They Are Who We Thought They Were

By Joseph Catena

As a New Jersey resident, I was cautiously optimistic that Jack Ciatarelli would score a huge victory over Mikie Sherrill and bring the statehouse back to Republican control. All of the trends were there. Outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy is not very popular due to gargantuan property taxes and energy bills being among the most outlandish in the land. His and Sherrill’s radical pro-LGBTQ beliefs and embracement of illegal aliens are also at odds with Washington, D.C. and Americans in general. And Ciatarelli came so close in 2021, only losing by three points to Murphy. The polls were razor thin, and it appeared Jack was ready to take the next step. It was his time.

Until it wasn’t.

Election Night 2025 was a solid night for Democrats. Abigail Spanberger won the governorship in Virginia and Sherrill took New Jersey, both by landslide double-digit margins. The final part of the trifecta was Zohran Mamdani, Democrat and socialist, becoming the new mayor of New York. In a lesser publicized race in Minneapolis, incumbent woke beta male Mayor Jacob Frey is staving off a challenge from radical socialist Omar Fateh. That race has not been officially called, as Frey is still not at a 50 percent majority.

In political reality, even to people like me who thought Ciatarelli had a chance, this shouldn’t be a shock. Virginia and New Jersey are both solid blue states. This is just who they are. The purple mirage we saw in 2024 was really the power and magnitude of Donald J. Trump. Imagine if he had treated the Garden State and the Commonwealth as he did Pennsylvania and actually had multiple campaign stops in both states. We may well have had a radically different presidential map.

We must also ask ourselves if Ciatarelli hit on the right issues often enough. Did he sufficiently stress the tax issue? Did he mention illegal aliens and the various burdens they place on society? Did he have a message on how to bring down the steroid prices of energy that Murphy caused and Sherrill agreed with? These are legitimate questions that will surely be analyzed by Monday morning political quarterbacks.

What was a shock was the result of the Virginia attorney general’s race where sadistic Jay Jones somehow eked out a win over incumbent Jason Miyares. Jones’ win came in spite of his deranged texts – “jokes” as he called them – to a colleague in 2022 expressing fantasies about seeing two bullets put in the head of a political foe and watching his two young “fascist” children die in their mother’s arms. This apparently was not enough to dissuade the voters from electing him, nor was it enough to separate the icy Spanberger from her endorsement of him. While it is the right and will of the voters to choose their officeholder, one must question their integrity in this matter.

Yes, I’m judging them, and they are amoral lunatics. Voting for Spanberger is one thing. We can debate her on issues and her lack of political courage. But voting for someone who revealed his inner serial killer perversions is another. Have some decency, voters!

Nonetheless, New Jersey and Virginia aren’t going red any time soon, especially New Jersey. Its population decrease in recent years basically shows that center and center-right voters are the ones leaving and seeking pastures with lower taxes. Conversely, no matter how hard Democrats hope (and for those in that ill-begotten mob who might pray), Texas isn’t going blue anytime in the near or far future. Ciatarelli’s political parallel is Texas’ Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. Except Ciatarelli is respectable and competent. During the mid-term elections in 2018, in which Democrats stormed back into control, O’Rourke was The Next Big Thing. He was Bobby Kennedy Sr. reincarnated. Politicos gushed over his charisma and youthful nature. He was the golden boy who was on the verge of harpooning his white whale, Sen. Ted Cruz. Democrats could taste victory. With bottomless pockets and more than $80 million raised, Beto nearly pulled it off and came within 2.5 points of his rival. Texas was now a purple state.

Then came the elections of 2020, 2022, and 2024.

Trump beat Biden by six points in Texas – imagine how much larger the total would have been if the 2020 election wasn’t rigged during the scamdemic and Democrats could only vote once in person – and Democrats still had delusions of grandeur due to the one-digit margin. In 2022, Beto O’Rourke returned, this time for governor, and he was trounced. Incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott easily thwarted him by 11 points, and in 2024, Cruz turned back another well-funded challenger, Colin Allred, and easily won by nearly nine points. Texas is as red as Jersey is blue. This is who they are.

As much as Democrats will relish their two gubernatorial victories, and they should, they need to curb their enthusiasm about Mamdani, who will ultimately be more of an anchor than a lifeline. His win has already heightened the probability of a population exodus, and Texas and Florida are on the precipice of seeing a huge spike in business and new taxpayers. Any Democrat linked to Mamdani will find themselves at political risk. Acceptance of the mayor-elect means shunning a Jewish constituency that has been with them for decades. It also signifies there will be an inner-party war with many casualties in waiting. Chuck Schumer might just be the first. His total lack of spine in speaking out against his fellow New Yorker was a betrayal to the center-left voter base in his party and more importantly, his Jewish brethren. Keeping the government shut down will not distract from this or help his cause either.

Once this hangover is cured, Republicans will realize how much they have to look forward to. A looming gerrymander war, right or wrong, could net the GOP up to 19 House seats in 2026. The Senate is in firm Republican hands in the ’26 cycle, and they may even expand a bit with Democrat seats in New Hampshire, Minnesota, Michigan, and Georgia up for the taking. With population losses in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California in particular, Democrats will soon lose electoral votes and congressional seats, while GOP strongholds like Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Texas stand to gain. That’s called a long-term problem that Democrats will have a difficult time reversing if they keep governing the way they do.

Perhaps the most intriguing race in the midterms will again be in the Empire State. Governor Kathy Hochul, a political dumpster fire, is one of those aforementioned Mamdani backers. How will the hard left react to her when she can’t deliver money to the city when Zohran’s freebies are in play? What will Hochul do when the Big Apple’s core is being feasted on by Mamdani and his army of maggots? Presumptive Republican nominee and current N.Y. Rep. Elise Stefanik will be on the hunt and undoubtedly attack Hochul with a fury.

Enjoy your victories, Democrats. You earned them. Just remember, your fool’s gold this year will not match our treasure next year. Who knows? Maybe Rep. Stefanik will be among those beautiful gems and jewels we scoop up.

With a little luck, perhaps New York will decide not to be who it is just this one time.