Democrats score major national victories, energizing Missouri party ahead of midterms

While the midterm elections are still nearly a year away, a series of major Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia have energized party members in Missouri and across the country.

“Donald Trump has spent his time in office gutting Medicaid, taking away health care and food assistance, and making everything more expensive with reckless tariffs — all while giving further tax breaks to billionaires and the biggest corporations,” U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell told The St. Louis American. “Last week’s election should put Trump and MAGA Republicans on notice: Americans are fired up, and ready to vote them out in the midterms.”

In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger made history as the first woman elected governor of the state, winning by the largest margin in at least 40 years and nearly sweeping every county.

“We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos,” she said after easily defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is Black.

Democrat Ghazala Hashmi also won her race for Virginia’s lieutenant governor, defeating Republican John Reid to become the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in the U.S. Democrats further expanded their advantage with a double-digit seat gain in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In neighboring New Jersey, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot, trounced Trump-backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli by 13 percentage points to become the state’s next governor — a race that many polls had incorrectly predicted would be close.

It marks the first time since the 1960s that New Jersey voters have elected a governor from the same party three terms in a row. Sherrill also reversed Trump’s 2024 gains among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters.

In Pennsylvania, voters overwhelmingly supported three Democratic state Supreme Court justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht — granting them new terms on the bench. Republicans had hoped to unseat them and force the seats onto the 2027 ballot, which could have opened a path to retake control of the court. The trio was first elected in 2015 as part of a Democratic sweep that flipped the court from Republican control.

In Georgia, Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard won seats on the Public Service Commission — the first time in nearly two decades that Democrats have claimed non-federal statewide offices there.

“Democrats won big across the country,” Missouri Democratic Chair Russ Carnahan said in a statement.

“This historic ‘Blue Sweep’ is a result of our strong Democratic candidates, in red, blue, and purple districts alike, meeting voters at the kitchen table and running campaigns focused on affordability.”

Carnahan also addressed Trump and the GOP directly, saying, “we will stop your efforts to rig the midterms, and we’re coming after your jobs next. We will earn every vote, and we will win.”

Elsewhere, Democrats made progress in key ballot initiatives and urban races signaling a possible nationwide resurgence.

In California, voters approved Proposition 50 by a wide margin, allowing state legislators to redraw political maps ahead of the midterms — a move aimed at countering GOP-led gerrymandering efforts in states such as Missouri.

And in New York, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary, to become the city’s next mayor.

“American voters just delivered a Democratic resurgence. A Republican reckoning. A Blue Sweep,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin in a statement.

“It happened because our Democratic candidates, no matter where they are, no matter how they fit into our big tent party, are meeting voters at the kitchen table, not the gilded ballroom.”