Democrats swept nearly every competitive race Tuesday night, immediately triggering a Republican Party meltdown over why voters keep doing this incredibly rude thing where they choose the other candidates.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger became Virginia's first female governor, crushing her opponent by margins that had GOP strategists frantically googling "what is a woman" to understand what went wrong. Virginia Democrats also expanded their majorities in the state legislature, suggesting that voters remain unconvinced by Republican arguments that schools are teaching kindergarteners advanced gender theory instead of the alphabet.
In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governorship in a race that Republicans had convinced themselves would be close based on one poll they saw on Twitter and vibes. Sherrill and Spanberger were roommates on Capitol Hill, marking the first time in American history that former congressional housemates have simultaneously governed different states, a fact that will be mentioned in every article about them for the next four years.
New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor with an outright majority, avoiding a runoff and disappointing journalists who had already written 47 think pieces about what a December runoff would mean for American democracy. Mamdani's victory represents the first time a democratic socialist has run New York City since—actually, don't look up the history of New York mayors, just trust that this is significant.
California voters approved Proposition 50, Gavin Newsom's plan to temporarily redraw congressional districts to add more Democratic seats, because apparently the solution to gerrymandering is more gerrymandering but for Democrats this time. Approximately eight people showed up to vote on this measure, all of whom were election monitors monitoring other election monitors.
In Georgia, Democrats won two seats on the Public Service Commission by 60% margins, marking the first time since 2006 that Democrats won a nonfederal statewide office there. Georgia Republicans immediately demanded a recount of these races that nobody knew existed until the results came in.
Pennsylvania voters retained three Democratic state Supreme Court justices despite billionaire Jeff Yass spending millions to defeat them, proving that even unlimited money can't convince people to fire judges they'd never heard of. Democrats also swept "row offices" in Bucks County, which Trump had won in 2024, suggesting that voters can distinguish between presidential and county-level elections, a cognitive ability Republicans had assumed didn't exist.
Mississippi Democrats broke the GOP supermajority in both legislative chambers after federal courts forced the state to redraw districts that discriminated against Black voters, a reminder that sometimes you need judges to tell Mississippi to stop doing racism.
Down-ballot races across the country showed Democrats overperforming by an average of 14 percentage points compared to 2024, a trend that Republican strategists explained by noting that "the economy is actually bad and Trump is unpopular," which is different from their pre-election messaging that "the economy is great and Trump is beloved."
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley blamed the losses on "low turnout," apparently forgetting that low turnout is supposed to help Republicans. When pressed to explain why Democratic-leaning voters showed up in higher numbers than Republican-leaning voters, Whatley suggested that Democrats might be "cheating by voting."
Trump responded to the results by posting on Truth Social that the elections were "RIGGED!" and that he'd actually won all of them if you don't count the votes for Democrats. He has not yet explained how losing elections in 2025 proves the 2024 election was stolen, but sources say he's working on a PowerPoint presentation about it.
The results have prompted Democrats to express cautious optimism about the 2026 midterms, while Republicans insist the losses are actually good news because they "prove voters are energized," though they declined to specify which voters or what they're energized about.
At press time, Fox News was airing a 12-hour special on how Democrats winning elections is actually very concerning for Democrats.