And that’s what it was. In no particular order:

1. To the extent these elections were ‘nationalized’, it is not good when 45 percent of the population strongly agrees with the statement that the presumptive leader of the Republican Party “is a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.” It’s just not. There was a ton of anger-based voting and it showed nationally.
2. Related to the previous point, Democrats need to use last night as an example of how Trump is not a Very Special and Popular Boy. He is one of the most unpopular presidents in American history, and Democrats need to push news organizations (along with other institutions) to stop treating his political supremacy as if it actually exists. He is a millstone around his party’s neck, especially now that he’s no longer on the ballot.
3. The story of Mamdani and Spanberger is essentially the same: a person with good political skills, who is the right fit for their constituency, and who hustled really hard, won a resounding victory. They both talked about ‘kitchen table issues’, but in concrete meaningful ways that can be achieved, while also appealing to certain ‘cultural’ issues that rally their constituencies’ bases (abortion for Spanberger in Virginia, immigration for Mamdani in NYC).
4. Not a single Democratic judge lost in Pennsylvania last night. That has huge ramifications for holding that state in 2028.
5. While it’s disappointing that NYC didn’t switch to on-year voting (and this is bad long-term), the YIMBY aligned ballot initiatives all won. This is a small step in reversing the population flow from blue states to red ones.
6. I’ll have more to say about this, but initial exit polling from Virginia showed a massive gender gap regardless of age. When ‘crime’ isn’t an issue, the gender gap is huge and utterly devastating for Republicans.
7. Locally, Democrats did very well. In Connecticut for example, Democrats took control of a lot of traditionally Republican-controlled town governments. This shouldn’t be underestimated at all.

Anyway, a very good night for Democrats and democracy.