<figure id="attachment_3201149" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3201149" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3201149" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/869a5b35-us-election-1.jpg" alt="US election" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3201149" class="wp-caption-text">Off-year elections took place as Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to its lowest, with affordability concerns driving voter attention. (AP pic)</figcaption></figure>
WASHINGTON: The 2025 off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and California provided an early barometer of how some US voters view President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term and the Democratic Party&#8217;s efforts to revive its political fortunes.
Here are some takeaways from election night:
Tacking to the middle
Abigail Spanberger’s decisive victory in the Virginia governor’s race showed there may be a reward for Democrats who position themselves at the moderate centre, while illustrating the limits of Trump&#8217;s MAGA movement.
Spanberger’s opponent, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, has been a strong supporter of Trump’s agenda, including the move to slash thousands of federal jobs, Trump&#8217;s support for the federal government shutdown and his imposition of heavy tariffs on imports. In TV ads and public remarks, Spanberger tried to tie Earle-Sears to Trump at every turn.
Spanberger, meanwhile, portrayed herself as a problem-solver who was focused on affordability, while her former career as a CIA officer gave her credibility on crime and safety.
She was buoyed by running in a state that is highly dependent on federal jobs and at a time when voters nationwide cited the cost of living as their number one concern, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll said.
Democrats were performing well in Virginia. With votes still being counted, Spanberger was outperforming former vice president Kamala Harris&#8217; 2024 showing in 101 of the state&#8217;s 133 counties and independent cities.
In Waynesboro, a city of just over 20,000 in central Virginia that Trump won by 6 percentage points, Spanberger was leading her Republican opponent by 5 points. In Chesterfield County, just south of the state capital of Richmond, Spanberger was leading by 17 points, 8 points higher than Harris&#8217; performance in the county.
&#8220;Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,&#8221; Spanberger told supporters after she was declared the winner. As if to back up her words, she sported a red suit jacket, the color most closely associated with Republicans, rather than Democratic blue.
The Trump factor
Though he wasn’t on the ballot, Trump’s influence was inescapable on Tuesday.
Tuesday&#8217;s elections took place as the president’s approval rating dipped to the lowest point so far during his second term, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, with voters zeroing in on affordability concerns.
In the Virginia governor’s race, of the 36% of voters who said opposing Trump was a factor in their vote, 98% came out for Spanberger, according to the SSRS Voter Poll, conducted for a consortium of US networks and the Associated Press. It was a similar story in the contest for New Jersey governor, where 39% of voters said opposing Trump played a role in their vote. They overwhelmingly voted for Democrat Mikie Sherrill.
Both Spanberger and Sherrill &#8211; along with New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani &#8211; made standing up to Trump a central theme of their campaigns. In September, Sherrill said of her Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli: “He&#8217;ll do whatever Trump tells him to do,” while she pledged she would &#8220;fight anybody to work for you.”
Throughout his political career, Trump has shown a limited ability to transfer his popularity to other Republican candidates.

MatchPoint Times

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