The most striking quality to Democrats’ blowout victories in state and local elections this week was how broad they were. From the blue-collar counties of rural Virginia to the working class neighbourhoods of outer borough New York, the direction went uniformly against Donald Trump’s Republicans. Whether the candidate was a Democratic centrist, such as Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, or a “Democratic socialist”, such as New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, the results were the same.

Most of the media’s focus has been on Mamdani, 34, the first Muslim to take that job and New York’s youngest mayor in generations. Enthusiasm for him drove the city’s highest turnout in decades. But Spanberger’s 15-point margin of victory in Virginia was no less dramatic. So was Mikie Sherrill’s thumping win in New Jersey and the clean sweep for Democratic supreme court judges in Pennsylvania.

The same applies to Proposition 50’s victory in California, which authorises its governor, Gavin Newsom, to gerrymander five new Democratic seats to blunt a similar Republican manoeuvre in Texas. That will count in next year’s midterm elections. Each campaign was skilful enough to appeal to local conditions while reaping the anti-Trump backlash.