(Reuters) - Democrats swept a trio of races on Tuesday in the first major elections since Donald Trump regained the presidency, elevating a new generation of leaders and giving the beleaguered party a shot of momentum ahead of next year's congressional elections.
In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the mayoral race, capping a meteoric and unlikely rise from an anonymous state lawmaker to one of the country's most visible Democratic figures. And in Virginia and New Jersey, moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger, 46, and Mikie Sherrill, 53, won the elections for governor with commanding leads, respectively.
Tuesday's contests offered a barometer of how Americans are responding to Trump's tumultuous nine months in office. The races also served as a test of differing Democratic campaign playbooks ahead of 2026, with the party locked out of power in Washington and still trying to forge a path out of the political wilderness.
That said, the midterm election is a year away, an eternity in the Trump era, and opinion polls show the Democratic brand remains broadly unpopular, even as Trump's own approval rating has declined. The contests on Tuesday also all unfolded in Democratic-leaning regions that did not support Trump in last year's presidential election.
Perhaps the biggest practical boost to Democrats on Tuesday came out of California, where voters gave Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw the state's congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that will shape the race for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The winning candidates on Tuesday could reenergize and inspire more engagement from Democratic voters, many of whom have clamored for fresh faces at the vanguard of the party. Turnout in the New York City mayoral race was the highest since at least 1969.
All three Democratic candidates emphasized economic issues, particularly affordability, an issue that remains top of mind for most voters. But Spanberger and Sherrill hail from the party's moderate wing, while Mamdani used a viral video-fueled insurgent campaign to present himself as an unabashed progressive in the mold of Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"The Democratic Party is back," Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, asserted on X.
Mamdani, who will become the first Muslim mayor of the biggest U.S. city, outlasted former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mamdani earlier this year. Cuomo, who resigned as governor four years ago after sexual harassment allegations that he has denied, portrayed Mamdani as a radical leftist whose proposals were unworkable and dangerous.
Mamdani has called for raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for ambitious left-wing policies such as frozen rents, free childcare and free city buses. Wall Street executives have expressed concern about putting a democratic socialist at the helm of the financial capital of the world.
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.
[1/14]Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after winning the 2025 New York City Mayoral race, at an election night rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon Purchase Licensing Rights
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 RACES
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.
"We sent a message to the world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship," Spanberger said in her victory speech. "We chose our Commonwealth over chaos."
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. He froze billions in funding for a new Hudson River train tunnel, a critical project for New Jersey's large commuter population.
In interviews at Virginia polling stations on Tuesday, some voters said Trump's most contentious policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and to impose costly tariffs on imports of foreign goods, the legality of which is being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
Juan Benitez, a self-described independent, was voting for the first time. The 25-year-old restaurant manager backed all of Virginia's Democratic candidates because of his opposition to Trump's immigration policies and the federal government shutdown, for which he blamed Trump.
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.
The 2025 off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, and California provided an early barometer of how some U.S. voters view President Donald Trump's second term and the Democratic Party's efforts to revive its political fortunes.
Here are some takeaways from election night:
A WAY FORWARD FOR DEMOCRATS?
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger may have provided a blueprint for how Democrats can get their mojo back in next year’s congressional elections.
They have much in common. Each was first elected to Congress in 2018, during the midterms in Trump's first term. This year, they both ran as problem-solving moderates with backgrounds in national security and laser-focused their campaigns on affordability issues while positioning themselves as bulwarks against Trump.
To a party starved for good news, Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, and Spanberger, an ex-CIA officer, provided it. While their wins were not huge surprises given that their states tend to support Democrats more than Republicans, their broad margins of victory may bolster the argument that their approach could work in next year’s midterms, when Democrats hope to wrest back control of Congress.
With votes still being counted, Sherrill appeared to have bested her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, by a greater margin in New Jersey than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris beat Trump there last year. There were also signs that Spanberger was outperforming Harris in Virginia.
Sherrill and Spanberger, along with New York mayoral winner Zohran Mamdani, promoted affordability as a central campaign theme.
Spanberger’s “Affordable Virginia” plan focused on lowering healthcare, housing and energy costs, and she vowed to make tech data centers pay “their fair share” of electricity costs. Sherrill’s “Affordability Agenda” targeted similar concerns. She pledged to declare a statewide energy emergency and freeze electricity rates.
Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, said that while it’s always tricky to determine how off-year election results might play in the next year’s midterms, Democrats can take some lessons away from Tuesday.
“If Trump keeps taking a sledgehammer to people’s pocketbooks, that is an easy thing for Democrats to run on,” Payne said.
