Election wins Democrats can learn the most from

Tuesday was a big night for Democrats. Huge! as President Donald Trump would say — or might say if he weren't busy freaking out about the electoral smackdown voters just delivered him and his party.

- Michelle Cottle

The successes stretched all the way down to the Georgia Public Service Commission, where Democrats picked up two seats. But the biggest signals came from the three high-profile elections seen as a referendum on the president's performance and on the Democrats’ scramble to revive their moribund brand: the contests for Virginia governor, New Jersey governor and New York City mayor. The blue team swept the table.

Now comes the what-does-it-all-mean phase for both parties. With the Democrats, there is much to dissect and digest. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger ran explicitly as a pragmatist.

In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, a self-professed purveyor of “ruthless competence’, charted a middle-of-the-road course. And in New York, Zohran Mamdani electrified much of the electorate with his rock-star persona and lefty politics.

While Mr Mamdani’s win showed the power of a fresh-faced, charismatic candidate with a clear message, some of his advantages seem unlikely to transfer much beyond New York's peculiar and left-leaning politics. It may well be that Ms Sherrill and Ms Spanberger, with their double-digit victories and mainstream visions, offer lessons that are more replicable for the party.

The numbers are impressive. In New Jersey, where the electorate had been drifting rightward in recent years, Ms Sherrill’s strong performance led to Democrats improving their vote totals in nearly every county over four years ago.

The turnout rate was on track to be the highest since 1997. The number of voters topped 3 million for the first time ina New Jersey governor's race.

In Virginia, Ms Spanberger's coattails were long enough to help Democrats flip 11 to 13 seats in the House of Delegates. The party won all three statewide offices, attorney general included, even though its candidate, Jay Jones, faced an ugly, late-breaking scandal involving text messages he sent in 2022.