For Democrats, Off-Year Elections Have to Matter

Tuesday is the day of the New Jersey gubernatorial primary. This matchup will pit five candidates from various political factions against each other, with the winner being a slight favorite in November over a Trump-supported Republican candidate. New Jersey’s primary will help the party start to discover its identity and plan a path forward for 2026 and 2028.

The New Jersey primary is also a reminder of the importance of Democrats to compete in every election, no matter how insignificant it may seem. The party is often viewed as not focusing as intently on smaller races as they should. In 2024, 70% of all races in the country were uncontested, according to Ballotpedia. That number needs to drop if the party hopes to change cultural mores around off-year elections and start winning as many as possible.

The importance of local races

Democrats have ignored local races for decades. In the 20th century, this neglect used to be widespread in New England and elsewhere. Democrats had the Solid South, which included thousands of local seats held down by the dynamics of Jim Crow and its aftermath. The national party could ride the Solid South to sizable victory without needing to worry much about its standing in local Vermont or Maine races. 

But now, politics have become nationalized. No matter how popular a local politician may be, they will likely have to face questions about Donald Trump’s immigration policies or Joe Biden’s acuity. These factors will impact races in which the candidates have nothing to do with decisions made by the president’s advisers or members of his Cabinet. But the local media outlets that would have brought attention on other issues have been hollowed out in recent years. TikTok and YouTube influencers have little incentive to cover garbage concerns in Hoboken or corrupt local officials in Brockton, for instance.

Local race engagement matters

Democrats have exacerbated this tendency in recent years with their focus on celebrity and youth culture. It is difficult to get influencers or celebrity endorsers to tune into races for judgeships or city council races. They want to focus on the presidency or, in isolated cases, the Supreme Court. They want change quickly, preferably through momentous decisions or executive orders. Quick reforms mean a substantial payoff to their politically naïve followers, allowing them to claim victory and then move on to the next cause or money-making scheme. Local offices and off-year elections do not capture the algorithm like a public campaign that leads to student debt being cancelled.

The Trump presidency has indicated a shift in the voting habits of Democrats towards the local-race engagement that seemed so difficult during the Obama era. Democratic voters are more energized, highly educated, and more likely to vote in off-year elections than they used to be. But there is still work to be done. Strong engagement efforts could help the party expand past their base to start bringing in non-traditional voters to the Democratic fold outside of the presidential race. This effort should be relatively straightforward as the nation pushes for a balance to the chaos that has defined the first five months of the Trump administration.

The goal of Democrats should be to punish the Republican Party for ever supporting the rise of Donald Trump in the first place. In order to do this, they need to compete and win in every election possible, starting with the off-year elections that culminate in this November’s races in New Jersey and Virginia. Securing two governorships should convince the party to stop their bickering and finally come together to give the opposition its largest possible defeat next year.