The wildest Democratic victories you may not have heard of

WASHINGTON – Everyone knows the headlines from Tuesday night’s Democratic sweep in the 2025 election: the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, a major redistricting referendum in California, Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the New York City mayoral race.

But some of the party’s most surprising victories came lower down the ballot and won’t get as much national attention. These were races for positions such as school boards, city councils, state legislative seats and an obscure public service commission. They may not sound as sexy as a gubernatorial race, but these are the elections most connected to local communities and reflect how ordinary people there feel.

Here’s a look at some of Democrats’ craziest local victories.

school boards

There were a lot of school board elections on Tuesday in red and blue states like Pennsylvania, Washington, Kansas, Idaho, Colorado and Texas.

School boards are almost always elected in nonpartisan elections. But candidate endorsements give voters an idea of ​​their political positions and party alignment, and school boards have been dragged into ugly culture wars in recent years. This is largely due to the far-right group, Moms for Freedomaggressively recruiting its members to run for school board positions across the country to implement anti-LGBTQ+ policies in schools.

Two of Tuesday’s school board elections were in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or “ground zero” for the takeover of school boards by right-wing groups in 2021, as described Bolts, a news site that has been exhaustively covering more than 190 local elections on this fall’s ballot.

A few years ago, conservatives on these boards in the Pennbridge and Central Bucks districts used their roles to pass policies targeting LGBTQ+ students and banning books.

Democrats flipped control of both boards in 2023 and on Tuesday ousted all but one Republican from both boards. The Pennbridge school board is now 8-1, with Democratic members in control. The Central Bucks school board is 9-0.

In Colorado, all four conservatives on the Douglas County school board were running for reelection, and progressive candidates were leading in all these races since early Wednesday morning. This seven-member board is now poised to transition to Democratic control, a change from the 4-3 Republican majority it had.

All Union-Endorsed Candidates for Denver School Board are leading starting Wednesday, meaning they will likely retain their majority on the 11-member board.

Even in deeply Republican Idaho, voters ousted a West Ada school board member in favor of a new candidate who focused her campaign on supporting inclusive posters in classrooms and opposing school vouchers. This district made national news earlier this year when school administrators ordered a teacher here. remove a sign showing multiracial hands and saying, “Everyone is welcome here.”

Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

In Houston, Texas, three candidates broke the conservative majority on the Cypress-Fairbanks school board, which represents one of the largest school districts in the state. This board has been dominated by the Christian rightand local parents rose up to change it, angered by the book ban and the elimination of vaccine curricula in schools.

The Conservatives had a 6-1 majority at this meeting before Tuesday. Now the Liberals outnumber them, 4-3.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the message from Tuesday’s school board elections was clear: Parents have ended the politics of division.

“Last night, we saw voters support their local public schools in towns, counties and cities across America, including major school board victories in Albuquerque; Wichita; Nashua, NH; Douglas County, Colorado; Cy-Fair, Texas; and Bucks County, Pennsylvania,” he told News themezone in a statement.

Weingarten noted that voters also supported public education funding Tuesday, approving things like a referendum on continued funding in Avon, Indiana, over opposition from the state’s sitting lieutenant governor. In Colorado, voters approved a tax increase on high-income earners to fund free breakfasts and lunches for all public school students.

“They want leaders who believe in safe, welcoming public schools where every child can learn and have the opportunity to succeed,” he said. “There is a deep desire to move beyond discord and invest in the future of our students and communities.”

State legislative races

Democrats in the Mississippi state Senate appear to have gained two new seats Tuesday and strangled the GOP Senate supermajority for the first time in 13 years.

The votes are still coming in, but unofficial county election results show Democrats leading in both seats. The apparent Democratic victories come after two Republican-held districts. were redrawn after a court ruled they unfairly diluted black representation.

When one party has supermajority status, it can easily prevent the other party from having a say in what is done. That includes things like overriding a governor’s veto and proposing constitutional amendments. Mississippi Democrats can now serve as a deterrent, at least, to some of the more extreme things Republicans might try to do in the state legislature.

These two races may not have been officially called yet, but top Democrats are already calling them victories.

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“Historic,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said Wednesday in a phone call with reporters. “There we broke with the Republican supermajority.”

Democrats also expanded their majorities in two other state chambers on Tuesday.

In New Jersey, Democrats have picked up at least three new seats and may gain more as election officials process late-arriving mail-in ballots. Those three new seats mean that Democrats will control at least 55 of the chamber’s 80 seats and will have more than two-thirds of the supermajority in the House for the first time since 2019.

In Virginia, Democrats strengthened their majority in the state House from 51 to 64 seatswith a career still undecided. They accomplished this by flipping key districts in communities near Richmond, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Heather Williams, chairwoman of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said each of Virginia’s 100 state House districts experienced a shift to the left.

“It can’t be understated that we swept almost every objective off our map,” Williams said on Wednesday’s call with reporters. “We created a historic majority in Virginia and New Jersey.”

County seats

Democrats gained seats in counties across Pennsylvania.

They flipped four seats on the Luzerne County Council and regained the majority.

They swept the five contested county offices in Bucks County and, in the process, changed the positions of county sheriff and district attorney.

In Erie County, voters elected a Democrat to the County Executive Office and ousted a Republican incumbent.

“Last night in Pennsylvania and across the country, people came together to reject the chaos, higher prices and attacks on our fundamental rights coming from Washington and chose a better path forward,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Wednesday. on social networks.

“Even in the counties and communities that President Trump won last year,” he said.

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Georgia Public Service Commission

Have you even heard of the Georgia Public Utilities Board?

It doesn’t matter: all you need to know is that two Democrats just defeated Republican incumbents in a statewide race in Georgia, marking the first time Democrats have won state constitutional office here since 2006.

Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard defeated Republican incumbents for more than 20 points for positions on the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Both participated in an “affordability” campaign – the Democratic Party’s new mantra – and will now serve on the five-member utility board, which sets electricity rates and regulates other utilities.

Greg Bluestein, a veteran Georgia political reporter, noted on social media that it’s easy to read into a race as dark as this one, but these Democratic victories “mark a genuine step forward for the party.”

Town councils

City councils, like school boards, moved left in all red and Democratic states.

Democrats in South Carolina flipped all three seats at Georgetown City Hall. In Orlando, Florida, voters removed the only remaining Republican member of the city council and voted for a democrat.

For the first time since 1999, voters in Charlotte, North Carolina elected a democrat to a city council seat long held by a Republican.

Vice President JD Vance, whose half-brother was defeated on Tuesday In his bid for mayor of Cincinnati, he attempted to downplay the importance of Democrats’ victories.

“I think it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in Democratic states,” Vance posted on social media On Wednesday.

Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, sac or brought up Vance’s comments on Wednesday’s call with reporters.

“That’s nonsense,” he said. “We won in red counties, blue counties and purple counties.”

And all of those victories were “a rejection of Trum.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct that the Douglas County school board mentioned is located in Colorado.