Top 5 game-changers from the 2025 campaign trail
In the wake of last year's tumultuous presidential election, which exhausted many Americans, it was expected to be quiet on the 2025 campaign trail.But with President Donald Trump back in...
By Fox News · Fox News
In the wake of last year's tumultuous presidential election, which exhausted many Americans, it was expected to be quiet on the 2025 campaign trail. But with President Donald Trump back in the White House and Democrats itching to rebound after last year's ballot box setbacks, 2025's off-year elections were anything but sedate. Here are five of the biggest moments that shaped the campaign trail. Just eight days into Trump's second term in the White House, demoralized Democrats had something to cheer about. SETTING THE STAGE: WHAT THE 2025 ELECTIONS SIGNAL FOR NEXT YEAR'S MIDTERM SHOWDOWNS Democrat Mike Zimmer defeated Republican Katie Whittington in a special state Senate election in Iowa, flipping a Republican-controlled vacant seat in a district that Trump had carried by 21 points less than three months earlier. Zimmer's victory triggered a wave of Democrats overperforming in special elections and regularly scheduled off-year ballot box contests. In Iowa , Democrats in August flipped another Republican-held seat in a state Senate special election, breaking the GOP's supermajority in the upper chamber for the first time in three years. "Since the president was inaugurated back in January, there's been 45 elections on the ballot. Democrats have overperformed in all of them to the tune of about 16 percentage points on average," Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin touted in a Fox News Digital interview days ahead of the 2025 elections . It was the issue that boosted Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections, as they won back the White House and Senate majority and kept control of the House. But a year later, the economy, and everyday expenses in particular, are working against the president and his party in the 2025 elections. FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS SAY WHITE HOUSE IS DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD ON ECONOMY Democrats, with an across-the-board focus on affordability, enjoyed sweeping success at the ballot box earlier this month, with double-digit victories in…