WASHINGTON, DC — No matter how the GOP and Donald Trump try to spin last Tuesday’s electoral debacle, the results are as clear as day — a resounding repudiation of the Republican leadership and its sorry performance over the last nine months.
When you have control of all three branches of government, you are supposed to get things done, and quickly, except of course when you choose to shut down the federal government and default on your responsibilities.
And then there’s the creeping inflation with the effects of Trump’s disruptive tariff wars now hitting the pocketbooks of consumers. Furthermore, Americans are increasingly turned off by images of masked men terrorizing immigrant communities and armed troops descending upon their cities like an occupying force.
In my home state of Virginia, Democrat and former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger easily defeated her Republican opponent, incumbent Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, for the governorship, becoming the first woman to ever lead the state. The final margin was around 488,000 votes out of 3.3 million cast.
The federal government shutdown which has entered its second month undoubtedly played a major role in the GOP’s defeat. There are over 320,000 Virginians who are full-time civilian federal employees and federal contractors who have started missing their paychecks, and guess who they are blaming for it?
In the 2021 Virginia statewide elections, Republicans swept all three of the state’s top offices for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. The Democrats won all three contests last Tuesday and also increased their majority in the state legislature from two seats to twenty-eight in a decisive blue wave.
In New Jersey, Democrat and former Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill soundly defeated her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, by 420,000 votes out of 3.2 million cast, becoming the first female Democratic governor to occupy the post in Trenton.
In 2021, Ciattarelli nearly won the 2021 New Jersey gubernatorial race against Democrat reelectionist Phil Murphy, losing by just 3.2 percentage points, a rare feat for a Republican running in a blue state. This time around, Ciattarelli was unable to escape Trump’s polarizing shadow despite his attempt to localize the race, with independents and women voters showing up in high numbers, many citing concerns about Trump-style extremist politics as their prime motivation.
In New York City’s high profile race for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a political novice and self-described democratic socialist, bested the Trump-endorsed former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in an improbable campaign that saw him poll in the single digits at the start of the primaries to become mayor of America’s greatest city.
Republicans and MAGA-aligned forces were quick to label Mamdani’s victory as some kind of communist takeover. Elon Musk even characterized it as a “threat” to Western civilization.
Apparently, when you run on things like freezing rent on stabilized apartments, making city buses fare-free, no cost childcare for working families, supporting unions, worker and LGBTQIA+ protections, building green schools, expanding healthcare and mental health services, . — things that resonate deeply with poor working class New Yorkers — suddenly you are a rabid Marxist-Leninist. Or a “communist lunatic” as Trump called him.
When Mamdani said he’d pay for these programs by taxing wealthy corporations and individuals, his critics painted a doomsday scenario with a mass exodus of businesses and millionaires leaving New York City. Well, where are they going to move to from the city where they make their billions?
By the way, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already said he will impose a 100-percent tariff on New Yorkers moving to Texas, so Dallas and Houston are out of the question.
In all seriousness, Mamdani’s victory reflects a growing appetite for bold, redistributive policies that center on the urban working class, not Wall Street.
Perhaps the most significant Democrat win was the passing of Proposition 50 in California, a ballot measure that temporarily replaces the state’s independent congressional district maps with new legislatively drawn maps.Championed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, it effectively cancels out Trump’s and the GOP’s revolting partisan gerrymandering in Texas. Gavin for President!
By and large, although last Tuesday’s elections occurred in the blue states of New York, New Jersey, and California where Democrats have an advantage in numbers — with Virginia being the only exception as a bellwether or purple state — it signals that the American electorate is awake, engaged, and ready to hold power to account.
Voters turned out in record numbers for this off-year elections, especially the young, immigrant and working class. This makes Republicans extremely nervous, with the midterms just around the corner.