Nov. 19, 2025
Ghazala Hashmi, Abigail Spanberger and Jay Jones, newly elected lieutenant governor, governor and attorney general of Virginia.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After more than 40 days, the US government shutdown is over, air travel is returning to normal, and people are less worried about being able to put Thanksgiving dinner on their tables. Yet families across the country will have to make significant decisions and choices around the spiraling costs of healthcare because Republicans have refused to extend Obamacare subsidies.
Yet the Democratic sweep of the Nov 5 off-year elections has given hope to the masses of Black people as the country contends with the party in power and many of its most fervent supporters who are content to watch ICE agents arbitrarily stop, harass, detain and deport immigrants and US citizens; cruelly block the issuance of SNAP benefits to 42 million needy families; and as inflation batters Americans.
Election officials said turnout was high, with Democrats snatching up wins and voters in different parts of the country voting in favor of important ballot questions centered on free school meals, redistricting, and governors’ races.
Sweep. Those words, set against a black background on Facebook, is what met anyone who follows Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever or who happened to scroll by her Facebook page on the Wednesday morning after national off-year elections.
DeWeever, a political strategist and content creator, said she felt a great deal of satisfaction following Democrats shellacking of MAGA Republicans in nearby Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California.
By the end of the night Tuesday, Democratic Party candidates had secured gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia; saw the surprise election of a young, Democratic Socialist candidate, Zohran Mamdani, elected mayor in New York City, powered by young, multi-ethnic, disaffected voters; passage of Proposition 50, a measure that gives California legislators the room to redistrict electoral lines and give Democrats the opportunity to potentially capture five additional seats in the House of Representatives; the defeat of a measure in Maine that would have restricted voting; and the reelection of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court judges to retain the Democratic majority.
Just about all the races revolved around affordability issues, experts said.
“These wins were critical because it showed that people will fight back even if the Democratic Party appears spineless. It was a powerful rejection in multiple states in multiple ways. It was a full-fledged rejection of (the Trump administration’s) autocratic ways,” said Jones-DeWeever.
She said the comprehensive wins across the country illustrates that “we are still a two-party system. We can’t allow these criminals to maintain power.”
DeWeever said she’s struck by the Virginia results, where voters elected the state’s first woman governor, Abigail Spanberger; the first Muslim lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi, and a Black man, Jay Jones, as attorney general. In addition to these gains, the Dems picked up 13 seats, giving them much more room to legislate.
“The legislature will be able to redistrict, counteract Trump efforts,” she said. “What’s most important to me is Mamdani’s win. It is based on turnout and expansion of the electorate. He ran the type of campaign Democrats could have run if they had a spine.”
Mamdani, a former New York state assemblyman and a Muslim immigrant from Uganda, electrified voters in New York, while terrifying Republicans, billionaires and corporatist, right-leaning Democrats.
Billionaires, and political action committees tied to former Mayor Andrew Cuomo, poured more than $40 million into an effort to derail Mamdani’s race to grab the seat. Trump endorsed Cuomo the day before the race, inaccurately characterizing Mamdani as a communist and threatening to without federal funds to New York City if he won.
That was all for nought, because by the time the race was called 35 minutes after polls closed, Mamdani had secured more than 1 million votes and 50 percent of votes cast.
Democrats are celebrating after the decisive victories in several high-profile contests, the nation’s first major elections since Trump’s second term in office. Political pundits and other experts said these crucial wins are an early barometer of the public reaction to Trump’s policies and programs and will provide fuel for Democrats before the 2026 mid-term elections.
Trump admitted Wednesday that Republicans had “a bad night,” and met with fellow Republicans the next day to discuss the fallout and implications of the win. DeWeever said the public also are angry and concerned about Trump policies such as burgeoning inflation, high consumer prices, the suspension of SNAP payments and the administration’s antagonistic and aggressive tactics on the immigration front.
Dr. Malik Sekou, a longtime politics and history professor at the University of the Virgin Islands, said he expected Mamdani to come out on top in New York.
“Yes. If you look at my (Facebook) posts for the past few months, I saw this. I thought he was going to win because certain times determine leadership,” said Sekou, an acknowledged Pan African who said he sits far-left politically and supported Rep. Bernie Sanders over Joe Biden. “The way the US is today is that we’re confronted by with a far-right offensive which is on the march in every aspect of American life and which has been taken international. No one can be confused with what’s in front of us. It’s either fight back or surrender. You have to do it Trump’s way or surrender.”
Sekou said anyone who carries the principle of social consciousness in them, they have to fight.
“You have to fight, you have to fight,” he asserted.
It is not lost on him, Sekou said, that Mamdani is taking over leadership in New York City.
“New York City is the cultural capital of the USA. It is the cultural driver and has a large immigrant population, so they have to oppose the policies against them,” said Sekou, who said both of his parents were born in NYC.
But both DeWeever and Sekou cautioned Democrats to enjoy the wins but to temper their excitement and tread carefully.
“I think we have to be very careful. We are still a two-party system,” DeWeever said. “We should celebrate for one day. The only thing we should be very careful of is that we should not let this win allow us to coast into the midterms. The fight for the midterms starts today. We have to fight, make significant investments in organizing and campaigning, getting people ready to vote and prepping for the midterms.”
Like Sekou, DeWeever said she feels that current Democratic leadership is not equipped to fight effectively or successfully against Trump and MAGA Republicans.
“Mamdani won and will serve as a Democrat. It makes sense to utilize this structure. It offers the best chance of winning,” she said. I think we have to be strategic but also be bold in pulling and pushing the party. We must work behind the scene and come out to vote.”