politics

Voters up and down the East Coast delivered Democrats a sweep on Tuesday, electing candidates across the party’s ideological spectrum in a vivid show of discontent with President Donald Trump nearly a year into his second term.

In Virginia, moderate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger turned in the strongest Democratic performance in the state’s recent history as she coasted to victory. And in New Jersey, another moderate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, busted apart the coalition Trump and her Republican rival, former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli, had put together to close the Garden State’s gap in recent elections.

In New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win marked the second time this year he’d defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — first in the Democratic primary, and then in the general election, with Cuomo running as an independent backed by Trump.

The Democratic wins by candidates with sharp ideological differences will do little to settle the party’s long-raging internal debate about its way forward, with a host of competitive midterm primaries just months away and the 2028 presidential primary already looming.

But their campaigns had some things in common. Though their solutions were different, the candidates focused on the issue of affordability. And they were all fiercely critical of Trump’s performance.

“It’s not just a message about Democrats; it’s a message about our entire country. I think Americans are appalled by what they are seeing coming out of this administration,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN from Mamdani’s victory party.

In California, voters approved by a wide margin a redistricting ballot measure intended to boost Democrats’ chances in next year’s battle for control of the House. And in Pennsylvania, Democratic state Supreme Court justices won their retention votes, allowing Democrats to keep their majority on the high court in a perennial battleground state where legal challenges over voting rules are all but certain.

Here are six initial takeaways from Tuesday’s elections:

Mamdani defeats Cuomo — again

Mamdani drew immense national attention over his progressive ideology and his courtship of voters who were eager for a fresh face. But in New York City, his relentless focus on driving down costs might have proven more persuasive — and voters were on course to give his forthcoming efforts a boost by also approving a series of ballot measures intended to reduce red tape on building affordable housing.

If he delivers on his promises, it would turn New York City into a blueprint for cities across the country where the cost of living has soared. If Mamdani fails, he could be used as a warning against progressives more broadly as the 2028 presidential primary approaches.

For Cuomo, who was attempting a political comeback after resigning from the governor’s office in 2021, the outcome was an embarrassment. It was also a failure for Trump, who late in the race supported Cuomo rather than Republican Curtis Sliwa, saying Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that “if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time.”

A big suburban swing

The first big win for Democrats on Tuesday came in Virginia, where Spanberger, a former CIA officer who had won a competitive congressional district in 2018 and held it until retiring this year to focus on the governor’s race, pulled away from Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

One window into her dominance came in Loudoun County — a closely-watched mix of suburbs and exurbs in Northern Virginia.

With most of the expected vote counted there at 9 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, Spanberger had more than 64% of the vote there. That was 8 percentage points better than former Vice President Kamala Harris did in the 2024 presidential election, and 9 points better than the party’s losing 2021 gubernatorial nominee, Terry McAuliffe. Spanberger was nearly 5 points ahead of former Gov. Ralph Northam’s performance in Loudoun County in 2017 — a big Democratic win in Trump’s first term that presaged the party’s strong 2018 midterm performance.

Spanberger outperformed recent Democratic candidates across the map in Virginia, likely fueled in part by the Trump administration’s gutting of the federal workforce. Thousands of current and former federal workers live throughout the region.

CNN’s exit poll found that Spanberger won 61% of the vote of those who have a federal worker or federal contractor in their household, compared to 52% support from those who do not.

Her margins were large enough to pull Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general who was rocked by the disclosure of text messages in which he suggested a former legislative colleague should be shot, across the finish line, even though he lagged Spanberger by about 5 points. Jones defeated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.

A barrier falls in Virginia

No matter the outcome, Virginia’s election was going to make history: The winner would become the first woman to serve as its governor.

Spanberger noted that history, relaying to supporters that her husband had told their children that their mother would become the governor of Virginia.

“I can guarantee, those words have never been spoken in Virginia before,” she said. “It’s a big deal that the girls and young women I have met along the campaign trail now know with certainty they can achieve anything.”

New Jersey reveals anti-Trump sentiment

In Virginia, candidate quality was a factor in the outcome, as Republicans grumbled for months about their nominee, Earle-Sears.

New Jersey was a different story.

Ciattarelli had a strong statewide performance under his belt after his near-miss in the 2021 governor’s race. He also had his own brand — a “Jersey guy” appeal that he hoped would give him some separation from Trump, despite the president’s endorsement, Ciattarelli’s praise for his performance in office and Democrats’ relentless advertising campaign tying him to Trump in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 800,000.

In many ways, those realities made New Jersey the better barometer of anti-Trump sentiment.

One key question was whether Ciattarelli could replicate Trump’s performance with Latino voters: They swung hard in the GOP’s favor nationally last November, with the president winning 46% support to Harris’ 51% with Latinos, CNN’s exit poll found. On Tuesday in New Jersey, the answer was no: Sherrill won 64% of Latino voters to Ciattarelli’s 32%, per CNN’s exit poll.

She also won 91% of Black voters. And she won independents by a 7-point margin. Moderates backed Sherrill, 58% to 39%.

Ciattarelli won handily among the 34% of voters who said taxes was the most important issue facing New Jersey. But 32% said the economy — which Republicans had hoped would be a strength, since the state is currently controlled by Democrats — was the most important issue, and those voters backed Sherrill, 61% to 37%, according to CNN’s exit poll.

Newsom’s big redistricting moment

California voters gave Democrats’ hopes of winning a House majority in next year’s midterms a massive boost on Tuesday — and gave Gov. Gavin Newsom a signature moment on the national stage, demonstrating to Democratic voters that he can stand up to Trump ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run.

The state’s voters approved a ballot measure that would scrap the current congressional district boundaries drawn by an independent commission in favor of new maps that would hand Democrats five more favorable districts.

The mid-decade redistricting is Newsom’s answer to Texas, which redrew its maps in an effort to hand the GOP five more winnable districts at Trump’s behest as the president searched for ways to retain the GOP’s narrow House majority next year.

Amid a short but pitched advertising battle ahead of the vote, Newsom made himself the face of the redistricting effort. He raised $108 million for the effort, and appeared in advertisements backing it. He pitched it in a series of interviews and podcast appearances.

“With Prop 50, The Election Rigging Response Act, we can stop Trump cold,” Newsom said in one spot, standing in front of an American flag. National audiences may be seeing him a lot more in the years to come.

Down-ballot Democratic wins

In addition to the big-ticket victories in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California, Democrats won lower-profile contests that could pay dividends in the years to come.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic state Supreme Court justices retained their seats for new 10-year terms — preserving the party’s court majority in a state where presidential elections can be won and lost, and voting rules are regularly challenged.

Tuesday’s elections also had ramifications for the national redistricting arms race. Democrats are on track to expand their narrow majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, clearing the way for the party to pursue a constitutional amendment that would allow them to draw new congressional maps.

And in Maine, a critical state in next year’s battle for Senate control, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have required voters to present photo identification at the polls and when requesting absentee ballots, among other restrictive measures.