President Donald Trump made a simple request when he headlined a rally for New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman last month.
“Just pretend I’m on the ballot,” he told the crowd in Syracuse.
New York voters obliged — and Democrats are ecstatic with the results.
The blue wave that swept the nation Tuesday washed over the Empire State, where Democrats up and down the ballot outperformed already high expectations en route to significant victories across the state.
The same occurred in New Jersey, where Democrats picked up two key House seats that had been held by the GOP.
In both states, Democrats repeatedly linked their GOP opponents to Trump, knowing that polls show voters in both states largely view the Republican president unfavorably.
“Well Mr. President, you got your wish,” Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in her victory speech Tuesday night.
The bigger-than-anticipated Democratic victories in New York and New Jersey started with the top of the ticket, with Hochul scoring a 22-point lead over the Republican Blakeman with 76% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.
Her performance was in stark contrast to 2022, when Hochul won her first full term by a slim 6-point margin. That year, Hochul’s relatively lackluster win in a state that has twice as many Democrats as Republicans helped lead to down-ballot losses in four key races that helped the GOP win control of the House.
That wasn’t the case this time around.
In the Hudson Valley, Democrat Cait Conley scored a victory over Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican congressmember who had been one of the Democrats’ top targets for two straight cycles.
On Long Island, Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen held leads of 15 and 16 points, respectively, over their opponents with roughly half the vote counted.
In New Jersey, Democrat Zack Mullock denied Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew a fifth term in Congress in a surprising upset in South Jersey, winning by roughly five points. First-time Democratic candidate Rebecca Bennett defeated embattled Republican incumbent Tom Kean in New Jersey’s 7th district, taking home nearly 60% of the vote in a race that was expected to be far closer.
The wins, coupled with Democratic victories across the country, led to Democrats controlling the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to race calls by the AP.
That would put two Brooklyn Democrats — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Charles Schumer — in position to become speaker of the House and Senate majority leader, respectively, come January.
