U.S. President 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.
The results from Tuesday night elections amount to a sweeping repudiation of what critics have called Mr. 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 DC seen as a bellwether for national politics with the country gearing up for the 2018 congressional elections and the next presidential contest in 2020.
Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam trounced his Republican rival Ed Gillespie by an unexpectedly wide nine percentage points in the southern battleground State. In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy reclaimed the governorship following eight years of Republican Governor Chris Christie, a one-time ally of Mr. Trump.
And in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio rode a wave of hometown distaste for Mr. Trump to cruise to re-election in America’s most populous city.
‘Message to nation’
Mr. Murphy and Mr. Northam painted their wins as rejections of the polarisation that to a large extent characterised Mr. 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,” Mr. Murphy declared.
The results mark a revival of political fortunes for the Democratic Party.
“This is a referendum on American values,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on CNN, speaking of the Tuesday night sweep. In his typically combative style, Mr. Trump swiftly sought to distance himself from Mr. Gillespie, who did not campaign with the President in Virginia. “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Compounding the Republican woes in Virginia, Democrats also won contests for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. And the party gained several seats in the 100-member House of Delegates, putting Republicans under threat of possibly losing control of the State legislature.
