Could Democrats do as well on Election Day 2025? That question now has an unambiguous answer. As a New York Times analysis summarized:

With their election night triumphs on Tuesday, Democrats showed that their demoralized party — which spent the past year mired in self-recriminations and soul-searching — could still accomplish the most important goal in politics. They can win. And win big.

The highest-profile contests offered obvious proof of the Democratic breakthrough: Governors-elect Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger won their races by double digits in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, and California’s Proposition 50 is on track for a landslide win. In New York City, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ended former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s career with a decisive 9-point victory......

But as the results came in, I found myself thinking about the commentary from a year ago. After Donald Trump won a second term, the conventional wisdom was that Republicans had entered an era of electoral dominance. Trump had successfully realigned the American electorate to put the GOP in a position to control the nation and its future.

The same commentary held that the Democratic Party wasn’t just defeated, it was also small and divided, with a demoralized and disheartened base, filled with voters who were prepared to withdraw from civic life for a long while.

In the weeks and months that followed, there was a near-obsessive focus on Democrats and their “brand.” Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado told NBC News in March that his party’s brand was “problematic.” Around the same time, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, said the Democratic brand was “toxic.” Days earlier, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania told Politico, “If we don’t get our s--- together, then we are going to be in a permanent minority.”