Donald Trump suffered a humbling triple defeat, with Democrats winning high-profile state and mayoral elections, dousing any exuberance on Wednesday’s anniversary of his dramatic election win and underscoring the struggles he faces as an unpopular president.
The results from Tuesday night elections amount to a sweeping repudiation of what critics have called Trump’s politics of division, and a test of his influence ahead of electoral battles looming on the state and national level.
The most damaging defeat was in Virginia, a state bordering Washington seen as a bellwether for national politics with the country gearing up for the 2018 congressional elections and the next presidential contest in 2020.
The Virginia governor’s race had all the makings of a nail-biter, but in the end, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam trounced his Republican rival Ed Gillespie by an unexpectedly wide nine percentage points in the southern battleground state.
Also on Tuesday, voters in Maine on Tuesday approved a ballot initiative to expand the state’s Medicaid program under Obamacare.
Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam (left) trounced his Republican rival Ed Gillespie (right) by an unexpectedly wide nine percentage points in Virginia
New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy leaps in joy on the stage at his victory party Tuesday
In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy reclaimed the governorship following eight years of Republican Governor Chris Christie, a onetime ally of Trump.
And in New York, progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio rode a wave of hometown distaste for Trump to cruise to re-election in America’s most populous city.
The Democratic mayor scored a decisive victory over his Republican opponent, state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, to secure a second four-year term.
A progressive liberal, de Blasio, in the past week campaigned with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent.
The mayor has positioned himself as one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump, who has received strong disapproval ratings from voters in his native city.
Murphy and Northam painted their wins as rejections of the polarization that to a large extent characterized Trump’s 2016 campaign and much of his first year in the White House.
‘Tonight, New Jersey sent an unmistakable message to the entire nation: we are better than this,’ Murphy declared.
The results mark a revival of political fortunes for the Democratic Party, which had failed to win a number of previous special elections in several states this year triggering concern about how to counter Trump’s influence in US politics.
An upset victory for Gillespie would have served to validate Trump’s (pictured during his South Korean tour) aggressive style, and form a blueprint for how mainstream Republicans can embrace Trump issues without necessarily embracing the controversial man himself
Trump swiftly sought to distance himself from Gillespie, who did not campaign with the president in Virginia. ‘Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,’ Trump wrote in a scathing tweet
‘This is a referendum on American values,’ Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on CNN, speaking of the Tuesday night sweep.
An upset victory for Gillespie would have served to validate Trump’s aggressive style, and form a blueprint for how mainstream Republicans can embrace Trump issues without necessarily embracing the controversial man himself.
Going forward, they might be forced to rewrite their playbooks.
In his typically combative style, Trump swiftly sought to distance himself from Gillespie, who did not campaign with the president in Virginia.
‘Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,’ Trump wrote in a scathing tweet from South Korea, where he is in the midst of a tour through Asia.
Danica Roem, center, a Democrat who ran for Virginia’s House of Delegates against GOP incumbent Robert Marshall, made history as the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a state legislature in the United States
The race was tight, with former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden appearing at a Monday night rally for Northam and Trump issuing a last-minute appeal to the GOP faithful to back Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
Northam, 58, a pediatric neurologist and military veteran who treated wounded soldiers during Operation Desert Storm attacked Trump as a ‘narcissistic maniac’ during the Democratic primary.
He also ran ads linking Gillespie to Trump’s education policy favoring charter schools.
Conversely, Gillespie, 56, who served as counselor to former President George W Bush, kept his distance from the president during his campaign.
But at the last minute, Trump issued the last minute appeal, claiming Northam would allow crime to run ‘rampant’.
Following the result, distanced himself from Gillespie, and insisted that with the US economy doing well, ‘we will continue to win.’
But some analysts said the results suggest a Democratic wave might be on the horizon.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was easily re-elected, riding a wave of hometown distaste for Trump to cruise to re-election in America’s most populous city
Virginia was a ‘blood bath’ for Republicans, Michael McDonald of the University of Florida told AFP.
