Media Cheers Democratic Victories on Tuesday

The Democrat’s sweeping victories in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia were cheered by the liberal media, which has used the results to proclaim that the Trump coalition had suffered a big blow and given new life to the Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

But a quick look at the results show that things are not as rosy for the Democrats as the media would have the public believe.

First, the New York City mayor’s race has been over since Muslim Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo who lost to Mamdani in the primary mounted an independent campaign in an effort to revive his political career, but he was seen as an old tainted politician compared to the fresh-faced, bold ideas that Mamdani offered.  Mamdani, who is a Democratic Socialist, promised to deliver free child care, rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, raise the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. He wants the state to increase the state corporate income tax even though that money goes to the state, and Gov. Kathy Hochul is not in favor of increasing the tax burden on an already overtaxed population. Lots of promises without a solid plan to pay for them.

In New Jersey Mikie Sherrill managed to escape her involvement in a Naval Academy scandal to soundly defeat three-time GOP candidate Jack Ciattrelli who polls showed was in a virtual tie. Sherrill’s winning message was essentially a slowing economy, which she blamed on President Trump and his endorsement of Ciattrelli, who fully embraced the MAGA agenda in a blue state. That led to black and Latino voters that voted for Trump in 2024 to return to the Democratic Party on Tuesday. The end result will be maintaining if not increasing New Jersey’s sky-high taxes and coupled with the Democrats gains in the statehouse a possible effort on redistricting to squeeze out Republicans which won’t be easy since there are only three Republicans out of twelve in their congressional delegation.  Trump rode a MAGA wave in 2024, which has disappeared in blue and purple states in 2025.

Virginia, which is the home to an estimated 234,000 federal workers, was a complete wipe out for Republicans. Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears who did nothing during here four years in office to distinguish herself and ran a poor campaign dragged the rest of the candidates down with her. In Virginia the governor, Lt. governor and attorney general run separately, but Sears’ poor performance may have cost the Republicans the latter two offices which were much closer than the governor’s race. Even worse, was the apparent wipe out in the statehouse, where as many as thirteen seats may have flipped to the Democrats. Abigail Spanberger wasn’t a great candidate as evidenced by her performance in the only gubernatorial debate that was held, but it didn’t matter when you blame President Trump for the government shutdown which has left most federal workers without a paycheck for the last month with no end in sight. Even Trump admits the shutdown hurt the GOP.

Even though Republicans took a beating on Tuesday, given the nature of the states where the races were held, isn’t much of a barometer for 2026 or 2028 for that matter. It’s possible that some of the carnage could have been avoided if Trump really cared about the Republican Party rather than his own self-serving interests, but that’s water under the bridge right now.