MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: DNC Chair Ken Martin
DATE: Friday, November 7, 2025
RE: Americans Chose Democrats — and Will Again in 2026. Here’s Why.

All over the country on Tuesday, voters delivered victories for Democrats and a reckoning to Donald Trump. It was an unequivocal Blue Sweep.

Why? Donald Trump and the Republicans are screwing Americans, while Democrats are fighting for them. 

Here are my key takeaways from Tuesday night: 

First, Democrats are the Party of Affordability

Voters are fed up with the Trump-Republican coalition’s utter failure to address high costs and are rushing to vote for Democrats like Mikie Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger, Zohran Mamdani and others who ran campaigns sharply focused on making life more affordable. On Tuesday night, a common Democratic theme emerged: our candidates, no matter where they are, no matter how they fit into our big-tent party, are meeting voters at the kitchen table, not in the gilded ballroom.

Second, Trump’s “Gilded Recession” Presidency Has Pissed Off America

With layoffs rising, a slumping job market, and Americans struggling to make ends meet, voters are incensed by Donald Trump’s chaotic and out-of-touch priorities. As we approach 2026, a contrast has become clear. The President and his Republican followers in Washington want to take our country off a cliff and straight into a “Gilded Recession,” and Democrats want action to address health care, groceries, housing, and jobs. While Trump demolishes the White House to build his gold ballroom, Democrats are standing up for affordable health care. While he pops champagne with the super-rich at ‘Great Gatsby’ themed Mar-a-Lago parties, Democrats are working to bring down energy bills. While he lines the pockets of CEOs who lobbied him for permanent tax breaks, we’re fighting so families can put food on the table and make rent.

Third, We’re Winning Top-to-Bottom

Democrats ran coordinated campaigns — community-by-community — to message a better way forward. We showed up earlier and more often to talk with voters, listened to their concerns, and explained what Democrats can do to help. The DNC invested nearly $7 million into New Jersey and Virginia, the three state supreme court retention races in Pennsylvania, and in the Mississippi state legislative races.

Across these coordinated campaigns, and with the support of the DNC’s National Distributed Organizing Program, volunteers across the country knocked on 2.5 million doors and made 8.5 million calls, helping us win both up and down the ballot, at both the state-wide and legislative levels, including flipping a historic 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.

And while several big wins captured mainstream attention this week, our Party had deep success at every level of government. For too long, we have ceded ground to Republicans at the local and state levels. At the beginning of the year, I promised to reverse that trend, and ever since, we have directed resources and organizing efforts into electing Democrats onto school boards, city councils, county offices, state legislatures, and more. 

The end result of Tuesday’s elections was palpable: Yes, New Jersey elected Mikie Sherrill, Virginia elected Abigail Spanberger, and New York City elected Zohran Mamdani. But Pennsylvania also protected its Supreme Court from the right-wing billionaires who were trying to buy it, Georgia elected its first non-federal statewide Democratic officials in 20 years, and we even toppled the Republicans’ supermajority in deep red Mississippi. Democrats won thousands of races across the country. 

In addition, Democrats successfully won back young voters ages 18 to 29 — and in particular, brought young men back into the fold for our party again. Governor-elect Spanberger won men under 29 by 17 points, and Governor-elect Sherrill won them by 14 points. And in both of the gubernatorial races on Tuesday, Democrats won a majority of independent voters and increased our margins with Black, Latino, and AAPI voters. Democrats built back their winning coalition while Republicans saw the Trump coalition shatter.

This electoral success story didn’t start this week. Heading into election night, Democrats had won or overperformed in 46 out of 47 key elections this year, flipping crucial races like Pennsylvania’s 1st State Senate District and Iowa’s 1st State Senate District. 

After Tuesday night, this overperformance streak is now 219 out of 247, 90 percent of key races since Trump was inaugurated. 

Finally, Everything is in Play: We’re Winning in 2026 and Beyond

For the past 90 years, when Democrats have swept the New York City mayoral race and the governor’s mansion in New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats have won the majority in the House the next year. But we aren’t taking our foot off the gas.

I’ve said November 5th was the first day of the 2026 campaign — and we’re laser-focused on executing our Majority Party Strategy to regain Democratic power at every level of office. 

The stakes are high. The rich are still getting richer at the expense of everyday working people. Folks are losing their jobs and can’t find work. Health care costs are about to double or triple or even quadruple for millions of Americans next year. The government is shut down because Republicans would rather keep it closed than address skyrocketing health care costs, halting essential services for tens of millions of Americans. 

All the while, the Republicans who run Congress aren’t even showing up to work. They don’t have proposals to lower costs or improve schools or make health care more accessible. They don’t even pretend. They don’t serve their constituents — they serve this president, allowing him to wreak havoc on people’s lives while he picks out fixtures for marble bathroom remodels. 

Our promise is to build an America where anyone can make a decent living and support their family. An America where people are safe and respect one another. Where there’s opportunity for all. An America where the American Dream isn’t some fading idea but something by which all Americans can work toward and attain. 

The DNC is investing record amounts in our 57 state and territorial parties and organizing each and every day to support leaders who will stand up for everyday citizens. Leaders with character, leaders who will tell the truth. Who aren’t afraid of the billionaires or big corporate donors, but who will serve the people who elect them.  

In ‘26, we’ll do it again. We’ll run a National Coordinated Campaign to win races up and down the ballot to provide a check on the out-of-control Trump administration and its Republican rubber stamps. Join us as we get to work.