Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
I’ve been looking forward to writing this particular post-election newsletter for many months now, and while I knew it would be chock full of great stuff, even I didn’t anticipate that we would fill an entire good news list just with what happened on Tuesday. But that’s basically the situation! And I only included some of the wins we had. There’s simply no way to list them all!
I’ve had to leave out some of the other, non-election-related good news because there simply wasn’t room—although I tried to include a couple of the big items at the end—but I promise to get them in next week’s post.
Soak it in, folks. You 100% earned this. See you “back in the field” tomorrow, but for now let’s bask in our absurdly huge victory. Enjoy!
Read This 📖
This entire post from Run For Something, recounting some of their most notable downballot wins on Tuesday, is SO worth a read!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Democrat Abigail Spanberger trounced her opponent to win the Governorship in Virginia! Democrat Ghazala Hashmi won the race for Virginia’s lieutenant governor, and Democrat Jay Jones won Virginia’s AG race! We also flipped 13 seats in the House of Delegates and now have the most Democrats elected to the Virginia House in nearly 40 years.
NYC saw the highest turn out for a non-presidential election in 50 years—2 million people voted! And Zohran Mamdani won!
Democrat Mikie Sherrill had a resounding victory in New Jersey, winning the race for Governor by wide margins. Democrats also gained a supermajority in the NJ General Assembly.
In both New Jersey and Virginia, in addition to high turnouts, the Democratic candidates also succeeded at winning over a modest but meaningful sliver of Trump supporters.
Latino voters overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in Tuesday’s elections, largely reversing historic gains President Trump made in 2024 with this key demographic. Black voters, Asian voters, young voters…all moved back towards Dems. So encouraging.
California passed Prop 50 by an overwhelming margin.
Maine voters overwhelmingly REJECTED an anti-voter ballot measure, achieving 63% of the vote. They also passed a red-flag law!
Pennsylvania voted overwhelmingly to retain the three Democratic Supreme Court Justices and elect Dem Superior and Commonwealth court judges.
Georgia Democrats defeated two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s Public Service Commission. And they didn’t just win—they trounced their opponents! In fact, they won 8 counties where, in 2024, Kamala Harris received UNDER 40% of the vote!
In Texas’s Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, which is the third largest in the state, progressive candidates won all three open board seats, giving them a 4-3 majority. Since 2023, the board has been controlled by a 6-1 conservative supermajority, which has enacted a range of far-right policies.
Sharon Owens became the first Black Mayor of the city of Syracuse**.**
In Mississippi Democrats gained two seats in the State Senate, ending the GOP’s supermajority. HUGE!
Some of our favorite incumbents easily won re-election. Larry Krasner won a 3rd term to serve as Philadelphia District Attorney. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu secured a second term in office after running unopposed. And in NY, Alvin Bragg won re-election in a landslide.
In North Carolina Democrats flipped mayorships in Burlington, Graham, Warsaw, Wake Forest, and Holly Springs, and took a Charlotte city council seat long held by Republicans.
Democrats flipped the Wichita, KS School Board from a 4-3 GOP majority to a 5-2 Democratic majority.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept the top “row offices” in Bucks County, electing the county’s first-ever Democratic district attorney and defeating an incumbent Republican sheriff who was cooperating with ICE. They will also now control Luzerne County Council, a Trump stronghold.
Democrats unseated the last remaining Republican city council member in Orlando, FL.
JD Vance’s half-brother lost by an overwhelming margin as he tried to become the mayor of Cincinnati. Mayor Aftab Pureval, the Democratic incumbent, easily won reelection.
Democrats seized the majority in Perinton, NY unseating the incumbent supervisor and adding two seats on the Town Board, placing the party firmly in the majority in a historically red area.
Colorado voters increased taxes on the wealthy to pay for school meals by passing Prop MM.
Voters in two counties in Ohio passed “issues” to raise money for their school districts, meaning planned cuts can be avoided.
Voters in Downington, Pennsylvania elected Erica Deuso as mayor, making her the first out transgender mayor in state history.
