Setting the stage: What the 2025 elections signal for next year's midterm showdowns

By Fox News · Fox News

With the 2025 elections fading into the rearview mirror, the campaign spotlight moves 100% towards next year's midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their fragile House majority and their control of the Senate. And as this month's elections showcased, the economy will once again be uppermost on the minds of voters. How both parties handle the 'affordability' issue will likely impact whether Republicans can regain their standing with female voters, and with Black and Latino voters, who swung towards the GOP in 2024 but who shifted back to the Democrats at the ballot box in this autumn's off-year elections. One year after deep concerns over inflation helped Republicans win back the White House and Senate and successfully protect their House majority, Democrats say their convincing double-digit victories in 2025's only two elections for governor came down to affordability, the issue they repeatedly spotlighted on this year's campaign trail. DEMOCRATS SEE MANDATE AFTER 2025 WINS — REPUBLICANS SAY IT'S A MIRAGE Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper said that Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia , the two Democratic gubernatorial nominees that overperformed the public opinion polls as they cruised to Election Night victories in the blue-leaning states, "stayed laser focused on the economy," and "talked about it all day, every day." It was also the issue that boosted a one-time longshot, socialist Zohran Mandani, to an initial victory in New York City's Democratic Party mayoral primary, and another win in the mayoral election in the nation's most populous city. The numbers appear to back the Democrats up. According to the Fox News Voter Poll conducted Oct. 22 through Election Day, the economy was by far the top issue for Virginia voters — with close to half ranking it as the most important. Those voters broke significantly for Spanberger. And in New Jersey , the economy was the…