WSJ What’s News - Democrats Sweep With Big Wins in New York, Virginia and New Jersey

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

A.M. Edition for Nov. 5. Democrats notched major victories last night, prompting President Trump’s ire on social media. WSJ editor Aaron Zitner breaks down what the results mean for both parties and how they could shape the national political landscape going into the 2026 midterms. Plus, Republican senators meet at the White House this morning as the government shutdown becomes the longest in history. And we look at the competition facing weight-loss giant Novo Nordisk. Caitlin McCabe hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats are starting to get their groove back after key election victories in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. Democrats have been struggling for the last year to figure out how to regain their political footing, given the dominance of Donald Trump. Well, tonight we learned that Republicans have a similar problem. Plus, President Trump calls Republican senators to a White House breakfast meeting as the government shutdown becomes the longest in history. And Ozympic maker Novo Nordisk lowers its profit guidance amid intensifying competition for weight loss drugs. It's Wednesday, November 5th. I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

Democrats have a lot to celebrate this morning after sweeping victories in a series of crucial elections. Most prominently, 34-year-old Democratic socialist Zorro. Ron Maumdani cruised a victory to become New York City's 111th mayor, dealing a blow to former governor Andrew Cuomo. New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change. A mandate for a new kind of politics. A mandate for a city we can afford. And a mandate for a government that delivers. Exactly that.

The race had been closely watched due to Momdani's progressive campaign promises that included rent freezes, fare free buses, and universal child care, which would be paid for with an additional 2% tax on millionaires and higher taxes on businesses. His candidacy turned out to be deeply energizing with the city seeing its biggest voter turnout since 1969. With most votes counted, results showed Momdani captured just over 50% of the vote. This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt. Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost of living crisis

that this city has seen since the days of Fener Alaguay. Wall Street and business leaders mounted a fierce campaign against Mom Dani, but some extended an olive branch as results came in. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who spent more than $2 million to stop Mom Dani's win, congratulated him on social media and offered to help. Democrats also secured key victories in the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races, with Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger beating her Republican opponent by roughly 15 percentage points. In New Jersey, Democrat Mikey Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Chidorelli

by a comfortable 13-point margin. Both candidates had focused on the rising cost of living and touted their national security backgrounds in the face of growing executive power in the U.S. Mikey Sherrill used her victory speech to repeatedly hit out at the Trump administration. Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor we're, Will it ever be ruled by kings? Similarly, Spanberg blamed the government shutdown squarely on Congress, invoking loud cheers from the many federal workers present in the Virginia crowd. Right now, our federal workforce is under attack,

and the chaos coming out of Washington is killing Virginia jobs and creating economic uncertainty for tens of thousands of families. families, government employees, government contractors, small business owners who are impacted by the chaos coming out of Washington. Virginia's economy doesn't work when Washington treats our Virginia workers as expendable. As results rolled in, Trump lashed out on social media blaming the shutdown and the fact that he wasn't on the ballot for Republican losses. Earlier yesterday, he was critical of California's ballot measure to temporarily redraw the state's congressional maps in favor of Democrats, calling it, quote, a giant scam. California voters overwhelmingly approved

Proposition 50, putting Democrats in a position to potentially flip five seats in next year's midterms, countering Republican efforts in other states to redraw congressional maps. Taken together, our editor for political polling, Aaron Zittner, says the sweep of Democratic victories are being seen as an upbeat sign for a deeply divided party ahead of next year's midterm elections. They're very big Democratic wins and they're much bigger than most people expected, much bigger than polls suggested we would see. That's kind of where all of our analysis has to start, because it takes these elections out of the realm of being close and really being crushing defeats for the Republican Party and something that even Republicans are already saying they need to think about. Aaron explains that for the Republican Party, it was a reckoning of Trump's outsized impact on local races. Republican candidates just couldn't outrun Donald Trump's approval ratings. In New Jersey, polling finds, that Donald Trump had a 42% job approval rating among people who voted on Tuesday.

And in Virginia, it was 40%. Those numbers are very low. And what happened to the Republicans? Their vote totals came in at just about the same levels. Moreover, the results reveal that the coalition of Republican voters that brought about Trump's victory is fraying. When they came out of the 2024 election, the Republican Party, they were feeling good because they had won a big surge of minority voters, black, Latino, other minority voters, and a lot of young voters. Well, that trend receded. Latino voters seemed to have moved toward the Democratic Party.

And we see it in places like Passaia County in New Jersey, a 43% Hispanic county. Just last year, Donald Trump won that county, largely on the vote shift that Latino voters presented. He won it by close to three points. But yesterday, Mikey Sherrill was leading in that county in almost final results by 15 points. Young voters also shifted to the Republican Party in 2024 and helped put Donald Trump in the White House. Yesterday, they were favoring the Democratic Party by more than 30 points, another big vote swing.

So it suggests that at least in these two politically competitive states, at this moment, the coalition that helped put Donald Trump in the White House, is fraying. And Democrats have a chance to win these voters back. For more analysis from Aaron and further updates throughout the day, go to WSJ.com for all of your election coverage. Coming up, a UPS cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff in Kentucky with authorities reporting fatalities and multiple injuries. We'll bring you that story and the rest of the day's news after the break. President Trump has invited all Republican senators to the White House this morning

to discuss the continuing government shutdown as it enters its 36th day, the longest in U.S. history. The meeting comes as Trump has been ramping up pressure on GOP lawmakers to end the filibuster as a way of bypassing Democrats to reopen the government. A key pressure point in the impasse has been the threat to food stamps or snap benefits. Yesterday, the White House said the Trump administration will comply with the court order to use emergency funds to pay for the federal food assistance program. That's after the president had posted on social media, threatening to block the aid until Democrats voted to reopen the government.

The journals, Annie Linsky, explains where this leaves the roughly 42 million Americans who rely on these benefits. This would mean that beneficiaries will still receive food assistance, but Trump, his intention was to point to the fact that this is a finite amount of money in an emergency fund that won't be able to cover the full benefit. The Trump administration lawyers said in a filing on Monday that there's about $4.65 billion in the emergency funds, and that's going to cover roughly 50% of the monthly payments for eligible households. The SNAP benefits typically total about $8 billion a month. For recipients, well, there is a lack of clarity. It appears that they will

continue to receive some amount of benefit going into November, but it's not clear that they will get the same level of benefit that they have in the past, and there could be some delay as the federal government is sorting through how to ration out the funding that's left. A United Parcel Service plane crashed just after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday afternoon. That's according to local officials who added that at least seven people have been killed with several others injured. Two local businesses close to the airport were hit by the plane crash, Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and an auto salvage yard grade A auto parts. UPS hasn't confirmed any casualties or injuries of its three-person crew on board the aircraft. The Federal Aviation

Administration said the agency and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash. And as earning season continues, Orsted has booked a loss over the most recent quarter, which was hit by a stoppage to a major U.S. win project. President Trump in August ordered the company to stop work at its revolution win project off the coast of Rhode Island, though a court later reversed that order, allowing Orsted to restart. Meanwhile, Toyota saw stronger second quarter net profit and raised its sales and earnings guidance, even as U.S. tariffs continue to pose challenges for the Japanese carmaker. And weight loss drug giant Novo Nordisk has lowered its full-year profit forecast

as intensifying competition, pricing pressure, and copycat versions of its blockbuster Ozzympic and Wagovi drugs hold back sales. For more on the hurdles facing big drug companies, check out our latest episode of What's News in earnings. We've left a link in today's show notes. And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Bullivant. Our supervising producer was Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Caitlin McCabe for The Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.