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2025 shockers: The biggest moments that rocked the campaign trail
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It was an off-year when it comes to elections, but 2025 was on fire on the campaign trail, as next year’s looming midterm showdowns took shape.
While it was never expected to match the intensity of the tumultuous 2024 battles for the White House and Congress, this year’s off-year elections grabbed outsized national attention and served as a key barometer leading up to the 2026 midterm contests for the House and Senate majorities.
Here are five of the biggest moments that shaped the campaign trail.
5. Trump pushes mid-decade congressional redistricting
Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, President Donald Trump in June first floated the idea of rare but not unheard of mid-decade congressional redistricting.
HERE ARE THE NEXT BATTLEGROUNDS IN REDISTRICTING FIGHT
President Donald Trump first floated the idea of mid-decade congressional redistricting in June. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
Trump’s first target: Texas.
A month later, when asked by reporters about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, «Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.»
The push by Trump and his political team triggered a high-stakes redistricting showdown with Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape in the fight for the House majority.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.
Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)
California voters earlier this month overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Right-tilting Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
SETTING THE STAGE: WHAT THE 2025 ELECTIONS SIGNAL FOR NEXT YEAR’S MIDTERM SHOWDOWNS
Republicans are looking to GOP-controlled Florida, where early redistricting moves are underway in Tallahassee. A new map could possibly produce up to five more right-leaning seats. But conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP legislative leaders don’t see eye-to-eye on how to move forward.
«We must keep the Majority at all costs,» Trump wrote on social media this month.
In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge this month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of a vote to redistrict the state’s congressional map, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)
But Trump scored a big victory when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court greenlighted Texas’ new map.
Other states that might step into the redistricting wars — Democratic-dominated Illinois and Maryland, and two red states with Democratic governors, Kentucky and Kansas.
4. Jay Jones text messages revealed, rocking Virginia’s elections
Virginia Democrats were cruising toward convincing victories in the commonwealth’s statewide elections when a scandal sent shockwaves up and down the ballot.
SHOWDOWN FOR THE HOUSE: DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS BRACE FOR HIGH-STAKES MIDTERM CLASH
Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones instantly went into crisis mode after controversial texts were first reported earlier by the National Review in early October.
Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, when he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.
Jay Jones addresses supporters after winning the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney general as wife Mavis Jones looks on in Norfolk, on June 17, 2025. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
But Jones faced a chorus of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race.
And the GOP leveraged the explosive revelations up the ballot, forcing Democratic Party nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, back on defense in a campaign where she was seen as the frontrunner against Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Earle-Sears didn’t waste an opportunity to link Spanberger to Jones. And during October’s chaotic and only gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his attorney general bid.
«The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent,» Spanberger said at the debate. But she neither affirmed nor pulled back her support of Jones.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2025 ELECTIONS
While the scandal grabbed national headlines, in the end it didn’t slow down the Democrats, as Spanberger crushed Earle-Sears by 15 points. Democrats won the separate election for lieutenant governor by 11 points and Jones even pulled off a 6-point victory over Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.
3. Democrats overperform at the ballot box
Just eight days into Trump’s second term in the White House, demoralized Democrats had something to cheer about.
Democrat Mike Zimmer defeated Republican Katie Whittington in a special state Senate election in Iowa, flipping a Republican-controlled vacant seat in a district that Trump had carried by 21 points less than three months earlier.
Zimmer’s victory triggered a wave of Democrats overperforming in special elections and regularly scheduled off-year ballot box contests.
Among the most high profile was the victory by the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin’s high-stakes and expensive state Supreme Court showdown.
With inflation, the issue that severely wounded them in the 2024 elections, persisting, Democrats were laser focused on affordability, and the wins kept coming.
In November’s regularly scheduled elections, they won the nation’s only two gubernatorial showdowns — in New Jersey and Virginia — by double digits. And they scored major victories in less high-profile contests from coast to coast.
Then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill celebrates during an election night event in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The year ended with Democrats winning a mayoral election in Miami, Florida for the first time in a quarter-century, and flipping a state House seat in Georgia.
The Democratic National Committee, in a year-end memo, touted, «In 2025 alone, Democrats won or overperformed in 227 out of 255 key elections — nearly 90% of races.»
But Democrats are still staring down a brand that remains in the gutter, with historically low approval and favorable numbers.
ELECTION REFLECTION: ‘DEMOCRATS FLIPPED THE SCRIPT’ ON AFFORDABILITY IN BALLOT BOX SHOWDOWNS
Among the most recent to grab headlines: Only 18% of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey this month said they approved of the way congressional Democrats were handling their job, while 73% percent disapproved.
That’s the lowest job approval rating for the Democrats in Congress since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question 16 years ago.
