With polls showing signs of recovery after a popularity slump, Tuesday’s results will test whether the party can regain voters’ trust

One year after Donald Trump won his way back into the White House, voters are going back to the ballot box in a test of the president’s popularity and whether Democrats are able to rebound from their catastrophic losses of 2024.

With governor’s mansions, mayoral offices, statehouses and mid-cycle redistricting on the line in closely watched contests from Trenton, New Jersey and Richmond, Virginia to New York City and beyond, the party is pinning its hopes on locally rooted campaigns aiming to blunt a national conservative message that has surged in recent years.