I'm not sure what the point is?

Yeah a couple of governors were elected--NJ and VA--mediocre Democrat candidates who beat Republicans who didn't run great campaigns. Plus Mamdani in NYC.

This was an off year election.

What's the point? What's the "weapon" you think these elections were for the Democrat party?

You do realize that one of the Democrat Senators who voted to re-open the government was Tim Kaine--who is from Virginia, don't you?

He doesn't have an election coming up soon but do you really think Kaine would have broken ranks if he thought the Dems had the upper hand on the issue of the government shut down?

What Virginia DOES have is lots and lots of federal employees. And dollars to donuts Kaine was getting heat from his constituents about them not getting their paychecks etc. Federal employees (for the most part) aren't stupid. They know what the Dem party was trying to do, they know it wasn't working, and anyone with a thinking brain wouldn't have needed 40+ days to figure it out.