2. Democrats’ primary problem
The Democrats overperformed in this month’s special congressional election in a GOP-dominated seat in Tennessee — losing by nine points in a district that Trump carried by 22 points just a year ago,
But there were plenty of centrist Democrats who argued that state Rep. Aftyn Behn, the Democratic nominee in the race, was too far to the left for the district.
Republicans repeatedly attacked Behn over her paper trail of past comments on defunding the police.
‘FULL-BLOWN BATTLE’ BREWING IN DEM PARTY AS MAMDANI-STYLE CANDIDATES RISE IN KEY RACES
And the U.S. Senate campaign launch this month in red-leaning Texas by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal Trump critic and foil, compounded the argument by centrists.
«The Democratic Party’s aspirations to win statewide in a red state like Texas simply don’t exist without a centrist Democrat who can build a winning coalition of ideologically diverse voters,» Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, a group which advocates for moderate Democratic candidates, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Democratic nominee State Rep. Aftyn Behn speaks to supporters at a watch party after losing a special election for the U.S. seventh congressional district, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)
And the center-left Third Way, in a memo following the Tennessee special election, argued that «there are two projects going on in the Democratic Party right now. One is winning political power so we can stop Trump’s calamity. The other is turning blue places bluer.»
«If far-left groups want to help save American democracy, they should stop pushing their candidates in swing districts and costing us flippable seats,» the memo emphasized.
1. Mamdani wins NYC mayoral primary
It was the story that has dominated campaign politics for the past six months.
Zohran Mamdani‘s convincing June 24 victory in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary was the political earthquake that rocked the nation’s most populous city and sent powerful shockwaves across the country.
The capturing of the Democratic nomination by the now-34-year-old socialist state lawmaker over frontrunner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates propelled Mamdani to a general election victory.
Zohran Mamdani delivers a victory speech at a mayoral election night watch party, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)
Mamdani’s primary shocker, and later, his general election victory, energized the left.
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But it also handed Republicans instant ammunition as they worked to link the first Muslim New York City mayor with a far-left agenda to Democrats across the country, as the party aimed to paint Democrats as extremists.
But Trump, who had repeatedly called Mamdani a «communist,» appeared to undercut that narrative with a chummy Oval Office meeting with the mayor-elect last month.
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REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi
Las negociaciones nucleares entre Irán y Estados Unidos en Ginebra abrieron una fase de mayor optimismo en los mercados, tras jornadas marcadas por declaraciones enfrentadas entre el presidente Donald Trump y las autoridades iraníes. El precio del petróleo, que había subido ante el aumento de la tensión, experimentó una baja luego de que el ministro de Exteriores iraní, Abbas Araghchi, declarara que “se ha abierto una nueva ventana de oportunidad” para alcanzar un acuerdo sostenible, aunque Irán mantiene su disposición a defenderse ante cualquier amenaza.
El barril de West Texas Intermediate cerró con una caída de 0,9% hasta $62,33, tras haber llegado a subir 1,5% durante la jornada. Por su parte, el Brent del Mar del Norte retrocedió 1,8% hasta $67,42. Analistas del sector, como Aarin Chiekrie de Hargreaves Lansdown, indicaron que “hay especulación sobre la posibilidad de que Irán acepte diluir su uranio más enriquecido a cambio del levantamiento total de las sanciones financieras”, aunque persisten dudas sobre si ese gesto será suficiente para lograr un acuerdo definitivo.
Desde Teherán se informó que existe un acuerdo general con Washington sobre los términos básicos de un potencial pacto, mientras que un funcionario estadounidense confirmó que los negociadores iraníes volverán a Ginebra con una nueva propuesta en dos semanas. A pesar de estos avances, ambos países mantienen despliegues militares en la región: Irán anunció el cierre temporal de una parte del Estrecho de Ormuz para ejercicios militares, mientras que Estados Unidos envió un segundo portaviones. Esta situación añade volatilidad a los mercados energéticos, ya que el Estrecho es un punto clave para el tránsito mundial de crudo.
En el ámbito bursátil, Wall Street cerró la sesión con leves alzas, después de una jornada volátil. Chiekrie señaló que “los corredores de seguros, asesores financieros, servicios inmobiliarios y logística estuvieron bajo presión la semana pasada, y los inversores observan con cautela qué segmento del mercado podría ser el próximo en verse afectado por la inteligencia artificial”. Las bolsas europeas finalizaron en terreno positivo, con Londres y Fráncfort subiendo 0,8%, mientras que Tokio retrocedió y los mercados chinos permanecieron cerrados por el Año Nuevo Lunar.
EFE/ Cati Cladera
En el Reino Unido, los datos oficiales mostraron que el desempleo alcanzó un 5,2% en el último trimestre, el nivel más alto en cinco años, lo que aumenta la probabilidad de que el Banco de Inglaterra reduzca su tasa de interés de referencia el mes próximo. En el mercado de divisas, el dólar estadounidense se debilitó frente al yen.
