DNC chair predicts wins in key governor races as Trump agenda faces first test

EXCLUSIVE: PHILADELPHIA, PA – Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Ken Martin is confident his party’s investment in 2025’s most consequential elections will pay off.

“I do expect that we’ll win those elections in New Jersey and Virginia,” Martin said in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, pointing to the only two states holding gubernatorial contests this year. “We feel pretty bullish about our chances.”

Democrats are looking to rebound from last year’s setbacks – when the party lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority – with strong showings in next week’s races. 

The New Jersey and Virginia contests are viewed as early tests of President Donald Trump’s agenda and as a barometer for next year’s midterm elections, when Democrats hope to win back control of Congress.

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The DNC has dished out over $7 million – a party record – for get-out-the-vote and organizing efforts this summer and autumn in New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, where Democrats are fighting to retain three state supreme court seats. 

“I’ve always taken the position that every election matters, whether it’s an on year off year, whether it’s a local election, a federal election, every inch of ground that we gain here adds up,” Martin emphasized.

Martin said that since Trump returned to the White House in January, “there’s been 45 elections on the ballot. Democrats have overperformed in all of them to the tune of about 16 percentage points on average.” While confident, he added that “we’re not taking anything for granted.”

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Asked what a ballot box setback would mean for Democrats, Martin said his focus is on “turning out every single vote we can over these next several days left to make sure we do win.”

He reiterated, “I do expect that we’ll win those elections in New Jersey and Virginia. We have terrific candidates who are running great campaigns.”

Martin spoke during a two-day campaign swing through Pennsylvania, ahead of return stops to boost voter turnout in New Jersey and Virginia.

In blue-leaning New Jersey, polls show a tight race between Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill and GOP rival Jack Ciattarelli, who is vying in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

Asked why Republicans feel bullish about their chances to capture the Garden State’s governor’s office, Martin told Politico in a recent interview that “New Jersey is the best place, probably, for Donald Trump to actually stop the Democratic momentum — or at least minimize the Democratic momentum that we’ve seen throughout this year.”

Presented with his comments, Martin said that “we expect this race to be close, and it certainly seems like it will be close.”

And he noted that “history is not on our side in the sense that we’ve never elected, at least in 50 years, a Democrat to a third term in the governorship” in New Jersey.

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Still, he argued that Sherrill “is running a really strong campaign on a message that’s resonating with New Jerseyans.”

In Virginia, recent controversy in the state’s attorney general race has complicated Democrats’ efforts to hold the governor’s mansion, forcing nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, to defend against GOP attacks. Polls had shown Spanberger with a solid lead over Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. 

The controversy centers on Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, who apologized for texts sent in 2022 comparing then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, saying that if given two bullets, “he would use both” on the Republican lawmaker. 

Republicans have demanded Jones withdraw from the race. 

“Let me be very clear, I immediately condemned those vile and indefensible comments and text messages that he made and called on him to apologize,” Martin said. “He needed to apologize to Virginians, which he did.”

Asked by Fox News Digital if he should have called for Jones to step aside, Martin said, “That’s not up to me to decide. That’s up to Virginians to decide whether or not his comments were disqualifying, and they’ll make their decision in a few days.”

Martin also called Pennsylvania’s state supreme court retention elections in Pennsylvania “critical for our party, because what we’ve seen over many years now is attempts by billionaire donors and special interests to buy Supreme Court seats throughout the country, and it’s an attempt actually to thwart our democracy.”

“The reality is, is for us, this is a critical election for the National Democratic Party, because if they win here, if these billionaire donors are able to win these three Supreme Court races, they will certainly take this on the road and try to do this everywhere else in the country,” Martin warned.

The Republican National Committee (RNC), asked to respond to Martin’s remarks, pointed to its fundraising edge. 

“Ken Martin has turned the DNC into a debt-ridden circus run by radicals — and we sincerely hope he keeps up the great work, RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels argued in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Regardless of what happens next Tuesday, it won’t be because of anything Ken Martin did. The DNC is broke, desperate, and wasting its last dollars trying to save face in blue states, and even then, Democrats are struggling to hold on.”