President Trump is heading into the midterm elections with an aggressive agenda for a second term. Year-end elections indicate voters may be ready to spice up the holidays.
What a key victory on election night means for the Democratic Party going forward
Following wins in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia, USA TODAY’s Susan Page breaks down what this means for Democrats going forward.
The gun has sounded for the 2026 midterm elections, but Republicans stumbled to a start with losses across the country on Tuesday in off-year races that could signal dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump.
Trump has been a major factor in many campaigns, entering the midterm elections with one of the most aggressive agendas in modern memory. The 2025 election suggests voters may be ready to rock the break, with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer declaring the result a “repudiation of Trump’s policies.”
Republican candidates who supported the president and were labeled Trump loyalists by their Democratic opponents lost gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia by wide margins.
California voters overwhelmingly approved an effort to halt President Trump’s redistricting power struggle, and New York City elected a new mayor, Zoran Mamdani, who has a feud with the president. Mamdani targeted Trump in his victory speech.
Virginia’s new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, also criticized the Trump administration in her victory speech, blaming the “chaos coming out of Washington” due to President Trump’s federal workforce cuts. She vowed that she would not “stand idly by while the workers of Virginia are attacked.”
The president blamed the Republican defeat on the government shutdown and the lack of his name on the ballot.
Trump has never carried California, New Jersey or Virginia, making it easy for Republicans to downplay losses there. But the Democratic Party’s landslide victory breathed life into a party that had been stalled by President Trump in 2024 and was desperately trying to win again, while also raising questions about the strength of the president’s MAGA movement and whether he went too far in his second term.
Democrats also may have found a more effective way to counter Trump, with two gubernatorial candidates tying his policies to economic concerns. They decried tariffs, federal layoffs and withholding of federal funds in blue areas during the government shutdown. Mamdani criticized President Trump’s deportation drive and deployment of the National Guard to guard the country, vowing to make the country’s largest city a bulwark against such efforts. Voters rewarded them.
President Trump is plotting to prevent Democrats from gaining a majority in Congress next year, which would freeze his legislative agenda and trigger active scrutiny of the White House. Facing an uphill climb in midterm elections that have historically favored the party’s downfall, he is pushing to redraw congressional maps to create more Republican seats.
Those efforts faced a setback in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his victory speech, saw the midterm elections as an opportunity to “effectively end Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Even though President Trump won in 2024, the Republican Party lost.
The Republican losses in Virginia and New Jersey came even as both states moved toward President Trump in 2024.
Trump lost to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2020 by 5 points in Virginia and 6 points in New Jersey, both by double digit margins.
Mr. Spanberger is on track for a double-digit victory, a sign that Mr. Trump’s policies may have backfired in states with large numbers of federal workers hit hard by government efficiency cuts.
Trump had sought to distance himself from the race, declaring that he was “not really involved in Virginia.” He has not endorsed Republican candidate Winsome Earl Sears, and did not mention her name in a conference call for the Virginia Republican Party on the eve of the election.
The president has invested heavily in New Jersey, supporting Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli and promoting him on social media. He also praised him in a televised rally on Nov. 3, declaring that “the eyes of the entire country are on New Jersey.”
Democrat Mikie Sherrill is also on track to comfortably win by double digits, despite her efforts.
Both Sherrill and Spanberger have frequently targeted Trump, linking their opponents to the president’s policies and criticizing him for the cost of living, a move that could serve as a model for Democrats heading into the midterm elections.
California voters stick with Trump‘
But the president’s most obvious setback came in California, where his efforts to create a more favorable midterm map hit a roadblock.
California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a Newsom-led effort to redraw the state’s House maps to increase Democratic-leaning seats in response to pressure from President Trump, who has increased Republican-leaning seats in Texas and Missouri.
Newsom said California’s results show Democrats are “no longer tailgating, they’re toe-toing.” He described the victory as a “special moment” in the ongoing campaign to prevent Trump from taking office with his victory in the midterm elections.
Supporters of Proposition 50 have turned this race into a referendum on President Trump. The ad urged voters to “stick with Trump.” They did so to demonstrate a desire to rein in the president’s efforts to expand executive power.
The extent of that ambition will be tested in the midterm elections. The midterm elections will give voters another chance to check President Trump, who now has a Democratic majority in Congress. However, California may not have the final say on redistricting.
President Trump is leaning on more red state leaders to win new Republican seats in an escalating battle over congressional maps.
A wake-up call to the Republican Party
The election results provided a mountain of evidence that opposition to President Trump is growing.
In June and October, millions of Americans took to the streets in “No Kings” protests, denouncing everything from the president’s mass deportations to the deployment of the National Guard to various cities.
Democrats performed well in the special election earlier this year, and party leaders expected the Nov. 4 results to build on their momentum. In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, President Trump’s disapproval rating reached 63%, the highest level in the CNN poll during both of his terms.
Even Vice President J.D. Vance warned in a Fox News interview earlier this year that one of the president’s pollsters once said, “Anger typically wins in midterm elections.”
The left is “very angry right now, and they’re very motivated,” Vance added.