St. Paul voters handed a historic election victory to state Rep. Kaohly Her, who will be the first woman and first person from the city’s Hmong community to serve as mayor.
In Douglas County, CO, four progressive school board candidates resoundingly beat four alt-right candidates. In fact, voters opted for more progressive candidates in key school board races across Colorado.
For the first time in half a century, Democrats gained control of the Onondaga County legislature, which includes Syracuse, N.Y.
In Aurora, CO, Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who gained national attention through far-right media appearances claiming her city faced a “complete gang takeover” by immigrants, was voted out of office in a stunning upset.
Atlanta, GA got its first Democratic Socialist council member, Kelsea Bond. They’re queer and nonbinary too.
In Republican stronghold Greece, NY, Jeff McCann became the first Democrat in 120 years to win the seat of Town Supervisor.
In Ulster County, NY, Run For Something candidates Laura Donovan and Dominick Marino flipped seats red to blue against Republican incumbents. Laura won by just 36 votes!!
Democrats in Dutchess County, NY, were big winners Tuesday night, including keeping the comptroller seat, defeating an incumbent Republican county court judge, and flipping the county legislature from red to blue.
Georgetown, South Carolina will get a new mayor and three new city council members after voters ousted all the incumbents and put Democrats in charge.
Erie County, Pennsylvania, a bellweather county, defeated the MAGA county executive and elected a Democrat by a margin of 25 points.
Mary Sheffield became the first woman to be elected as Detroit Mayor.
Farmington, CT has ousted an incumbent Republican and flipped its Town Council Chair to a Democrat for the first time in 70 years. In fact, Democrats flipped 29 seats in Connecticut’s municipal elections. The sweep included several high-profile mayoral races where long-term Republican incumbents were defeated or open seats went to Democratic candidates.
In Oswego County, NY, Democrats picked up five Republican seats in the county legislature.
Progressive Katie Freeman, who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community, has been newly elected to the Coralville City Council in Iowa and a standing council member (Hui Huyn) who supports immigrant rights has been reelected.
In Camas County, Washington, voters ousted long time Republican city council member for Democrat Mahsa Eshghi.
Jackie Salvatore made history as the first black woman elected as County Sheriff in New York’s Columbia County.
There were three red-to-blue wins in Miami plus a mayoral runoff in December with Dem Eileen Higgins poised to prevail.
Ruby red Kalispell, Montana elected Ryan Hunter, a Democrat, for mayor.
Gen Z candidate Kiam Jamrog-McQuaid won the City Councilor at Large seat in East Hampton, Massachusetts.
Democrats swept the Souderton, PA School Board elections. They also swept in Bucks County! They had a strong showing in School Board races in Lehigh, PA, holding off a Republican challenger in Allentown and unseating two Republican incumbents in Southern Lehigh. In fact, Democrats swept school board races across PA.
Hailey Lewis has been elected mayor of Moscow, Idaho, garnering 70% of the vote and defeating her Christian nationalist opponent.
Boise, Idaho voters overwhelmingly passed a two-year property tax hike to raise $11 million dollars to fund land purchases for public parks and open space.
In a stunning rebuke of the far-right education movement, all 31 Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates in competitive races were defeated.
Tucson voters approved more money for schools.
We saw the first Dem win in Spotsylvania County, VA in almost 50 years.
Albany, NY elected Dorcey Applyrs as the city’s first Black mayor.
A man who was jailed for posting a meme about Charlie Kirk was released in TN.
A judge extended the order blocking Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland, OR.
A federal judge ordered federal agents in Chicago to restrict using force against peaceful protesters and news media outlets, saying current practices violate their constitutional rights.
The sandwich guy was found not guilty!
Kansas Republicans dropped their push to redistrict.
A federal court ordered ICE not to deport a man who spent 43 years in prison before his case was overturned.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold billions of dollars in transportation grant funding from Democratic-led states refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement
Huntington Beach’s voter ID law was struck down by the California State Appeals Court.
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