Democrats successfully swept a handful of elections in different parts of the country on Nov. 4. That has provided much-needed encouragement for the party when the White House and both houses of Congress are in Republican hands.
However, some limited wins are still a long way from decisive victory in next year’s midterm congressional elections, when the voters will choose the entire House of Representatives and one third of the members of the Senate.
That election in turn will be a major indicator regarding the presidential and congressional elections of 2028.
The most prominent of the elections was for mayor of New York City, where both the personal qualities and political convictions of the ultimate winner are distinctive, to say the least. Zohran Mamdani is young at 34 years old, telegenic, quite articulate — and a socialist.
On election night, after his victory was clear, he quoted Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926), patron saint of the socialist movement, an early union organizer and an iconic radical figure. Debs began his career as a Democrat, serving for a time in the Indiana state legislature, but quickly moved left.
Debs was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World as well as the Socialist Party of America and ran for president of the United States five times. He was a principal organizer of early U.S. labor unions focused on the railroad industry. This was in the late 19th century, when federal troops were sometimes brought in to break up union activity.
Republicans starting with President Donald Trump are having a field day denouncing Mamdani. In the election, Trump endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary.
That probably boosted support for Mamdani. Influential polling expert Bill Schneider of George Mason University shows through hard data that in New York and elsewhere, this election was a referendum on Trump.
The other Democrats who won are Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, elected respectively governor of New Jersey and governor of Virginia. Both states have elected Republican governors in relatively recent years, and Virginia is trending Republican.
In California, Proposition 50 passed in a landslide. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a prominent contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, staked his prestige — and to a significant extent his political future — on all-out support for the measure. The proposition takes the drawing of state legislative maps out of the hands of the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission and gives that power to the state legislature, where Democrats have a majority.
Initially, the prospects of this change in the practices of a traditional “good government” state seemed uncertain. Newsom led an extremely aggressive campaign for passage with the theme that a vote for the measure would be a vote “against Trump.” The effort was also promoted as a response to similar Republican gerrymandering, notably in Texas.
Lessons from these elections are limited. California’s change is already facing challenges in federal court. New York City is distinctive within our nation. Likewise, New Jersey and Virginia are not nationally representative.
Ending the disruptive, painful government shutdown ought to prove beneficial for the Democrats. The Senate pragmatists who voted on Nov. 9 to cooperate with Republicans, starting the reopening process, are:
Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), Dick Durbin (Illinois), John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire), Tim Kaine (Virginia), Angus King (Maine), Jacky Rosen (Nevada) and Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire).
Let’s hope they don’t suffer in consequence.