Even though Gillespie aired ads that fueled the culture-war debate on race, guns, illegal immigration and the fate of Confederate statues, his attempt to distance himself from Trump specifically just did not work.
‘Trump sucks up a lot of the air in American politics, so it’s difficult for any Republican to run away from Donald Trump,’ he said.
If Trump had not proven a drag on Virginia voters, it would demonstrate his overwhelming power to draw Americans to polls despite poor approval numbers.
Compounding the Republican woes in Virginia, Democrats also won contests for lieutenant governor and attorney general.
The party gained several seats in the 100-member House of Delegates, putting Republicans under threat of possibly losing control of the state legislature.
Danica Roem defeated longtime Republican incumbent Robert G. Marshall in Prince William County, to become the first openly transgender person to serve in state legislature in the US.
Meanwhile Chris Hurst, the boyfriend of news reporter Alison Parker, who was shot and killed on live TV in 2015, also won a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates, running on a gun control platform — against an NRA-endorsed Republican incumbent.
On his last appearance as anchor on Roanoke, Virginia’s WDBJ-TV in February, before standing down as a reporter to run for office, told viewers: ‘My life changed dramatically on August 26, 2015, when Alison Parker and Adam Ward were killed while reporting a story live on this station.
Chris Hurst (right) the boyfriend of news reporter Alison Parker, who was shot and killed on live TV in 2015, also won a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates, running on a gun control platform — against an NRA-endorsed Republican incumbent
Hurst (right) watched his girlfriend, Alison Parker (left), as she was shot to death during a live television broadcast
‘It was forever altered because, as you know, Alison was more than just my colleague. We were in love and planning our future together.
‘In one moment, my life, my direction, and my mission changed forever.
Virginia voters also elected Democrat Justin Fairfax as lieutenant governor of Virginia, the first African American elected to a statewide office in Virginia since L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor in 1989, and Democrat Mark Herring as attorney general.
Fairfax beat conservative Republican Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Fauquier), a vocal Trump supporter, with right wing views on guns, abortion rights and the economy. His election appears to show a change in the tide of support for conservative Republicans.
‘There will be a lot of Republicans who are concerned’ about how such a development might translate into losses in 2018’s congressional mid-term elections, McDonald said.
‘If they can lose control of a legislative chamber, they can certainly lose control of the US House of Representatives,’ said the professor.
All 435 seats in the US House are up for re-election every two years.
Republicans currently hold a comfortable majority, but if they lose that advantage, Trump’s legislative agenda, including his longstanding effort to repeal and replace the existing health care law, would come under threat.
Virginia voters also elected Democrat Justin Fairfax (pictured at the election night party) as lieutenant governor of Virginia, the first African American elected to a statewide office in Virginia since L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor in 1989
Also on Tuesday, voters in Maine on Tuesday approved a ballot initiative to expand the state’s Medicaid program under Obamacare, sending a clear signal of support for the federal healthcare law to lawmakers in the state and Washington D.C.
The approval of the ballot question in Maine comes after Republicans in Washington failed several times over the last few months to pass legislation that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama´s signature healthcare law.
Maine has recently figured prominently in the nation’s debate on how to reform healthcare. US Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, helped block her party´s efforts to repeal Obamacare this year, which angered President Donald Trump.
Maine, which becomes the first U.S. state to approve Medicaid expansion by ballot initiative, is one of 19 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
About 60 per cent of voters in Maine approved the ballot initiative, according to the Bangor Daily News newspaper.
Tuesday’s ballot asked Maine voters to approve or reject a plan to provide healthcare coverage under Medicaid for adults under the age of 65 with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which in 2017 is about $16,000 for a single person and about $22,000 for a family of two.
The state’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, staunchly opposes expansion of federal health care insurance, vetoing legislation to do so on several occasions.