Democrats on Tuesday swept a trio of races in the first major elections since US President Donald Trump regained the White House, 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.
In Virginia and New Jersey, moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger, 46, and Mikie Sherrill, 53, won their elections for governor with commanding leads respectively.
Photo: Reuters
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power,” Mamdani told a raucous crowd of supporters. “So Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
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 next year, 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 elections are 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 most closely watched contests on Tuesday also 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 approved a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map in the party’s favor, expanding a national battle over redistricting that would shape the race for the US House of Representatives.
Tuesday’s winning candidates could re-energize 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.
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 US Senator Bernie Sanders and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mamdani, who will become the first Muslim mayor of the biggest US city, 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.
Trump has labeled Mamdani a “communist” and vowed to cut funding for the city in response to Mamdani’s ascension.
In a social media post on Tuesday night, Trump blamed the losses on the fact that his name was not on the ballot and on an ongoing federal government shutdown.
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