民主党赢得国会两院控制权、大部分州长职位及更多席位，在中期选举中对特朗普总统进行了大规模否决。在此过程中，他们实现了一项多年来令其困扰的壮举：围绕一条信息——可负担性——团结起来。该党大多成功将焦点放在经济上，候选人强调特朗普的政策正在伤害民众的钱包。尽管关于党派方向的争论仍在持续，他们还是围绕这一信息团结起来。
Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, a majority of governorships and more in a massive midterm rebuke of President Trump. In doing so, they pulled off a feat that has bedeviled them for years: uniting around a message—affordability. The party mostly managed to keep the spotlight on the economy as candidates drove home that Trump’s policies are hurting pocket books. They coalesced around this message, even as a fight for the party’s direction continues to boil.
温和派和极左翼候选人都深入探讨了经济问题，并在很大程度上避免被卷入近年来令民主党失利的文化战争。据美联社和主要电视及有线新闻网络的选民民调显示，高燃料和食品价格是选民的首要关切，89%的人表示生活成本是他们投票选国会议员时的关键或重要因素。民主党还大多成功挑选出高质量的候选人，这些候选人能够吸引包括多个关键选举中的独立选民在内的选民，其中包括德克萨斯州、堪萨斯州和南卡罗来纳州等共和党长期占据主导地位的州。
Centrist and far-left candidates alike drilled down on the economy, and largely avoided being drawn into culture wars that have cost Democrats in recent elections. High fuel and food prices were a top voter concern, with 89% saying the cost of living was a crucial or major factor in how they voted for Congress, according to the Voter Poll for the Associated Press and the major television and cable news networks. Democrats also largely managed to pick high-quality candidates able to appeal even to independent voters in a number of critical races, including in states Republicans have dominated for decades such as Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.
他们将以舒适的参议院多数席位进入2027年——已赢得54个席位，且在两个未决选举中领先——以及预计将与奥巴马前总统首任期内拥有的规模相当的众议院多数席位。他们的胜利虽然具有历史性，但更多是对特朗普的拒绝，而非对民主党议程的授权。该党在2027年如何前进，将对几乎立即开始的2028年总统初选产生严重影响。
They will enter 2027 with a comfortable Senate majority—54 seats won and the party leading in two uncalled races—and a House majority that is expected to rival the size that former President Obama had in his first term in office. Their victory, while historic, was more a rejection of Trump than a mandate for the Democratic Party’s agenda. How the party moves forward in 2027 will have serious implications for a 2028 presidential primary race that will start almost immediately.“The risk for Democrats is that we start arguing about which ideological car we’re going to drive before we have agreement on where we’re going,” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist who advised Vice President Kamala Harris.
“民主党面临的风险是，在我们对要去哪里达成一致之前，就开始争论要开哪辆意识形态之车，”民主党战略家贾马尔·西蒙斯说，他曾为副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯提供建议。结果还凸显了特朗普在2024年组建的联盟瓦解得有多快。
The results also underscored how quickly the coalition Trump assembled in 2024 unraveled.
许多推动他重返白宫的群体，如年轻选民和拉丁裔选民，已转而支持民主党。民主党在华盛顿失去执政权两年后，尽管其品牌深受不欢迎，仍取得了进展。选民民调显示，52%的中期选举选民对民主党持不利看法，而共和党则为60%。“2024年之后，民主党的品牌已经臭名昭著。它确实处于低谷，仍需要大量工作，”民主党战略家莉丝·史密斯说。
Many of the groups, like young and Latino voters, that propelled his return to the White House swung back toward Democrats. Democrats after two years out of power in Washington made their gains despite a deeply unpopular brand. The Voter Poll showed the Democratic Party is viewed unfavorably by 52% of midterm votes, compared with 60% for the Republican Party.“After 2024, the Democratic brand was in the toilet. It was really at a low point and it still needs a lot of work,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist.
