Democrats Sweep Marquee Races in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California

Democrats won the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, the New York City mayoralty and California’s Proposition 50 on Tuesday, in the first major electoral test since President Trump returned to office. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and will be the state’s first woman governor, flipping the seat held by Republican Glenn Youngkin, CBS News and PBS NewsHour reported. In New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli, extending Democratic control of the governor’s office to a third straight term, something CBS said neither party had done since 1961.

In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, won the three-way race for mayor over independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, CBS and PBS reported. Virginia Democrats also won the attorney general’s race, NBC News reported, and Pennsylvanians voted to keep three Democratic-backed justices on the state Supreme Court, preserving its Democratic majority.

California voters approved Proposition 50, a measure backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats that lets them redraw the state’s congressional districts before the 2026 midterms. NBC said it could help Democrats flip up to five U.S. House seats, and PBS described the measure as a response to Texas’s redrawn districts. In Georgia, Democrats won two seats on the Public Service Commission, which NBC and PBS reported as the party’s first statewide wins there in about two decades.

Exit polls suggested the president loomed over the races. NBC reported that Trump was a factor for a majority of voters in Virginia, New Jersey and California, and that nearly 40 percent of voters in Virginia and New Jersey said they voted to oppose him. More than 60 percent of New Jersey and Virginia voters said they were dissatisfied or angry about the country’s direction. In Virginia, 56 percent said federal cuts had affected their family finances, and nearly half named the economy as their top issue; of those, 59 percent backed Spanberger.

Republicans acknowledged a rough night but disputed how much to read into it. Mike DuHaime, a longtime New Jersey Republican strategist, called it “a bloodbath,” NBC reported. Ciattarelli led among voters without college degrees by 7 points, NBC’s exit poll showed. Republican critics of Proposition 50 call it a partisan redraw, and NBC’s exit poll found that 92 percent of California voters said a nonpartisan commission should draw district lines, yet a majority approved the new maps.

Before the voting ended on Tuesday, Trump questioned the integrity of the California vote, calling the election “rigged” and saying mail-in ballots were under “very serious legal and criminal review,” PBS reported; PBS described the claims as unsubstantiated. Democrats pointed instead to the focus of their winning campaigns. “Democrats win when we make it about what’s going on at the local mall, not on the national mall,” Jesse Ferguson, a Virginia strategist, told NBC.

The results give Democrats momentum 12 months before the midterms, but off-year elections are an imperfect guide to national outcomes.