"The 2025 off-year elections were by any measure a top-to-bottom win for Democrats and a setback for Republicans and more particularly for Donald Trump. This last point is important to stress, since the president is trying to distance himself from the bad results on grounds that (a) he wasn't on the ballot anywhere and (b) the GOP suffered from a government shutdown he had nothing to do with producing. On the first point, well, of course, Trump will never appear on a ballot again, barring some sort of coup,"
"After the 2024 election many excited Republicans and despondent Democrats came to believe that Donald Trump had created a fundamental realignment in American politics, breaking the rough parity the two major parties had experienced for most of the 21st century. His gains among young, Black, Asian-American, and especially Latino voters were indeed striking. But they show few if any signs of persisting beyond 2024."
Democrats achieved comprehensive victories in the 2025 off-year elections, producing significant gains and setbacks for Republicans. Donald Trump's attempts to distance himself from the results fail to account for his dominant influence over political narratives and voter evaluations of his performance. The breadth of Democratic success does not indicate dominance by a single ideological wing or strategy, as both progressive and centrist approaches yielded wins. Earlier 2024 gains by Trump among diverse demographic groups appear to lack persistence, and unmet economic promises likely contributed to buyer's remorse across those groups.
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