Across off-year and special elections in 2025, Democrats notched a series of local wins in rural and small-town communities—from county offices in Pennsylvania to mayoral races in Montana—and also benefited from rural-area shifts in statewide contests, according to reporting and data cited by The Nation and other outlets.
The 2025 off-year and special elections produced a string of Democratic wins in places where Republicans have dominated recent decades, including several rural and small-town contests that party strategists see as potential building blocks for future statewide competitiveness.
In Virginia, Democrats won the governorship in the November 4, 2025 election, with Abigail Spanberger defeating Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears. Democrats also expanded their margin in the Virginia House of Delegates, according to the Associated Press and other election coverage. (apnews.com)
In Iowa, a year-end special election on December 30, 2025 resulted in a Democratic victory that prevented Republicans from regaining a two-thirds supermajority in the state Senate. Associated Press reporting identified the winner as Renee Hardman, who defeated Republican Lucas Loftin for a Des Moines-area seat. (apnews.com)
Pennsylvania: local wins in red-leaning counties
In Pennsylvania, The Nation highlighted November results in Beaver County, where voters elected a Democratic local magistrate and numerous Democrats to municipal and school-board positions. The Nation also reported that a school board endorsed by Moms for Liberty was voted out after incurring significant legal costs tied to litigation over transgender bathroom and sports policies—costs that contributed to a local tax increase and fueled backlash. (thenation.com)
Erin Gabriel, identified by The Nation as chair of the Beaver County Democratic Committee, attributed the party’s success to sustained community engagement and local organizing, including support from union locals and volunteer projects outside election season. “It’s good for our neighbors to see that we’re involved in the community because we live here too. We’re not scary,” Gabriel said. (thenation.com)
The Nation also described Democrats’ presence during a period when SNAP benefits were affected during a government shutdown, saying volunteers helped restock local food pantries. (Independent confirmation of that specific volunteer effort was not found in other outlets during this review.) (thenation.com)
In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, multiple local outlets reported that Democrats flipped four of five contested at-large County Council seats on November 4, 2025, shifting the 11-member council to a Democratic majority when the new members are seated. (wvia.org)
Montana and other local contests
In Montana, The Nation reported that Wade Bitz, described as a family farmer, won the mayor’s race in Havre after defeating a Republican-endorsed opponent. This article could not independently confirm the election result from a statewide election authority in the time available, though Bitz’s campaign materials identify him as a farmer and a Havre City Council member. (thenation.com)
In Polson, Montana, The Nation reported that Laura Dever—identified as chair of the Lake County Democrats—won the mayoral race. A local newspaper account of the November 4, 2025 municipal election reported Dever won 671–436. (thenation.com)
The Nation also cited local Democratic gains in other communities, including a reported city-council flip in Georgetown, South Carolina; a Democrat-endorsed mayoral win in Swainsboro, Georgia; and multiple local victories in Otsego County, New York. Those specific claims were not independently verified here beyond The Nation’s references. (thenation.com)
Statewide shifts and “kitchen-table” messaging
The Nation further pointed to statewide results in New Jersey and Virginia as evidence that Democratic candidates improved their performance in more rural counties. It cited outside reporting and exit polling indicating that New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial winner, Mikie Sherrill, ran several points ahead of recent Democratic baselines in the state’s more rural counties and that economy-focused voters in New Jersey favored Sherrill by a 66%–33% margin in a CNN exit poll. (thenation.com)
For Virginia, The Nation reported that Spanberger improved on the 2021 Democratic gubernatorial nominee’s performance in rural areas and emphasized a campaign that focused on costs, health care access, and other economic issues rather than national partisan fights—an approach echoed in contemporaneous election coverage describing Spanberger’s emphasis on pragmatism and cost-of-living concerns. (thenation.com)
The Nation quoted Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute, describing the results as evidence of a Democratic recalibration “from moral crusades to kitchen-table math.” The article also quoted Daniel Kimicata, described as a newly elected school board member in Pennsylvania’s Central Bucks County, arguing that local voters respond better to candidates who avoid national political agendas: “National politics is very performative, but local politics is very personal.” (thenation.com)
Candidate recruitment investments
The Nation reported that Run for Something has launched a five-year, $50 million effort aimed at recruiting and training millennial and Gen Z candidates for local and state races, with the long-term goal of making a wider map of states more competitive. (thenation.com)
