Moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill cruised to comfortable victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ elections on Tuesday, on an election night seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidential term.

Pitting centrist Democrats against Trump-aligned Republicans, both elections were seen as signaling whether middle-of-the-road voters had made peace with the president’s radical cost-slashing agenda — or plan to give his party a bloody nose in 2026.

Trump has driven a steamroller through the federal bureaucracy since returning to office in January, shuttering entire agencies and cutting an estimated 200,000 jobs even before the government shutdown.

Spanberger’s win in Virginia — which is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce —

See Full Page