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The economy, the issue that hurt Democrats in the 2024 elections, gave them a major boost in this year’s ballot box showdowns.
One year after deep concerns over inflation helped Republicans win back the White House and Senate and keep their House majority, Democrats say their convincing double-digit victories in 2025’s only two elections for governor came down to affordability, the issue they repeatedly spotlighted on this year’s campaign trail.
Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper said that Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, the two Democratic gubernatorial nominees that overperformed the public opinion polls as they cruised to Election Night victories in the blue-leaning states, “stayed laser focused on the economy,” and “talked about it all day, every day.”
The numbers appear to back them up.
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Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger celebrates her victory as she takes the stage during her Election Night rally at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Nov. 4, 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
According to the Fox News Voter Poll conducted Oct. 22 through Election Day, the economy was by far the top issue for Virginia voters — with close to half ranking it as the most important. Those voters broke significantly for Spanberger.
And in New Jersey, the economy was the second most pressing issue, following taxes, according to the poll. And Sherrill won those voters by a 30-point margin.
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Pointing to the big wins for Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as in battleground Pennsylvania and left-tilting New York City and California, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said his party’s candidates “are meeting voters at the kitchen table… From New Jersey and Virginia and New York, to Georgia and beyond, Democrats ran campaigns relentlessly focused on costs and affordability.”
Democrat Mikie Sherrill was elected governor of New Jersey on Nov. 4, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Republicans argue that Democrats are overplaying their victories in the 2025 elections.
“I think it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states,” Vice President JD Vance said in a social media post.
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But Vance acknowledged that when it comes to the economy and specifically inflation, “We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that’s the metric by which we’ll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond.”
Vice President JD Vance, seen at an event at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Mississippi, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, argues Democrats are overreacting to this week’s election results. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
Veteran Republican strategist Ryan Williams told Fox News Digital that “affordability has been a major issue since inflation spiked after the pandemic. President Biden wasn’t able to contain inflation and the Democrats suffered at the polls in 2024. President Trump has had a year in office. He has been able to reduce the rate of inflation. There’s more work to do. Things don’t change overnight.”
But Ryan added that “voters in off-year elections tend to point the finger at the party in power. So Republicans will need to sharpen their message.”
Seasoned Democratic strategist Chris Moyer highlighted that “Democrats flipped the script from 2024 and focused like a laser on affordability, whether that was healthcare, groceries, electricity, utility bills. That proved to be effective, as voters are still very much focused on the cost of living.”
A polling location in Montclair, New Jersey, on Nov. 4, 2025, which was Election Day. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News )
Moyer emphasized that the issue of affordability was the common denominator for Democrats, whether they were moderates like Sherrill and Spanberger, or a far-left democratic socialist like Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York City.
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“The through line between all the candidates who won last night isn’t ideological, but it is that all of them focused on costs in one way or another,” Moyer said. “This is an issue that ties Democrats in this big tent party together.
And looking ahead to next year’s midterm elections, when Democrats aim to win back majorities in the House and Senate, he said, “this election in 2025 presents a playbook that can be run all over the country.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: moxie.foxnews.com
