Democratic wins on Nov. 4 signal a national backlash could be building against the Trump administration, but the wide divergence between some of the winning candidates renewed debates on the left about how best to run against Republicans.
On the one hand, there is Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who won the New York City mayoral race with economic populist ideas such as free buses and universal childcare.
On the other hand, twin victories by Reps. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey in their state’s governors races show a different path forward. Both candidates ran as pragmatists with national security backgrounds in campaigns that accentuated their bipartisan congressional records.
Mamdani’s win and New York City’s high turnout has emboldened some on the activist left to argue their ideas excite voters and motivate younger citizens to vote. But other liberals hold a different view and caution against overconfidence.
“I think it says more about the Republicans,” Rahm Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama and Chicago mayor, told USA TODAY in a Nov. 5 interview about the election results. “This was a referendum on Donald Trump and the Republican Party and their stewardship, and he got a massive whooping − full stop.”
Spanberger flipped Virginia away from the GOP and Sherrill also had a more competitive race in New Jersey than Mamdani faced in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City. But both still secured double-digit wins while out-performing former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential election margins in their respective states.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who has steered the party through a turbulent year-long rebrand after its crushing defeat last year, said rather than two competing visions for Democrats, the party can find inspiration in both approaches. While Sherrill and Spanberger persuaded independent, suburban and Hispanic voters − all key to Democratic hopes of making a comeback in national elections − Mamdani energized a new generation with progressive zeal.
“We are a big tent, we have all types of Democrats from conservative, centrists, progressives and leftists − and it takes all of us,” Martin told USA TODAY.
The party’s focus on kitchen table issues and unified opposition to Trump’s aggressive expansion of executive power worked in paving the way for a “major repudiation” of this administration and its approach regardless of various Democratic ideologies and backgrounds, Martin said.
Even some Republicans agree that Trump’s failure to fulfill his promise to lower the cost of living explains their party’s disappointing results in 2025.
“Politics is no different from business,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, said in a Nov. 5 post on X that appeared to place blame at the feet of Republicans. “Business 101: If you don’t deliver what you promise, then don’t expect repeat customers.”
Democrats getting over Biden as big 2026 debates loom
New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York on Nov. 4, 2025. New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor Nov. 4, 2025 broadcasters projected, on a day of key local ballots across the country offering the first electoral judgement of Donald Trump’s tumultuous second White House term.
The off-year races were always considered a precursor to the more consequential 2026 midterm contests, when control of Congress and the fate of Trump’s legislative agenda will hang in the balance.
Democrats did more than win the main quartet of races in the two major gubernatorial contests, New York City mayoral battle and California’s redistricting ballot initiative, however.
They prevailed in down-ballot contests, including adding 13 seats more seats in the Virginia House while retaining judicial spots on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and nabbing two commissioner seats in Georgia.
Much of this was done while subtly rejecting former President Joe Biden, who quit the Democratic ticket last year under political pressure and along with Harris was largely out of the picture during the 2025 campaigns.
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser for Harris’ unsuccessful 2020 presidential primary campaign, said the Nov. 4 results don’t mean the party is popular but that is signals an end to last year’s mourning among the base.
“What we accomplished yesterday is that we removed the stench of the loss from 2024 off of our backs,” he said.
Democrats still have plenty of work left to do after the 2024 election ushered Trump and Republican majorities back into power. Survey after survey this year showed the party remains unpopular with most Americans.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released this week found that while Trump’s disapproval numbers are rising most voters aren’t sold on the Democrats. The survey showed 68% of Americans still believe Democrats are “out of touch” with average people and that is worse than the 63% who say the same about Trump and the 61% who say the same about the GOP.
‘And so it begins’ Trump, GOP want Mamdani to be face of 2026 midterms
President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at the White House following a weekend trip to Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 2, 2025.
Trump and his allies wasted little time in indicating they plan to brush themselves off and come back swinging after being rejected by millions of voters.
“…AND SO IT BEGINS!” Trump wrote in a Nov. 4 post on Truth Social.
For many conservative activists, the best response to the bruising results is to wage war against Mamdani and make him the main character of the 2026 elections.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which will be charged with defending the 219-seat GOP majority in Congress, released a 30-second ad on Nov. 5 with the narrator warning that a “radical left earthquake” struck the country. It spotlights Mamdani’s win and features his picture, alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who lives in New York City and only endorsed the mayor-elect shortly before the election, after resisting calls to do so for months.
“The socialist takeover is complete” Mike Marinella, an NRCC spokesman, said in a statement to USA TODAY, adding the group plans to pump the ad into 49 battleground congressional districts across the country.
In a Nov. 5 memo, Third Way, a centrist Democratic group, congratulated Mamdani on his successful affordability-focused messaging, but it warned that he will be a “Republican ad maker’s dream.”
Democrats nationwide shouldn’t following cues from the Big Apple, the group said.
“There are some lessons all Democrats can learn from Mamdani’s campaign tactics, which were excellent and broadly applicable,” the memo said. “His policies and message, which are radical and politically toxic outside the deep blue confines of New York City, do not translate.”
That argument is likely to infuriate progressives, who point out repeatedly that more establishment figures often demand the left-wing base “vote blue, no matter who” and that Democrats must throw out aging playbooks when taking on Trump and his allies.
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state legislator and co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’, I-Vermont’s, 2020 presidential Democratic primary campaign, said Mamdani’s win shows progressives have “been right all along” about how best to oppose Trump.
Rather than thinking about preserving their own power, Democrats cannot shy away from being bolder on policy prescriptions, such Medicare for All and a living wage, especially with the shakiness of SNAP benefits (also known as food stamps) and health care premiums dominating the news.
“For the progressive movement, we are in touch with the pain points of the people, regardless of how they label themselves,” she said. “It is the neoliberal arm of the Democratic Party that’s out of touch, and not the leftists of the party.”
The economy was top of mind for voters this week, according to exit polling, including 56% of New Yorkers saying the cost of living was the most important issue in the city. In Virginia, those woes were compounded by the persistent government shutdown that has force federal employees and contractors to go without paychecks.
“The shutdown was a big factor − negative − for the Republicans,” Trump said at a Nov. 5 breakfast at the White House with Senate Republicans.
Trump also seemed to suggest Republican turnout was depressed by not having him to vote for.
“And they say that I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor,” he added. “I don’t know about that but I was honored that they said that.”
Contributing: Terry Collins, Rebecca Morin, Bart Jansen, Erin Mansfield
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Big tent’: Democrats get mixed messages in 2025 election wins
