By Kennedy Maize
There’s one word that best describes what happened to the Republican Party in Tuesday’s elections across the country: “wipeout.”
“From the great Atlantic Ocean to the wide Pacific shore. From the queen of flowing mountains to the southbelt by the shore,” the GOP’s electoral cannon balls rolled feebly out of the end of their guns, wrecking President Donald Jay Gatsby’s party mood. The Associated Press headlined its election coverage: “Democrats dominate as economic woes take a toll on Trump’s GOP.”
In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger easily defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, backed by one-term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, 57% to 43%. Trump declined to endorse Earle-Sears, a black woman, leading to a suspicion that she would have done worse if he had. He implicitly backed her candidacy.
In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli 56% to 43%. Businessman and occasional state legislator, Ciattarelli ran for governor in 2021 and lost to Phil Murphy in a much closer election than Tuesdays. She will succeed term limited Murphy.
In New York City, self-described social Democrat Zohran Mamdani defeated “other,” the disguised and disgraced Democrat Andrew Cuomo, who had Trump’s endorsement, and Republican and 1970’s street crime vigilante Curtis Sliwa, 50% to 41% to 8%.
In California, voters approved a ballot measure to “temporarily” gerrymander congressional district to create more Democratic Congressional seats in response to a Texas move to create more Republican seats, by 64% to 36%. The ballot measure was the creation of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsome, a likely candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Perhaps the most surprising election was in Georgia, where two Democrats ousted two entrenched Republicans in a special election to The Peach State’s Public Service Commission, leaving three surviving Republicans on the commission. Those seats were not on the ballot.
Non-profit group executive Alicia Johnson defeated Tim Echols, who has served on the utility regulatory body since 2011. Peter Hubbard defeated Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson.
Both Democrats got 63% of the vote. Both campaigned on high electricity prices and against the Republican PSC’s long support for the two-unit Vogtle nuclear plant, which came into service after more than a decade behind schedule and $17 billion over budget. The PSC repeatedly overruled its commission staff, which recommended pulling the plug on the nuclear project multiple times.
After the election results came in, former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford (1977-1982) who was also a chairman of the Maine and New York state regulatory commissions, commented in an email: “One lesson from the 1980s is that when nuclear costs start costing PUC commissioners their seats, the bubble is bursting.”
Prior to Tuesday, the Georgia commission had seen only one Democrat on the PSC since 2003, “Bubba” McDonald. He was appointed by Democratic Gov. Zell Miller in 1998, won reelection in a special election that year, lost a 2002 bid for a full term as a Democrat, switched parties, and won a 2008 election.
Virginia’s Spanberger and New Jersey’s Sherrill are close friends and have similar political backgrounds in national security. Spanberger, 46, was a clandestine CIA case officer and Sherrill, 53, a Navy helicopter pilot. Sherrill is a Naval Academy graduate with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from Georgetown. Spanberger has a University of Virginia B.A. and a master’s degree in business administration jointly from the GISMA Business School in Germany and Purdue University.
Both women won elections to Congress in 2018, Trump’s first mid-term election. They won reelection in 2020, 2022, and 2024. They shared a D.C. apartment for years when Congress was in session. They are generally regarded as centrist, pragmatic Democrats determined to get things done, rather than try to score rhetorical points.
Both may face some energy challenges from the Trump administration, particularly focused on offshore wind projects. Sherrill and Spanberger have been strong supporters of offshore wind in Congress and during their campaigns. Wind has been a frequent target of Trump tantrums.
Despite attempts over the past five years by the state to attract offshore wind, The Garden State has seen three large offshore wind projects collapse recently. In late 2023, Denmark’s Ørsted abandoned two major New Jersey projects citing cost increases and permitting delays, despite Biden administration support. On October 29, Shell pulled the plug on the Atlantic Shores project after earlier scaling it back.
Trump had not specifically targeted either New Jersey wind project. Trying to boost the sagging wind opponent Ciattarelli’s campaign, just days before Shell’s announcement, Trump said he would revoke the Atlantic Shores Interior Department license issued in the, based on new economic and environmental analyses.
Trump’s war against offshore wind has only targeted projects in states with Democratic governors. He’s given a pass to Virginia-based Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (aka CVOW), which utility touts as “the largest offshore wind project in the U.S.”
Trump likely ignored CVOW because the project has had strong support from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Trump supporter. Rep. Jen Kiggins (R-Va.), a nurse and also a former Navy helicopter pilot, in her two terms representing Virginia Beach also backed CVOW.
Spanberger’s election may draw Trump’s attention to The Old Dominion State. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Mikado of the Dakotas, may target the Virginia project. Clean Technica reported, “Without Youngkin’s support, CVOW will lose its special status. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reportedly confirmed that his agency is reviewing five offshore wind projects already under construction, including the CVOW project.”
Both women raised energy issues, particularly electricity prices, in their campaigns.
In her basic campaign issues document, Spanberger highlights energy as one of three priorities (the others are healthcare and housing). She says the goal is to “make Virginia more energy independent by increasing local generation.” That means supporting “small modular nuclear reactors, fusion, geothermal, and hydrogen.”
Spanberger also expresses concern about the spread of energy-gobbling data centers. The state is one of the most aggressive in siting data centers, particularly in Loudon County in the northern part of the state, both rural and a D.C. exurb. She says she will “make sure data centers don’t drive up energy costs for everyone else in Virginia.” Spanberger won 64% of the Loudon County vote.
Sherrill’s basic campaign issue document also raises housing, energy costs, and health care as key areas of focus, adding tax policy, kids, and food prices.
She writes, “Families across New Jersey are struggling with rising utility bills, and it’s expected to get even worse this summer as our existing energy infrastructure fails to keep up with our power needs. This is a classic supply and demand problem — and New Jersey can turn the tables to take control of our energy future. As Trump rolls back federal investments to reduce energy costs, I’ll take bold action at the state level to invest in clean energy like solar, which is one of the cheapest energy sources to develop.”
In a separate campaign document, Sherrill said she will “immediately develop plans for new nuclear capacity in Salem County, which is critical to meeting our energy needs. I’ll sit down with neighboring states to harness economies of scale to build new reactors in our region at a low cost.”