Americans voted in elections on November 4 in the first major test of whether Republicans can hold together the coalition of voters that propelled Donald Trump to the White House in November 2024. The result was a Democratic party triumph.
Trump was not directly on the ballot in any of these elections, the most high-profile of which were to decide who would become the mayor of New York City and the governors of Virginia and New Jersey. But each race has been seen to varying degrees as a referendum on the president and the direction he has taken his party.
American politics is highly nationalised. This means that results in local and state elections are often heavily influenced by how voters feel about the national political situation. This is often frustrating to local politicians.
