Democrats win Virginia and New Jersey in early test of Trump’s second term
Abigail Spanberger elected Virginia governor in a historic first as Mikie Sherrill is victorious in New Jersey
Moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill cruised to comfortable victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ elections on Tuesday, on an election night seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
Pitting centrist Democrats against Trump-aligned Republicans, both elections were seen as signaling whether middle-of-the-road voters had made peace with the president’s radical cost-slashing agenda - or plan to give his party a bloody nose in 2026.
Trump refused to take any blame for Tuesday’s results. In a post on his Truth Social network, he cited anonymous “pollsters” suggesting the Republican defeats were down to the government shutdown and the fact that his own name was not on ballots.
Trump has driven a steamroller through the federal bureaucracy since returning to office in January, shuttering entire agencies and cutting an estimated 200,000 jobs even before the government shutdown.
Spanberger’s win in Virginia - which is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce - was no surprise, as polls had shown her holding a steady lead of seven to 12 points throughout the campaign.
The former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran and staunch Trump ally, by a comfortable margin that makes her Virginia’s first-ever female governor.
