President Trump and the Republican Party received a major league thumping at the hands of the voters on Tuesday. Both Democratic candidates and their propositions won by large margins and across the board. New Jersey elected Democrat Mikie Sherrill as governor of New Jersey by double digits. Not only did Virginia elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger, they also threw out the incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in favor of Democratic candidate Jay Jones. The newly elected Jones fantasized—in writing no less—about killing the Republican opposition. Apparently the silence is violence crowd couldn’t have cared less.
New York elected the self avowed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani to be mayor. Mamdani, among other things, is an anti-semite. Ordinarily that would be prove to be disqualifying, especially in New York which has the largest Jewish population of any city in the US. But not today.
Mamdani also promised to freeze rents, place greater taxes on the wealthy, provide free day care, free public transportation, rein in the police, and open city run food stores. For its part in response to a Texas gerrymander, California voted to approve Prop 50 by around 25 – 30 points. Prop 50 would allow the state to further gerrymander the distribution of its Congressional seats so that Democrats could be in a position to pick up 5 to 7 seats.
Pennsylvania voters returned 3 Democratic state Supreme Court justices who rewrote the state’s electoral laws on the fly, as it were. Maine voted overwhelmingly not to require photo ID’s for in-person voting. Similarly, Colorado voted not to return $12.5 million in excess property taxes to tax payers. They instead voted to use the cash to fund a free school meals program. And in Georgia the two Republicans who were running to retain their seats on a public utility board were ousted in favor of the Democratic candidates. The last time a Democrat won a seat on the state utility board was 2007.
So it is fair to say that the Republicans received a serious drubbing. It is also fair to say that Democrats crushed Republicans in what were mostly deep blue states, like NJ, NY and California. But not all the states were deep blue. Maine and Georgia, for instance, are not.
There are some take-aways from all of this. First, there was a reaction against Donald J Trump. How much is an open question, but there should be no question that there was a substantial reaction to Trump. Second, the progressive wing of the Democratic party is still ascendant. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will probably challenge Chuck Schumer in the 2026 Democratic Party primary for Senator in 2026. And more young Democratic candidates will run as avowed socialists.
Gavin Newsom of California scored a big win with Prop 50. His chance to get the Democratic nomination for a 2028 presidential run just got a big boost. Kamala Harris probably fell out of the running altogether. It’s also hard to see how JB Pritzker comes out ahead here. Rahm Emmanuel still remains a dark horse, and potential running mate for Newsom.
The Republicans on the other hand just got a very big wake-up call. No longer can they rely on President Trump to drag them across the finish line. Perhaps they will stop mindlessly repeating whatever Trump says. If the Republicans had any brains, which they don’t, they would move to impeach Trump for refusing to execute the law. For instance, last I checked Tik-Tok is still in Chinese hands, and is alive and well even though the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the law requiring its divestiture. Which law Trump has pointedly refused to enforce.
As for Trump himself: in all probability he will go into another bout of denial. There should be little doubt that he faces serious political trouble. He may try to talk the Republicans into tossing the 60 vote filibuster rule. They would be extremely foolish if they did. Up until this point though, that hasn’t been a huge obstacle for either political party. Regardless, we may be seeing peak Trump. Only time will tell.
JFB