“但2026年是民主党反弹的开始。它将成为一个更大帐篷的政党。”民主党的经济信息与一个令人惊讶的来源相呼应——佐赫兰·马姆达尼。这位受欢迎的纽约市市长将可负担性作为其竞选活动的核心支柱，尽管中间派解决该问题的处方与民主社会主义者的处方截然不同。对于一个仍面临深层政策分歧，并且已经就选民传递了什么信号展开辩论的政党来说，头痛问题依然存在。
“But 2026 is where the Democratic comeback begins. It’s going to be a bigger-tent party.”Democrats’ economic message echoed that of a surprising source—Zohran Mamdani. The popular New York City mayor made affordability a central pillar of his campaign, though centrists prescriptions for remedying the problem differ radically from the Democratic socialists’.Headaches remain for a party still facing deep policy divisions and already debating the message voters sent.
进步派人士指出他们的胜利——包括在总统摇摆州的胜利——并呼吁将该党议程转向左翼。该党也存在误读时刻的风险，就像2022年中期选举后那样，当时前总统乔·拜登在白宫。那些行为帮助特朗普总统赢得了2024年的胜利。“对胜利的庆祝应该只持续一分钟，”前众议员切莉·布斯托斯说，她是一位中间派民主党人，曾多次赢得充满特朗普支持者的伊利诺伊州西部国会选区。
Progressives are pointing to their wins—including in presidential battleground states—and calling for a shift to the left in the party’s agenda. The party also risks misreading the moment, as it did after 2022 midterm elections when former President Joe Biden was in the White House. Those actions helped President Trump win his 2024 victory.“The celebration over the victory should last all of one minute,” said former Rep. Cheri Bustos, a centrist Democrat who repeatedly won a western Illinois congressional district filled with Trump supporters.”
她说，民主党不应“用煽动基本盘但忽视普通人真实需求的分裂废话来浪费这个新的多数地位。”民主党的胜利在规模和地理广度上都令人印象深刻，可能改变2028年总统选举的地图。从2027年开始，民主党将在决定2024年总统选举的全部七个摇摆州中占据所有州长职位。
She said Democrats should not “squander this new majority with divisive nonsense that fuels the base, but ignores the real needs of everyday people.”The Democratic wins were impressive in both scale and geographic breadth, potentially altering the map for the 2028 presidential election. Starting in 2027, Democrats will hold all the governorships in all seven battleground states that decided the 2024 presidential election.
他们的成功可能会扩大总统选举的地图，使在得克萨斯州等传统共和党州争夺选举人票的可能性成为现实。民主党派出了背景和政治立场各异的候选人阵容，其中一些候选人同时获得了进步派和中间派的支持，包括得克萨斯州的特哈诺歌手鲍比·普利多、蒙大拿州的前烟跳者萨姆·福斯塔格、俄亥俄州的工会铁工布莱恩·波因德克斯特，以及爱荷华州的两名神职人员。
And their success could expand the presidential map, making the possibility of competing for electoral votes in traditional Republican states like Texas a reality. Democrats fielded an assortment of candidates with a range of backgrounds and political profiles, some of which had endorsements from both the progressive and centrist wings, including Bobby Pulido, a Tejano singer in Texas; Sam Forstag, a former smokejumper in Montana; Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker in Ohio; and two clergy members in Iowa.
这些候选人要么赢得了选举，要么在选举中领先。民主党宣称，他们的候选人是具有真正可信度的信使，致力于公共服务，并与选区有着真实的联系，这是该党重新夺回工人阶级选民战略的一部分。当民主党众议院领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯观察到预示着该党将迎来强劲一夜的早期选举结果时，他表示，该党招募了“医生、护士、牧师、农民、工会领袖、教育工作者、警察、消防员和退伍军人——这些人都已经为社区服务了一生”。
Those candidates all either won or were leading in their race. The Democrats touted their candidates for being messengers with real credibility, committed to public service and holding a real connection to their districts, part of the party’s strategy to reclaim working-class voters. As House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries watched early returns foreshadowing a strong night for the party, he noted that the party had recruited “doctors and nurses and pastors and farmers and union leaders and educators and police officers and firefighters and combat veterans—people who have already lived a life of service to their community.”
