In a sweeping rebuke of President Donald Trump and Republicans’ fear-based politics, Democrats secured commanding victories across the country Tuesday night, from Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania to California and even Mississippi and Georgia, dismantling a campaign season steeped in anti-trans rhetoric and division. The results sent a resounding message: weaponizing prejudice no longer wins elections.
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Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger celebrates as she takes the stage during her election-night rally at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on November 04, 2025 in Richmond, VirginiaWin McNamee/Getty Images
Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial election wasn’t even close. Standing before more than 1,500 supporters at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger declared victory as the 75th governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, becoming the first woman ever to hold the office. She secured 57.2 percent of the vote compared to the Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’s 42.6 percent.
“Tonight, we sent a message to every corner of the Commonwealth, to our neighbors, our fellow Americans, and the world — that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” Spanberger told the elated crowd. “We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”
She continued, “You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most: lowering costs, keeping our communities safe, and strengthening our economy for every Virginian — leadership that will focus on problem solving, not stoking division. We turned a page by listening to our neighbors, focusing on practical results, laying out a clear agenda, and leading with decency and determination.”
Spanberger’s win capped a Democratic sweep that also included Lt. Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in the U.S., and Attorney General-elect Jason Jones, who flipped the seat from an incumbent who had misgendered transgender people and pushed hospitals to deny gender-affirming care to youth.
At the same convention hall, Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, called the outcome a turning point.
“The Virginia GOP spent all their money on attacking transgender children, and it failed visibly,” she told The Advocate. “Attacking transgender people is not a winning platform. You’ve got to listen to LGBTQ voters. You’ve got to prioritize our needs and our issues when campaigning. We are a community that will turn out to vote every reelection because our rights and our lives are on the ballot every single year.”
State Sen. Danica Roem, who is the first out trans person elected to a state legislature, said she had seen the same playbook before and watched it fail again.
“They thought that by running nonstop TV, digital, and radio ads, that was going to be their ticket to ride,” Roem said. “What did Loudoun County just tell them tonight? They told them, ‘Get that out of here.’ They told them, ‘We want someone who actually focuses on taking care of our day-to-day quality of life and building up our infrastructure instead of tearing people down.’”
Among the hundreds cheering inside the convention center was Myra McLeod, a 41-year-old trans Virginian waving a pink-and-blue trans Pride flag. “Nothing is going to change for us if we’re afraid,” she said. “I think it’s a repudiation of that desired divide — American against American — and a lot of conservatives I know are disgusted with that kind of divisive rhetoric.”
She added, “It’s important [to be here holding the trans Pride flag] because nothing is going to change for us if we’re afraid. This is my country, I have no other, and I refuse to be afraid."
Virginia U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, the state’s first Black congresswoman, said Spanberger’s win reflected Virginians’ desire for competence and compassion over chaos. “Republicans are not very creative, and they can’t win on the merits of the issues, so they try to demonize a group or two,” McClellan told The Advocate. “They’re not interested in bullying trans kids or demonizing anybody. They just want a governor who’s going to fight for every Virginian and focus on issues that all Virginians have in common. It’s time to send a message that that kind of pit groups against each other just to grab power is over."
GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization, said that the results demonstrated voters’ rejection of extremism and their embrace of equality. The group, which tracked candidates’ LGBTQ records alongside Equality Virginia, noted that Earle-Sears and outside groups spent more than $9 million on inflammatory anti-trans ads — even though just 3 percent of voters cited those issues as influential in their vote.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement, “Today’s election results make one thing clear: Americans are rejecting divisive politics that target LGBTQ people and instead demanding leadership that focuses on the issues that matter for all Americans, including affordability, family, and freedom.”
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks at his election night watch party at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater on November 04, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough in New York CityAndrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
Ellis, a New York City native, also praised voters in her hometown for electing Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor. “Mayor-elect Mamdani has consistently affirmed his support for LGBTQ New Yorkers, including transgender people, through both his campaign messaging and policy proposals that prioritize safety and inclusion,” she said. “His election signals that voters value leaders who treat all community members with fairness, dignity, and respect.”
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In his victory speech, Mamdani, 34, spoke of the importance of solidarity across communities. “Here we believe in standing up for those we love,” he said. “Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall, your struggle is ours too. And we will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism — where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of the city, but in the halls of power. No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”
On Wednesday morning, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the most influential LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the U.S., told The Advocate by phone that the results were “a clear victory” for equality.
“People showed up to the polls and said, ‘We’re not going to let you fear-monger your way to the governor’s mansion,’” she said. Democrats like Spanberger, Robinson added, “gave a master class in answering attacks with authenticity and empathy — leaning into equality and refusing to let lies go unanswered.”
Of Mamdani’s win, Robinson said, “It was beautiful. His campaign was centered on the people who our people are — that the diversity of our experiences and our lives is what makes this country so powerful and so great.”
She added, “I think that with all that’s happening in our world, it can feel oftentimes like everything’s against us. I think it’s so important for our community to remember right now what victory feels like, what winning feels like, because the way that we feel today is the way that we deserve to feel after every single election and every time we knock a door or make a phone call or donate a dollar, we are manifesting this as our reality. So I hope that people take away a feeling of empowerment and joy today that we will not let go away.”
U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman, whose northern Virginia district overlaps Spanberger’s former one, said the results underscored voters’ rejection of division. “These ads that attack the trans community, that don’t acknowledge that human beings are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, will not work,” he told The Advocate, calling the night “a pivot in a different direction.”
Robinson described the results as part of a broader “rainbow wave,” pointing to wins in Pennsylvania, where voters ousted anti-LGBTQ+ school boards and elected the state’s first out trans mayor, and in Mississippi, where Democrats broke a Republican supermajority.
Related: Zohran Mamdani will continue 'standing up' for transgender people as New York City mayor
“Our nation is growing and changing,” she said. “The diversity of our nation is one of its greatest strengths, and you saw that on full display — not only in the people elected but in the voters who turned out.”
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