’re “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the country today. Only a third said they are “enthusiastic” or “satisfied.” A separate poll by CNN found that more than half of voters said they intended to send a message to Trump with their vote.
Early voting was high across all the major races — especially in New York City , which was poised to see its highest voter turnout in decades.
For their part Democrats are still trying to find their way a year after they were routed by Trump and the GOP. But while candidates were largely focused around the same message of the economy and affordability, the elections are exposing an ideological fracture in the party.
Spanberger and Sherrill are considered center-left Democrats . But in New York City , voters picked Mamdani, who has gleefully sparred with business titans en route to a win.
Meanwhile California Gov. Gavin Newsom has staked his political future, including a possible White House run, on pushing a ballot initiative to redraw the congressional maps of the largest U.S. state, a response to Trump’s own gerrymandering crusade.
Virginia has a history of being unkind to incumbent presidents: 11 of the last 12 governor’s elections have been won by the party not in control of the White House.
Spanberger, a former CIA officer, focused her campaign on the state’s economy and the month-long federal government shutdown that’s left thousands of Virginia’s federal workers without pay. Her opponent, Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, is a Marine veteran and the first Black woman elected statewide. Her campaign emphasized immigration and parental rights, an issue that helped term-limited Governor Glenn Youngkin win four years ago.
In New Jersey, Democrats extended their hold on the governorship in a state that routinely votes blue for president but drifted toward Republicans in the last presidential election. Sherrill, a congresswoman, Navy veteran and former prosecutor, faced former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli — who nearly unseated Democratic Governor Phil Murphy in 2021.
The New Jersey race was an early signal of whether Trump’s coalition, which made inroads with white working-class voters in the state, will stick with the GOP when he’s not on the ballot. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli, who has campaigned on cutting taxes and energy costs, while Sherrill emphasized transit funding and child care.
In New York City , Mamdani, a 34-year-old assemblyman and self-described democratic socialist, won the mayoralty after defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. Cuomo ran again as an independent in the general election, while Republican Curtis Sliwa remained a distant third.
Mamdani becomes the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. His rise — built on a campaign centered on housing costs and economic inequality — has alarmed Wall Street and divided Democratic leaders.
In California, Newsom is testing his political muscle with Proposition 50, a ballot measure that would temporarily suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission to draw new congressional lines favoring Democrats .
The initiative is intended to counter GOP -led mapmaking in Texas that could give Republicans several additional House seats. Newsom and his allies have raised more than $120 million to back the measure, outspending opponents by roughly three to one, according to state filings. The ballot measure passed decisively.
For both parties, the warm-ups to the 2026 midterms are as much about messages as about math. Democrats, backed by former President Barack Obama’s return to the campaign trail, are framing the contests as a check on Trump’s power and a referendum on rising prices.
Trump himself had been largely invisible in the races, with the exception of frequent barbs directed at Mamdani — who he called “a communist” and “a complete and total failure.”
The votes come as Washington remains paralyzed by a government shutdown now entering its sixth week — just hours short of the longest in U.S. history. Trump’s effort to pare back federal spending has idled hundreds of thousands of workers and slowed economic data releases, a drag on growth that economists say could echo through the year if the impasse continues.
Early turnout suggests strong engagement for an off-year election. More than 1.4 million ballots were already cast in Virginia and 1.3 million in New Jersey by Monday, according to the Associated Press . In New York City , early voting has exceeded prior cycles, with more than 700,000 ballots submitted ahead of Election Day .
(With assistance from Alicia Diaz , Skylar Woodhouse , Ted Mann , Eliyahu Kamisher and Romy Varghese .)
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