After riding high for months, President Donald Trump saw the MAGA zeal surrounding his aggressive second term collide with a growing backlash that helped deliver a wave of Democratic victories in off-year races, setting the stage for a big midterm clash as the parties begin plotting next steps on the day after the election.
Democrats swept statewide contests in Virginia, New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania and racked up victories in lower profile races, leaving party leaders jubilant and eager to declare the election a referendum on Trump.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the results are a “repudiation of the Trump agenda.” The president, meanwhile, blamed GOP loses on the government shutdown and the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot.
Trump loomed large over the contests, which served as the first big opportunity to measure voter sentiment since the president won every swing state and the popular vote. The outcome couldn’t have been better for Democrats, who have been desperate to rebound from their 2024 thumping.
Democrats Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey won their races for governor by wide margins in states where Trump had made gains in 2024, and California voters resoundingly approved a ballot measure aimed at checking Trump’s efforts to draw more favorable midterm maps. The party saw a slate of new leaders emerge, most notably 34-year-old New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who energized young voters with a progressive agenda that drew Trump’s ire.
The Democrat romp came as Trump’s approval rating sags and 61% of voters in a new CNN/SSRS poll disapprove of his handling of a government shutdown that is now the longest in U.S. history.
The president is meeting with GOP senators at the White House today to discuss the shutdown and his demand to end the Senate’s filibuster rule, which would allow the GOP to pass legislation to reopen the government without Democrat votes.
Mamdani taps five women to lead his transition team
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced five people for a transition team Wednesday morning that includes leaders in government and nonprofits. All were women.
Elana Leopold, one of Mamdani’s top campaign advisors, will be the executive director of the transition team.
He also announced four co-chairs:
- Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission
- Maria Torres-Springer, former first deputy mayor
- Grace Bonilla, the head of the United Way of New York City
- Melanie Hartzog, former deputy mayor for health and human services
— Erin Mansfield
ADL says it will create a “Mamdani Monitor” to track policies and appointments of mayor-elect
The Anti-Defamation League greeted Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor with pledges to monitor his administration closely to ensure that it does not create a hostile environment for the Jewish community
“I’ve already gotten so many calls from Jewish New Yorkers who are concerned. And I’m here to tell you: if you are a Jewish New Yorker, @ADL has your back,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in an X post on Nov. 5. “We will hold the Mayor-elect and his administration accountable.”
Mamdani has decried intolerance against people of all faiths, backgrounds and religions, and has sought to find commonality with the Jewish community. He’s met with Jewish leaders, courted Hassidic voters in Yiddish and attended Rosh Hashanah celebrations.
Greenblatt, who made similar remarks on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, said Mamdani “campaigned on policies that could create a hostile environment for the Jewish community. He’s literally told us that he is going to pursue these policies. We are doubling down now because we believe him.”
To that end, Greenblatt said, the ADL was launching an “NYC Antisemitism Tipline” to report incidents in the city, “including on the streets, in schools, in their workplace.”
And the group was establishing a “Mamdani Monitor” that Greenblatt said would become “a public-facing tracker monitoring policies, appointments and actions by the Mamdani Administration that impact Jewish community safety and security.”
“The only path forward is one that recognizes that Jewish safety and rights require a strong, inclusive city and democracy where all are protected – and that a strong, inclusive New York City and democracy are not possible without real Jewish safety and security,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the separate Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said in a statement.
–Josh Meyer
MTG says politicians need to deliver
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia who often calls out her own party, appeared to put the blame at the feet of Republicans for not winning major elections Tuesday night.
“Politics is no different from business,” she wrote on social media. “Business 101: If you don’t deliver what you promise, then don’t expect repeat customers.”
— Erin Mansfield
Bernie Sanders, AOC celebrate Mamdani’s win
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, two self-described democratic socialists who campaigned for Mamdani, praised his election.
“Starting at 1% in the polls, @ZohranKMamdani pulled off one of the great political upsets in modern American history,” Sanders, who grew up in Brooklyn, wrote on social media. “Yes. We CAN create a government that represents working people and not the 1%.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents part of The Bronx and Queens, simply posted an emoji of the Statue of Liberty.
— Erin Mansfield
Trump ‘honored’ to be called factor in election
Trump wasn’t on the ballot Nov. 4 but he told Senate Republicans he was “honored” that analysts called him a factor in state and local elections where Democrats won key races in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City, and a ballot initiative in California.
In Virginia, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger became the state’s first female governor by defeating Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. In New Jersey, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli for governor.
And in New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the mayor’s race against former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Trump had urged voters to support Cuomo, and he held telephone rallies with supporters in New Jersey and Virginia to support Republicans in those states. But each of the winners campaigned against Trump’s policies and his influence on their jurisdictions.
“The shutdown was a big factor – negative – for the Republicans,” Trump said at a White House breakfast with Senate Republicans. “And they say that I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor. I don’t know about that but I was honored that they said that.”
–Bart Jansen
Congressional Democrats ‘demand’ shutdown meeting with Trump
Democratic congressional leaders wrote Trump a letter Nov. 5 demanding a bipartisan meeting to negotiate an end to the government shutdown.
Trump told Senate Republicans at a White House breakfast that the shutdown should end immediately. But most Senate Democrats have blocked approval of a short-term funding bill by arguing for greater spending on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that the GOP opposes.
“We must get the government back open soon, and really immediately.,” Trump said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York,
“We write to demand a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace.”
