This was the first election since Trump’s return to the presidency and voters rejected candidates and causes aligned with his Republican Party from Virginia and Pennsylvania to Maine and New Jersey. It was, in fact, difficult to point to any significant victory for Trump’s party.
They also expressed strong feelings about the direction of the country under his leadership.
About 6 in 10 voters in Virginia and New Jersey said they are “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the country today, according to the AP Voter Poll. Just one-third said they are “enthusiastic” or “satisfied.”
In a sign of the extent of the GOP’s struggles, Republicans lost the Virginia attorney general’s race to Democrat Jay Jones, who was forced to apologize after text messages surfaced weeks before Election Day in which he depicted the murder of political opponents.
Fearing a bad night, Trump tried to distance himself from the election results.
The president endorsed Ciattarelli in New Jersey but held only a pair of tele-town halls on his behalf, including one Monday night. Trump also did a Monday night tele-town hall for Virginia Republican candidates, but he focused mostly in favor of the GOP candidate for attorney general, who also lost.
Despite Trump’s distance, his policies — including his “big, beautiful” budget bill and his massive cuts to the federal workforce — played a central role in Virginia, New Jersey and even New York City’s mayoral contest. And the Republicans in each refused to distance themselves from the president or his agenda.
The results left the president ducking blame.
“TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,” according to pollsters, he posted on his social media account.
Trump planned to have breakfast Wednesday at the White House with Senate Republicans who have so far opposed his calls to end the shutdown by abandoning the legislative filibuster, the 60-vote minimum needed to pass most major legislation though the Senate.
A new star for Democrats (and Republicans) in New York City
Moderates won in Virginia and New Jersey. But it was a self-described democratic socialist who cruised to victory in New York City.
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old state legislator who backs radical changes to address economic inequality, will serve as the next mayor of the nation’s largest city.
His bold agenda and inspirational approach helped generate the largest turnout in a New York City mayoral race in at least three decades. It also spooked some business leaders and voices in the Jewish community, who otherwise support Democrats but oppose some of Mamdani’s past statements about personal wealth accumulation and Israel.
Trump, who actually endorsed Mamdani’s independent opponent, former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, falsely called Mamdani a communist on the eve of the election.
Some Republicans in Washington were quietly rooting for a Mamdani victory. Even before his win was final, Republican campaign committees launched attack ads against more than a dozen vulnerable House Democrats in New York and New Jersey linking them to Mamdani and his far-left politics.
The ad campaign is expected to extend to Democrats across the country ahead of next year’s midterms.
More Democratic wins
The Democratic successes extended beyond Virginia, New Jersey and New York.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept all three elections for state supreme court justices. The wins could have implications for key cases involving redistricting and balloting for midterm elections — and the 2028 presidential race — in the nation’s most populous swing state.
Conservative causes struggled on ballot questions in other states as well.
Maine voters defeated a measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls while approving a “red flag” rule meant to make it easier for family members to petition a court to restrict a potentially dangerous person’s access to guns.
Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents.
nd in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, frequently mentioned as a 2028 presidential hopeful, led a triumphant charge to redraw congressional maps to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections.
The push is the centerpiece of a Democratic effort to counter new Republican maps in Texas and elsewhere that were drawn to boost the GOP’s chances in next year’s fight to control Congress. For the new maps to count in 2026, however, Californians had to vote on a yes-or-no ballot question known as Proposition 50. It was easily approved.
