By Douglas V. Gibbs
The Democrats swept the 2025 elections in deep-blue states, but the narrower margins suggest cracks in the foundation. Sure, the results on Election Day 2025 delivered the expected outcome. Democrats won key races across traditionally liberal strongholds. From gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey to the New York City mayoral race, and the controversial Proposition 50 in California, the liberal progressive left held its ground. But beneath the surface of these victories lies a story that deserves closer scrutiny.
On paper, the results were predictable. We expected a sweep across Deep Blue Terrain.
- Virginia elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger as governor, replacing Republican Glenn Youngkin; as well as winning the Lieutenant Governor’s race with Ghazala Hashmi who became the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in Virginia and Attorney General with Jay Jones who won despite his violent rhetoric uncovered during the campaign regarding wishing the death of his opponent, and his opponents children. In the House of Delegates early returns suggest the Democrats increased their slim majority flipping several suburban districts in Northern Virginia and Richmond.
- New Jersey elected Democrat Mikie Sherill, and though Republicans made modest gains in suburban districts regarding seats in New Jersey’s General Assembly, the Democrats retained control.
- Communist Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral seat in New York City – a win many commentators are indicating reveals who the new face of the Democratic Party might be.
- California’s Proposition 50, which overrides the independent redistricting commission to favor Democrat-drawn maps, passed in a State where the Democrats outnumber the Republicans 2 to 1, which is expected to flip up to five congressional seats in California from Republican to Democrat in the 2026 midterms – a win framed by Governor Gavin Newsom as being a rebuke of President Trump’s redistricting strategy in GOP-controlled states despite the fact that pretty much anything that gets thrown in the air by Democrats in California is approved by the population dominated by leftist voters.
- Judicial seats in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin remained in the hands of the progressive left.
- Seattle elected hard-left progressive activist Nikkita Oliver as mayor, signaling a harder shift leftward.
- In Minnesota, Democrats held the state House but lost two rural seats to Republicans.
- Colorado saw Republicans flip three suburban seats in the state House, narrowing the Democratic majority.
- In Florida blue cities like Orlando gained a few Democratic seats.
The races were largely anchored by dense urban centers and progressive populations that have long leaned left. Virginia’s northern corridor, dominated by federal employees, and California’s deep blue population, made these outcomes almost inevitable.
What’s striking is not that the Democrats won, but how they won. In many of the elections where Democrats typically dominate, the margins of victory were tighter than expected. They weren’t landslides as they ought to have been. Some races went well into the night before being called, suggesting a more competitive undercurrent than the party might be comfortable with, especially since they should be winning with even more ease since conservative residents have been fleeing for States like Florida, Tennessee, Texas and the Carolinas which should be leaving the blue states with even greater percentages of Democratic voter dominance.
While the media and Democrat politicians are spinning the results as a referendum on President Trump or a harbinger of the 2026 midterms, the real takeaway is subtler: Democratic dominance in deep-blue states is no longer a given at the scale it once was.
Democrats are hoping to ride this alleged momentum into 2026, but the narrower margins hint at growing dissatisfaction, even in their strongholds. Economic concerns, cultural divides, and the rise of independent and outside candidates signal that voters are open to alternatives, and in the Democratic Party the trend is away from the establishment politicians and toward a radical leftist socialist younger group of candidates who are fresh out of the indoctrination meat-grinder the Democrats have been cranking in the education system.
The leftist Democrats won the day, but the Republicans made inroads. Anger at the Democrats is becoming apparent, and if the Democrats keep lurching radically leftward the low-hanging fruit who traditionally vote Democrat but see themselves having less and less in common with their radically shifting party are going to abandon the Party of the Donkey and go somewhere else for their politics. Shrinking margins suggest that the ground is shifting under America’s feet, and the Democrats are losing trust in places they’ve long taken for granted.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
