LOCK ELBOWS AND MARCH ON!

By Marlene Reiss, Scottsdale North Field Director

“So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.” Zohran Mamdani said this in the closing remarks of his victory speech on Tuesday night. His win in the New York mayoral race was resounding, as were the Democrat results in virtually every race across the country. Regardless of what one’s personal thoughts and opinions of Mamdani may be, his ability to inspire, energize and mobilize is undeniable.

In their own way, and obviously tailored to their own local constituencies, every Democrat candidate on ballots across the country did the same. Wide double digit margins in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, as well as the Prop 50 race in California, tell us that our work on the ground these past ten months has not been in vain. And for all the talk about allegedly ineffective Democrat messaging, the message is getting through.

House Speaker Mike Johnson dismisses the resounding Republican defeats by saying “these were all blue states.” “There’s no surprises,” Johnson said. “What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming. And no one should read too much into last night’s election results. Off-year elections are not indicative of what’s to come. That’s what history teaches us.” And this from J.D. Vance, “I think it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states.” Um, not so much.

While public head-burying in the sand might work on the most devoted MAGA, you can be sure that behind closed doors, the rats are scrambling. Elise Stefanik just gave up on her House seat in New York, instead announcing her run for Governor. Just a matter of which race you choose to lose, Elise.

In Erie County, PA, which narrowly went for Trump in the 2024 election, Democrat Christina Vogel won the county executive race with a 24-point margin. In Virginia’s 66th state House district, Democrat Nicole Cole unseated Bobby Orrock, a Republican who had held the seat for 36 years and was the state’s longest-serving GOP delegate.

Democrats also secured two statewide victories in Georgia’s public service commissioner races, marking their first non-federal statewide wins since 2006 and their largest margins of victory in more than two decades. Alicia Johnson defeated incumbent Tim Echols by a margin of 17 points. Peter Hubbard trounced Fitz Johnson by a whopping 22 points. The commission regulates utility rates.

Even in deep-red Mississippi, Democrats flipped two state senate seats, ending a 13-year Republican supermajority. This shift prevents the GOP from unilaterally overriding gubernatorial vetoes or passing constitutional amendments with ease.

Democrats gained control of the Onondaga county legislature in New York for the first time in nearly five decades. They won all six contested seats, turning what had been a 12-5 Republican advantage into a 10-7 Democratic majority.

Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County, a critical swing county, elected four Democrats and one incumbent Republican to the county council, giving Democrats control of the 11-member council.

Meanwhile, progressive policies also seemed to dominate on Tuesday. Voters in Colorado approved a pair of ballot measures aimed at providing free meals in public schools statewide. Prop MM increases taxes on households earning more than $300,000 annually to fund universal school meals, purchase locally sourced food for cafeterias, and boost pay for cafeteria employees. Any extra revenue collected from the tax hike will go toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Voters also passed Prop LL, allowing the state to retain surplus tax funds generated by Proposition FF, a program that limited income tax deductions for people earning more than $300,000 to fund free school meals, and allocate them to the same program.

In Maine, 64% of voters decisively rejected a proposed ballot measure that sought to introduce voter ID requirements and restrict absentee voting, described by critics as a “voter suppression bill”.

In short, Tuesday was astonishing. Meanwhile, looks like the country is in for another Zoom Thanksgiving with family members for lack of funds or lack of flights, or both, while the cosplay president continues to gild the White House.

Now is the time to lock elbows and march on because together we can make Tuesday’s blue tsunami look like a trickle in ‘26!

Correction - When this piece originally posted on the LD3 Dems website, it mistakenly referenced Mamdani's race as gubernatorial rather than mayoral. Thank you to our astute LD3 Dems PC who pointed out that error!