After riding high for months, President Donald Trump saw the MAGA zeal surrounding his aggressive second term collide with a growing backlash that helped deliver a wave of Democratic victories in off-year races, setting the stage for a big midterm clash as the parties begin plotting next steps on the day after the election.

Democrats swept statewide contests in Virginia, New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania and racked up victories in lower profile races, leaving party leaders jubilant and eager to declare the election a referendum on Trump.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the results are a "repudiation of the Trump agenda." The president, meanwhile, blamed GOP loses on the government shutdown and the fact that he wasn't on the ballot.

Trump loomed large over the contests, which served as the first big opportunity to measure voter sentiment since the president won every swing state and the popular vote. The outcome couldn't have been better for Democrats, who have been desperate to rebound from their 2024 thumping.

Democrats Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey won their races for governor by wide margins in states where Trump had made gains in 2024, and California voters resoundingly approved a ballot measure aimed at checking Trump's efforts to draw more favorable midterm maps. The party saw a slate of new leaders emerge, most notably 34-year-old New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who energized young voters with a progressive agenda that drew Trump's ire.

The Democrat romp came as Trump's approval rating sags and 61% of voters in a new CNN/SSRS poll disapprove of his handling of a government shutdown that is now the longest in U.S. history.

The president is meeting with GOP senators at the White House today to discuss the shutdown and his demand to end the Senate’s filibuster rule, which would allow the GOP to pass legislation to reopen the government without Democrat votes.

California hands major redistricting win to Democrats

California voters delivered a rebuke to President Donald Trump by passing Proposition 50, an amendment backed by Gov. Gavin Newsome that would let the state's Democratic lawmakers redraw its district lines to increase their political power.

Newsom has said the move would cancel out five new red districts created in Texas earlier this year after Trump pushed the state to redistrict in favor of Republicans. States are rushing to redistrict ahead of the midterm elections, which will decide whether Trump keeps the current Republican majority or faces a Democrat-led Congress that would impede his agenda.

-Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Why did Democrats win big? Affordability, Jeffries says

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, on Wednesday morning said the message that resonated most with voters in the 2025: “Affordability.”

During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Jeffries said Democrats saw a sweep in races like the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, as well as the mayoral race in New York, because of the message of bringing down prices.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who won in Virginia, and Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who won in New Jersey, both ran as moderate Democrats. Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the New York City mayoral race, is a democratic socialist. But their message on driving down high costs is what resonated with voters in Tuesday’s election.

“That’s the connective tissue that we’ve seen all across the country,” Jeffries said.

– Rebecca Morin

Sherrill takes home New Jersey governor in another anti-Trump Democrat victory

In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the race for governor, notching another blue victory on Election Night.

Like Democrat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, Sherrill ran a middle-of-the-road campaign that capitalized on Democrats' anger at President Donald Trump.

"Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor will it ever be ruled by kings," she said in her victory speech, in a nod to the "No Kings" protests against Trump.

A former congressmember, Sherrill leaned into her military service as a Navy pilot. Ciattarelli, a Trump ally, had tried to call into question her military record.

-Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Spanberger will take over from Youngkin as Virginia governor in key Democrat win

Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent, in the Virginia governor race, a victory for Democrats buoyed by opposition to President Donald Trump in a state bordering the nation's capital.

Spanberger was declared the winner soon after polls closed with 57.5% of the vote to Earle-Sears' 42.3%. She will take over from Glenn Youngkin, a key Republican governor.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and member of Congress, ran as a centrist and leaned into the impact of the shutdown and Trump's layoffs on Virginia's heavy population of federal workers.

Earle-Sears, currently serving as the state's lieutenant governor, was glaringly left out of Trump's endorsements of Republican candidates.

-Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Zohran Mamdani cruises to victory in intensely watched NYC mayoral race

Zohran Mamdani cruised to victory as New York mayor in an election that drew intense national attention.

"We are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn," Mamdani told a packed crowd in his victory speech.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist who will be New York's first Muslim and youngest mayor, ran an affordability-focused campaign that electrified the city's young people. He defeated Andrew Cuomo, the scandal-ridden former governor of New York, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, a talk show host.

The race was called for Mamdani on Election Night as he took home 50.4% of the vote to Cuomo's 41.6% and Sliwa's 7.1%. It saw a record number of voters turn out - more than 2 million, the most for a New York mayoral race in more than half a century.

--Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Trump to host Republican senators, give remarks at morning breakfast

Trump is set to deliver remarks to Senate Republicans at the White House during a Wednesday morning breakfast as the federal government shutdown becomes the longest in U.S. history at 36 days.

Trump is scheduled to address Republicans at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to a schedule released by the White House.

It comes as the president has urged Republicans to break the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate known as the filibuster in order to reopen the government. That would allow for a simple majority to pass a Republican-backed spending resolution.

Trump’s efforts, however, have been met by resistance from some Republican senators, including Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, who said Tuesday "the votes aren’t there" to get rid of the filibuster.

Rebuking Trump, California passes Prop 50 to redistrict in Democrats' favor

California voters have passed Proposition 50, helping Democrats in the redistricting frenzy that will likely decide who controls the House in the final two years of Trump's second term.

Prop. 50 is a constitutional amendment allowing the state to temporarily stop using a nonpartisan commission to draw congressional district boundaries. Instead, leaders could use lines drawn by Democratic state lawmakers to increase the seats they hold in Congress. After the 2030 U.S. Census, the nonpartisan commission will resume drawing the lines.

The measure is one of the most important issues being decided on Election Day. It essentially negates the five new Republican-leaning congressional districts Texas created earlier this year at Trump's urging. At least a dozen states have changed their boundary lines or are in the process of doing so before the 2026 midterms.

– Sarah D. Wire

‘Plenty of work to do,’ Barack Obama says

Former President Barack Obama, who campaigned over the weekend for Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, congratulated Tuesday night's victors.

He called the results “a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win,” in a post on X.

“We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter,” Obama wrote.

Spanberger blasts 'chaos coming out of Washington'

Trump’s targeting of the federal workforce loomed over the Virginia governor’s race, with Spanberger vowing again in her victory speech to protect the state’s jobs and “stand up to anyone who tries to harm our economy or the livelihoods of our Virginians.”

Trump slashed federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency, and the government shutdown has also rocked federal workers. Spanberger campaigned on the issue, and her victory could indicate growing backlash to Trump’s policies.

Spanberger slammed “those across the Potomac who are attacking our jobs” and vowed not to “stand by silently while you attack Virginia’s workers.”

“I will always stand up for Virginia workers… and right now our federal workforce is under attack and the chaos coming out of Washington is killing Virginia jobs and creating economic uncertainty for tens of thousands of families,” she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats roll to victory as Trump blames GOP losses on shutdown: Live updates

Reporting by Zac Anderson, Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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