Democrats swept Tuesday’s gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, as the national party — still facing internal battles about its future — seeks to recover from last year’s losses to President Trump.
Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is projected to defeat Republican former legislator Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey, and Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger is projected to overcome Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia.
The results mark a turnaround for Democrats in two states where the party has faced setbacks in recent years — especially during last year’s presidential race, when Mr. Trump significantly boosted his share of the vote in normally blue-leaning New Jersey and Virginia, and the 2021 races, when Republicans reversed years of Democratic gains at the governor’s mansion.
The races could also serve as an early rebuke to Mr. Trump, albeit in two states that have never backed him outright. Spanberger and Sherrill ran hard against the president, who is unpopular in their respective states.
And both Democratic campaigns — along with those of their GOP opponents — focused on economic concerns, an issue both parties have struggled with. Nationwide, most voters disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy and worry that inflation will increase, though only 28% think Democrats have a better approach to economic policy than Mr. Trump and the GOP, according to a CBS News poll from last week.
Still unresolved, however, is a longstanding internal dispute over whether the Democratic Party should embrace a progressive platform or move in a more moderate direction. Sherrill and Spanberger hail from the party’s moderate wing. But on the same night as their victories, the New York City mayoral race went to Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who campaigned on rent freezes and city-owned grocery stores.
Sherrill wins in New Jersey after Trump showed strength last year
The victory by Sherrill, a four-term House member and former Navy pilot, follows two unexpectedly close races for New Jersey Democrats.
One year ago, the state faced its tightest presidential contest since 1992. Mr. Trump lost the Garden State by just 5.9 percentage points in 2024, compared to 15.8-point and 14.1-point losses in prior times Mr. Trump was on the ballot.
And in 2021, incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy defeated Ciattarelli by just 3 points, after Murphy won with a more than 14-point edge in 2017.
While New Jersey hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988, the governor’s office has darted between the two parties for decades. This year marks the first time since the 1960s when a single party has won three New Jersey gubernatorial races in a row.
Both candidates spoke extensively about the cost of living, with Ciattarelli promising to “Make New Jersey Affordable Again” and Sherrill touting an “Affordability Agenda.”
Sherrill frequently sought to link Ciattarelli to Mr. Trump and argued he would not stand up to the president, who enthusiastically endorsed the former state legislator, while Ciattarelli accused Democratic politicians like Murphy of mismanaging the state.
Both Murphy and Mr. Trump are unpopular in New Jersey, with the governor’s favorability (45%) fairly similar to the president’s (44%), according to exit poll data.
The race grew increasingly bitter in its closing weeks, with both campaigns tossing legal threats. CBS News reported that a branch of the National Archives released a mostly unredacted version of Sherrill’s military records — including her Social Security number — to a Ciattarelli ally. And Ciattarelli threatened to sue Sherrill for defamation after she attacked him for alleged links to the opioid industry and claimed he “went on to kill tens of thousands of people.”
Spanberger wins in Virginia after DOGE-dominated race
Spanberger, a former House member and CIA officer, also tried to tie her opponent to Mr. Trump and railed against the administration’s cuts to the federal workforce — a potent line of attack in Virginia, which has about 150,000 federal government jobs.
Unlike in the New Jersey race, Mr. Trump did not endorse Earle-Sears for governor outright, although he appeared a telerally on Monday for the Republican ticket and he has penned Truth Social posts generically encouraging people to vote for the Republican candidates in Virginia.
“YOU WILL RUE THE DAY THAT YOU VOTED TO DESTROY YOUR LIFE,” he wrote in a message Monday warning voters not to back Democrats.
The state’s gubernatorial races almost always go to the party that doesn’t control the White House, and are often treated as referenda on the president. Mr. Trump’s approval rating in Virginia stands at 42%, with 55% disapproving, according to exit poll data.
Virginia used to be reliably red at the national level but has shifted leftward in recent years, backing Democrats in every presidential race since 2008 after voting for Republicans in the nine races before that. Democrats faced some slippage last year: Mr. Trump lost in the state by 5.7 points last year, compared to a 10.1-point loss in 2020.
Spanberger sought to brand herself as a moderate, campaigning for part of the closing stretch with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a fellow moderate, and touting endorsements from two former Republican lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Earle-Sears tried to follow Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s strategy in 2021 and capitalize on some of the more polarizing parts of the Democratic agenda, attacking Spanberger on immigration enforcement and transgender issues. “Spanberger is for they/them, not us,” said one Earle-Sears ad that closely mirrored one of last year’s best-known pro-Trump advertisements.
Earle-Sears also railed against Spanberger over Democratic Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, who sent violent and incendiary texts about Virginia Republicans.