Democrats have swept a trio of races in the first major elections since Donald Trump regained the presidency, giving the beleaguered party a shot of momentum as it looks ahead to the congressional midterm elections in 2026.
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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, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won the elections for governor with commanding leads, respectively.
The 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 elections are a year away, an eternity in the Trump era. And the contests on Tuesday, US time, all unfolded in Democratic-leaning regions that did not support Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
All three Democratic candidates emphasised economic issues, particularly affordability. But Spanberger and Sherrill hail from the party's moderate wing, while Mamdani used a viral video-fuelled insurgent campaign to present himself as an unabashed progressive and a new generational voice.
Mamdani, who will become the first Muslim mayor of the biggest US city, outlasted former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mamdani earlier in 2025.
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.
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".
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: criticising Trump risked losing his supporters, but embracing him too closely could have alienated moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.
Trump remains unpopular: 57 per cent of Americans disapprove of his job performance, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
But Democrats are not gaining support as a result, with respondents evenly split on whether they would favour Democrats or Republicans in 2026.
Australian Associated Press