近年来，民主党在东北地区占据主导地位，尽管特朗普在2024年竞选期间在纽约和新泽西郊区取得了一些进展，并在缅因州北部保持了实力。这些进展在选举中似乎被粉碎了：民主党击败了缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯，她是参议院任职时间最长的共和党女性，并在该州农村的第二国会选区获胜。在新罕布什尔州，民主党众议员克里斯·帕帕斯以近15个百分点的优势击败了前参议员约翰·E·苏努努，后者是该州最持久的共和党家族成员，赢得了一个参议院席位。
Democrats have dominated the Northeast in recent cycles, although Trump made inroads during the 2024 campaign in the New York and New Jersey suburbs and maintained his strength in northern Maine. Those gains appeared to be dashed in the election: Democrats ousted Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the longest-serving GOP woman in the Senate, and in the state’s rural second congressional district. In New Hampshire, Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas trounced former Sen. John E. Sununu, a member of the state’s most durable Republican family, by nearly 15 percentage points to win a Senate seat.
在中西部，该党赢得了特朗普曾以两位数优势获胜、此前被视为几乎永远是红州的州份的选举。
In the Midwest, the party won races in states Trump had won by double digits that had previously been viewed as almost permanently red.
民主党从美国农村地区因燃料和肥料价格飙升而感受到的痛苦中获益，这些价格飙升是总统贸易政策和伊朗战争的后果。州审计官罗布·桑德成为二十年来首位赢得爱荷华州州长的民主党人，他几乎以非党派候选人的身份参选，批评共和党和民主党，并呼吁加强政府问责。他以11个百分点的优势获胜，与特朗普2024年在那里以13个百分点的优势获胜相比，出现了惊人的24个百分点的转变。
Democrats benefited from the pain rural America is feeling from the spike in fuel and fertilizer prices that have followed the president’s trade policy and the war in Iran. State Auditor Rob Sand became the first Democrat to win Iowa’s governorship in two decades, running almost as a nonpartisan candidate and criticizing both Republicans and Democrats as he called for more government accountability. He won by 11 percentage points, a stunning 24-point swing, when compared with Trump’s 13-point margin there in 2024.A similar campaign approach was run by state Sen. Josh Turek, who became the first Iowa Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat since 2028.
州参议员乔什·图雷克采取了类似的竞选策略，成为自2028年以来首位赢得美国参议院席位的爱荷华州民主党人。这位两届篮球残奥会金牌得主将自己塑造为愿意与本党对抗的人，同时也从其共和党对手面临的特朗普关税和伊朗战争带来的逆风中受益。在附近的堪萨斯州，民主党人亚当·汉密尔顿打破了共和党在该州参议院选举中近100年的连胜纪录。
The two-time basketball Paralympic gold medalist sold himself as someone willing to buck his own party, while also benefiting from headwinds faced by his GOP opponent from Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war. In nearby Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton snapped a nearly 100-year winning streak for Republicans in the state’s Senate races.
这位卫理公会牧师将自己塑造为“激进中间派”，在特朗普2024年以16个百分点优势赢得的州里取得了胜利。该党还赢得了威斯康星州和密歇根州的空缺州长职位，而宾夕法尼亚州州长乔什·夏皮罗——一位可能的2028年总统候选人——以压倒性优势连任。在铁板钉钉的德克萨斯州，民主党翻转了美国参议院席位和州长官邸，这是一个惊人的壮举，该州民主党自1994年以来未赢得过任何全州范围的选举。
The Methodist pastor cast himself as a “radical centrist,” securing a win in a state Trump carried by 16 percentage points in 2024. The party also won open-seat governorships in Wisconsin and Michigan, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, was re-elected in a landslide victory. In ruby-red Texas, Democrats flipped both a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s mansion, a stunning feat in a state where the party had not won a statewide race since 1994.