–Bart Jansen
California hands major redistricting win to Democrats
California voters delivered a rebuke to President Donald Trump by passing Proposition 50, an amendment backed by Gov. Gavin Newsome that would let the state’s Democratic lawmakers redraw its district lines to increase their political power.
Newsom has said the move would cancel out five new red districts created in Texas earlier this year after Trump pushed the state to redistrict in favor of Republicans. States are rushing to redistrict ahead of the midterm elections, which will decide whether Trump keeps the current Republican majority or faces a Democrat-led Congress that would impede his agenda.
-Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Why did Democrats win big? Affordability, Jeffries says
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, on Wednesday morning said the message that resonated most with voters in the 2025: “Affordability.”
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Jeffries said Democrats saw a sweep in races like the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, as well as the mayoral race in New York, because of the message of bringing down prices.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who won in Virginia, and Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who won in New Jersey, both ran as moderate Democrats. Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the New York City mayoral race, is a democratic socialist. But their message on driving down high costs is what resonated with voters in Tuesday’s election.
“That’s the connective tissue that we’ve seen all across the country,” Jeffries said.
– Rebecca Morin
Sherrill takes home New Jersey governor in another anti-Trump Democrat victory
In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the race for governor, notching another blue victory on Election Night.
Like Democrat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, Sherrill ran a middle-of-the-road campaign that capitalized on Democrats’ anger at President Donald Trump.
“Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor will it ever be ruled by kings,” she said in her victory speech, in a nod to the “No Kings” protests against Trump.
A former congressmember, Sherrill leaned into her military service as a Navy pilot. Ciattarelli, a Trump ally, had tried to call into question her military record.
-Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Spanberger will take over from Youngkin as Virginia governor in key Democrat win
Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent, in the Virginia governor race, a victory for Democrats buoyed by opposition to President Donald Trump in a state bordering the nation’s capital.
Spanberger was declared the winner soon after polls closed with 57.5% of the vote to Earle-Sears’ 42.3%. She will take over from Glenn Youngkin, a key Republican governor.
Spanberger, a former CIA officer and member of Congress, ran as a centrist and leaned into the impact of the shutdown and Trump’s layoffs on Virginia’s heavy population of federal workers.
Earle-Sears, currently serving as the state’s lieutenant governor, was glaringly left out of Trump’s endorsements of Republican candidates.
-Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Zohran Mamdani cruises to victory in intensely watched NYC mayoral race
Zohran Mamdani cruised to victory as New York mayor in an election that drew intense national attention.
“We are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn,” Mamdani told a packed crowd in his victory speech.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist who will be New York’s first Muslim and youngest mayor, ran an affordability-focused campaign that electrified the city’s young people. He defeated Andrew Cuomo, the scandal-ridden former governor of New York, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, a talk show host.
The race was called for Mamdani on Election Night as he took home 50.4% of the vote to Cuomo’s 41.6% and Sliwa’s 7.1%. It saw a record number of voters turn out – more than 2 million, the most for a New York mayoral race in more than half a century.
–Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Trump to host Republican senators, give remarks at morning breakfast
Trump is set to deliver remarks to Senate Republicans at the White House during a Wednesday morning breakfast as the federal government shutdown becomes the longest in U.S. history at 36 days.
Trump is scheduled to address Republicans at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to a schedule released by the White House.
It comes as the president has urged Republicans to break the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate known as the filibuster in order to reopen the government. That would allow for a simple majority to pass a Republican-backed spending resolution.
Trump’s efforts, however, have been met by resistance from some Republican senators, including Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, who said Tuesday “the votes aren’t there” to get rid of the filibuster.
Rebuking Trump, California passes Prop 50 to redistrict in Democrats’ favor
California voters have passed Proposition 50, helping Democrats in the redistricting frenzy that will likely decide who controls the House in the final two years of Trump’s second term.
Prop. 50 is a constitutional amendment allowing the state to temporarily stop using a nonpartisan commission to draw congressional district boundaries. Instead, leaders could use lines drawn by Democratic state lawmakers to increase the seats they hold in Congress. After the 2030 U.S. Census, the nonpartisan commission will resume drawing the lines.
The measure is one of the most important issues being decided on Election Day. It essentially negates the five new Republican-leaning congressional districts Texas created earlier this year at Trump’s urging. At least a dozen states have changed their boundary lines or are in the process of doing so before the 2026 midterms.
– Sarah D. Wire
‘Plenty of work to do,’ Barack Obama says
Former President Barack Obama, who campaigned over the weekend for Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, congratulated Tuesday night’s victors.
He called the results “a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win,” in a post on X.
“We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter,” Obama wrote.
Spanberger blasts ‘chaos coming out of Washington’
Trump’s targeting of the federal workforce loomed over the Virginia governor’s race, with Spanberger vowing again in her victory speech to protect the state’s jobs and “stand up to anyone who tries to harm our economy or the livelihoods of our Virginians.”
Trump slashed federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency, and the government shutdown has also rocked federal workers. Spanberger campaigned on the issue, and her victory could indicate growing backlash to Trump’s policies.
Spanberger slammed “those across the Potomac who are attacking our jobs” and vowed not to “stand by silently while you attack Virginia’s workers.”
“I will always stand up for Virginia workers… and right now our federal workforce is under attack and the chaos coming out of Washington is killing Virginia jobs and creating economic uncertainty for tens of thousands of families,” she said.
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