VOTERS PUSH BACK

In Virginia—and elsewhere—Donald Trump's erratic economic policies spurred a backlash

- - BY BRIAN BENNETT

AFTER A YEAR IN THE POLITICAL WILDERness, Democrats rode frustration over high prices and President Donald Trump's disruptive economic policies to win a raft of elections across the country on Nov. 4. In Virginia and New Jersey, voters handed the party the keys to the governor's mansions by larger-than-expected margins. In California, voters overwhelmingly approved new congressional districts to benefit Democrats, after Texas passed its own new map to favor the GOP.

But it was a series of decisive victories in down-ballot races against Republican incumbents that stunned leaders in both parties and bolstered Democrats' hopes that they had landed on a viable playbook for next year's midterm elections.

Pennsylvanians voted to keep three justices backed by Democrats on the state Supreme Court. Democrats in Georgia won two utilitycommission seats by double digits, the widest margins Democrats have seen in statewide contests there in two decades. In Mississippi, where absentee ballots were still being counted days later, Democrats appeared poised to flip two seats in the state senate, breaking a GOP supermajority.