在那里，民主党人詹姆斯·塔拉里科和吉娜·希诺霍萨以民粹主义信息竞选，强调可负担性、反腐败和挑战亿万富翁阶层。特别是希诺霍萨的胜利，在政治圈引起了巨大震动。她击败了连任三届的州长格雷格·阿博特，后者是特朗普的盟友和保守政策的设计者。在德克萨斯州及其他地区，拉丁裔选民转向民主党，标志着与2024年许多选民转向特朗普形成鲜明逆转。南德克萨斯州的这种转变最为明显。
There, Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa ran on a populist message, emphasizing affordability, fighting corruption and taking on the billionaire class. Hinojosa’s victory, in particular, sent shock waves through political circles. She unseated three-term Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump ally and architect of conservative policies. Across Texas and beyond, Latino voters swung back toward Democrats, marking a sharp reversal from 2024 when many shifted toward Trump. Nowhere was that shift more evident than in South Texas.
在里奥格兰德河谷，共和党人——在特朗普的敦促下——将目标瞄准了两个由民主党人把持的席位。得克萨斯州共和党人在中期重新划分选区时，将这两个选区重新划分得更有利于共和党。但民主党人守住了这两个席位——并且在一个相邻选区翻盘了一个共和党席位，特朗普在2024年曾以18个百分点的优势赢下该选区。在这一选区，民主党候选人是博比·普利多，一位特哈诺歌手和当地名人，他以温和派形象参选，聚焦于负担能力问题。
In the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans—at Trump’s urging—had targeted two Democratic-held seats that Texas Republicans had redrawn to be more favorable to the GOP during mid-decade redistricting. But Democrats held both of those seats—and they flipped a Republican seat in a neighboring district Trump won by 18 percentage points in 2024. In that district, the Democrat was Bobby Pulido, a Tejano singer and local celebrity who ran as a moderate focused on affordability.
普利多的部分竞选策略是2026年多名民主党人采用的做法：与党派政治划清界限，并批评本党。他的竞选口号是“非红队，非蓝队，只为你队”。
Part of Pulido’s approach was one that a number of Democrats embraced in 2026: distancing themselves from partisan politics and criticizing their own party. His campaign slogan was “Not team red, not team blue. Team you.”
名为“第三条道路”的组织主席乔纳森·科旺表示，该组织试图推动民主党向中间靠拢，但存在党内进步派会误读选民信息的风险。他说：“有一个事实无法争辩：温和派造就了参众两院的多数席位。”科旺指出，民主党翻盘的所有参议院席位都由更温和的候选人赢得，唯一的例外是特洛伊·杰克逊在缅因州的胜利。
Jonathan Cowan, president of a group called Third Way that is trying to push Democrats more to the center, said there is a risk party progressives will misinterpret the message from voters.“There is one fact that just can’t be argued away: moderates made both the Senate and House majority,” he said. Cowan pointed to how all the Senate seats flipped by Democrats featured more moderate candidates, with the only exception being Troy Jackson’s victory in Maine.
进步派则指向杰克逊的参议院胜选，以及阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德在密歇根州和副州长佩吉·弗拉纳根在明尼苏达州的胜选，认为这些是他们派别的候选人能够赢得有竞争力的全州性选战的迹象。埃尔-赛义德在周三早些时候的胜选演讲中说：“赢得单个联邦参议院席位从来不是目标。目标是利用这个席位变革我们的政治。”随后他重复了自己的竞选口号：“金钱退出政治，金钱回归口袋，全民医保。”
Progressives are pointing to the Senate win of Jackson, as well as those of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota as signs their candidates can win competitive statewide races.“Winning a single U.S. Senate seat was never the goal. The goal is to use that seat to transform our politics,” El-Sayed said in his victory speech early Wednesday. He then repeated his campaign slogan: “Money out of politics. Money in your pocket. Medicare for all.”
科旺辩称，民主党明智的做法是继续聚焦于帮助他们当选的那些议题。
Cowan argued Democrats would be wise to stay focused on the issues that helped get them elected.
“这不是弹劾总统的授权，也不是针对‘绿色新政’和‘全民医保’等极端议题的授权，”他说。请致信John McCormick，邮箱mccormick.john@wsj.com；Sabrina Rodriguez，邮箱sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com；Ken Thomas，邮箱ken.thomas@wsj.com。
“It is not a mandate for impeaching the president, nor it is a mandate for extreme issues like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All,” he said. Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com, Sabrina Rodriguez at sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com and Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com