Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Democrats Sweep Off-Year Elections
Off-year elections rarely get much attention. If the presidency, or at least congressional offices, are not on the ballot, turnout is low, and the offices are largely small ones. But yesterday, the Democratic Party crushed the Republicans with huge turn out in almost every race in the country. This includes the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, the job of New York City mayor, Pennsylvania supreme court judges. They all went to the Democrats. The Democrats carried the day in Californian redistricting vote as well. None of the races were close. The meaning here is clear. Without Mr. Trump on the ballot, the Republicans do not win.
The least surprising result was Abigail Spanberger [D] winning the Virginian governorship. Her opponent was Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears [R]. Ms. Earle-Sears was a bad candidate focusing on transgender matters rather than the economy. That she lost is not a surprise, but the magnitude of the defeat (15%) did shock some.
In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill ran what many thought was a bad campaign against Republican Jack Ciattarelli. Indeed, some thought it would be a nail-biter. She won by 13%, a landslide. How did the pollsters miss this? The after-action studies will show exactly what the cause is, but one suspects a number of new voters were not part of the model the pollsters used. Finding out who they are and how to motivate them to keep voting will be the job of the Sherrill administration.
In New York City, Zohran Mamdani won in a three-way race against former Governor Andrew Cuomo (who ran as an independent after losing the primary to Mr. Mamdani) and Republican Curtis Sliwa (the crackpot founder of the Guardian Angels militia and room-mate of 16 cats). It was Mr. Mamdani's race to lose, and he did not make many mistakes. That he won more than 50% of the vote (current count is about 50.4%) was a surprise to some.
In Pennsylvania, three Democratic members of the state supreme court were up for re-election. Like judicial races elsewhere, this one was run as a yes or no
In California, there were no offices on the ballot, just one proposition. The New York Times explained "California voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported Proposition 50, Mr. Newsom’s measure to create more Democratic congressional seats, countering a similar redistricting effort pushed by Mr. Trump in other states to protect Republican control of the House next year." Approximately 8 million votes were cast out of 23.2 million registered voters. For a ballot proposition, that is not a bad turnout.
In all, it was a good night for the Democrats and a bad one for the Republican Party. It is hardly a shock. The party in power in Washington always suffers a defeat in the off-year balloting. What was shocking was the number of Democrats who had forgotten that. If one can turn-out the voters in an off year, the Democrats do well. This time, they did.
The Republicans have a problem that cannot be addressed easily. Mr. Trump has solid support of about 1/3 of the electorate, perhaps 40%. His popularity, though, does not transfer to others. When he is not on the ballot, the Republicans tend to lose. It happened in 2017, 2018, 2022, and this year. Since the MAGA movement took over the GOP there has not been a successful Republican campaign when Mr. Trump was not a candidate. Since he is constitutionally barred from running again (and there is no way around it), they need to start finding new voice. Yet, new voices threaten Mr. Trump as leader, and so they will be cut down as they emerge. The voters clearly do not like the direction things are headed, yet there is no way for the GOP to turn the ship of state. Barring a miracle, the mid-terms are the Democrats' to lose.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerate.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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