THE MAMDANI QUESTION
The two groups happiest that Mamdani won the New York City mayor's race? His supporters and national Republicans, who are eager to paint the self-described democratic socialist as the new face of the Democratic Party.
"His election is proof that the Democrat Party has abandoned common sense and tied itself to extremism," Republican National Committee chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. "Next year, Democrats will be held accountable by voters for embracing Mamdani’s far-left agenda and the consequences it will bring.”
Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, said Mamdani's win overshadows victories by moderates Sherrill and Spanberger, and he said Trump will work to tag every Democrat running in a competitive U.S. House race next year as a Mamdani clone.
"It's going to be an ace in the hole for Republicans running in purple House districts," O'Connell said.
Matt Bennett, vice president of Third Way, a Democratic centrist think tank, saw things differently, saying that the New Jersey and Virginia wins will have more staying power for the party.
"I think it’s vastly more important that moderates won in big states that often elect Republican governors than it is that a far-left candidate won in NYC," Bennett said.
But U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Mamdani backer, suggested that Mamdani's victory heralds the party's future.
Mamdani "had to defeat a Republican and the old guard of the Democratic Party," she said. "The Democratic Party cannot last much longer by denying the future, by trying to undercut our young," AOC said on CNN.
THE LIMITS OF MAGA
Spanberger’s decisive victory in Virginia may also illustrate the limits of Trump's MAGA movement.
Spanberger’s opponent, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, has been a strong supporter of Trump’s agenda, including the move to slash thousands of federal jobs, Trump's support for the federal government shutdown, and his imposition of heavy tariffs on imports. In TV ads and public remarks, Spanberger tried to tie Earle-Sears to Trump at every turn.
Spanberger, meanwhile, was buoyed by running in a state that is highly dependent on federal jobs and at a time when voters nationwide cited the cost of living as their number one concern, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll said.
"Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship," Spanberger told supporters after she was declared the winner. As if to back up her words, she sported a red suit jacket, the color most closely associated with Republicans, rather than Democratic blue.
THE TRUMP FACTOR
Though he wasn’t on the ballot, Trump’s influence was inescapable on Tuesday.
The elections took place as the president’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point so far during his second term, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, with voters zeroing in on affordability concerns.
In the Virginia governor’s race, of the 36% of voters who said opposing Trump was a factor in their vote, 98% came out for Spanberger, according to the SSRS Voter Poll, conducted for a consortium of U.S. networks and the Associated Press. It was a similar story in the contest for New Jersey governor, where 39% of voters said opposing Trump played a role in their vote. They overwhelmingly voted for Sherrill, the Democrat.
"Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor will it ever, be ruled by kings. We take oaths to a Constitution, not a king,” Sherrill told supporters.
Throughout his political career, Trump has shown a limited ability to transfer his popularity to other Republican candidates. Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears found that out on Tuesday.
- Democrats won races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday, and a self-described democratic socialist was elected New York City mayor, while Californians approved a redistricting initiative designed to help Democrats in midterm elections.
NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR
In New Jersey, Democratic U.S. Representative Mikie Sherrill, a moderate with military experience first elected to Congress in the 2018 midterm election during President Donald Trump's first term, bested Republican businessman and former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli in a race that focused on affordability issues.
VIRGINIA GOVERNOR
In Virginia, Democratic former U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger was elected as the state's first female governor.
Spanberger called for pragmatism, pledged to defend her state's sizeable population of federal workers from targeting by the Trump administration, and listed housing and healthcare affordability as her day-one priorities.
Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, the state's lieutenant governor, played to her conservative base in the election by questioning Spanberger's record.
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR
New York City's mayoral race is watched closely because the city is the nation's financial capital and its leaders' decisions often influence national political discourse, at least for the locally dominant Democratic Party.
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old, fresh-faced state lawmaker, beat Andrew Cuomo, the state's former Democratic governor, who ran as an independent. The election pitted Mamdani's progressive stances against Cuomo, 67, and his more establishment views, as he tried to make the case for his qualifications over Mamdani's newfound influence.
Both candidates carried political baggage. Mamdani has faced scrutiny for identifying as a democratic socialist and for past remarks on Israel and the New York Police Department, while Cuomo’s 2021 resignation over sexual harassment allegations clouded his potential return.
CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING
A ballot measure in California passed to redraw congressional districts, designed to help Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and the state assembly said they pursued the changes, which would essentially erase five Republican-held districts, after President Donald Trump earlier this year encouraged conservative Texas to reconfigure its congressional districts to favor Republican candidates in five Democratic-represented districts.
Trump's move was an unusual partisan effort to maintain the Republicans' majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, now at 219-213; redrawing congressional maps usually happens after the national census every decade to adjust for state population changes.
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) November 5, 2025