Por otro lado, la Cámara de Industria y Comercio de Alemania advirtió que la mayor economía europea no se recuperará en 2026, debido a la persistente incertidumbre geopolítica, los altos costos y la débil demanda interna. Alemania apenas logró un crecimiento moderado en 2025, tras dos años de recesión.
En el sector corporativo, las acciones del gigante agroquímico Bayer subieron cerca de ocho por ciento luego de que su filial Monsanto propusiera un acuerdo de hasta USD 7.250 millones para resolver demandas colectivas en Estados Unidos, relacionadas con el supuesto vínculo entre el herbicida Roundup y el cáncer en sangre, lo que podría cerrar años de litigios costosos.
Mientras tanto, los inversores siguieron de cerca las negociaciones mediadas por Estados Unidos entre Ucrania y Rusia en Ginebra. Un asistente del equipo negociador de Kiev informó que las conversaciones continuarán el miércoles, y una eventual resolución podría allanar el camino para el levantamiento de sanciones y el incremento de los flujos petroleros hacia los mercados internacionales.
(Con información de AFP y Bloomberg)
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Dem governor’s ‘dangerous’ anti-ICE law ignites backlash after alleged box cutter attack by illegal alien
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FIRST ON FOX: The arrest of an illegal alien who allegedly sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter in Anne Arundale County, Maryland, would have been jeopardized by a new sanctuary law signed by the governor on Tuesday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Wes Moore pushed back, saying that «nothing in today’s legislation would prevent criminals from getting deported.»
DHS told Fox News Digital that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the illegal, Filberto Gonzalez Gutierrez, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who was charged with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment in Anne Arundale County, Maryland.
BLOCKING ICE COOPERATION FUELED MINNESOTA UNREST, OFFICIALS WARN AS VIRGINIA REVERSES COURSE
Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., (left) signed a bill on Tuesday banning 287(g) cooperation with ICE, which DHS said would jeopardize the arrest of illegals such as Filberto Gonzalez Gutierrez (right), a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who was charged with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment in Anne Arundale County, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; DHS)
Local Maryland outlet, the Capital Gazette, reported that Gutierrez sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter and accused her of cheating on him.
Following the crime and his subsequent arrest, DHS said that the ICE detainer lodged with the Anne Arundale County Detention Center was honored, «allowing a safe and controlled transfer of custody.» Gutierrez is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to DHS.
The agency said that «safe arrests like these are now in jeopardy with sanctuary politicians in the Maryland legislature passing a bill banning cooperation with ICE.»
The bill, signed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday, prohibits state and local jurisdictions in Maryland from partnering with ICE in immigration enforcement operations through what is known as the 287(g) program. Signed as a piece of emergency legislation, the bill takes immediate effect and requires any local jurisdictions with standing 287(g) agreements to terminate them immediately.
The bill does not ban local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers, which, under Maryland law, is up to the discretion of the local agency. However, by banning 287(g) partnerships, local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from issuing immigration detainers of their own.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Moore’s office, responded to DHS by telling Fox News Digital that, «Nothing in today’s legislation would prevent criminals from getting deported.»
DHS URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS AFTER FEDERAL AGENT ASSAULTED WHILE ARRESTING ILLEGAL ALIEN AT JAIL
Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.) appears on «Meet the Press» in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7, 2025. (Shannon Finney/NBC via Getty Images))
A Tuesday statement released by Moore’s office said that the legislation does not authorize the release of criminals, impact state policies and practices in response to immigration detainers issued by DHS, prevent state or local jurisdictions from working with the federal government on the removal of violent criminals who pose a risk to public safety or prevent state or local jurisdictions from continuing to notify ICE about the impending release of an individual of interest from custody or from coordinating the safe transfer of custody within constitutional limits.
In the same statement, Moore ripped into federal immigration agents, saying, «In Maryland, we defend Constitutional rights and Constitutional policing—and we will not allow untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents to deputize our law enforcement officers.»
Moore said that «this bill draws a clear line: we will continue to work with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable, but we refuse to blur the lines between state and federal authority in ways that undermine the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.»
«Maryland is a community of immigrants,» added Moore, «and that’s one of our greatest strengths because this country is incomplete without each and every one of us.»
However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who is set to depart from DHS next week, told Fox News Digital that the Maryland legislature is «unfortunately following a dangerous path … of putting criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.»
TEXAS GOVERNOR EXPOSES ‘HYPOCRISY’ OF DEM PUSH FOR STATES’ RIGHTS IN MINNESOTA AFTER BIDEN YEARS
Left to right, from top: Vladimir Herrera-Garcia, Manuel Portillo Cardoza, Jose Rivera Medrano, Nilo Herrera Sanchez and Jeffry Alfaro Lemus. (G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images; DHS)
«Filberto Gonzalez Gutierrez, a monster who sliced his wife’s neck open with a box cutter, will never walk American streets again because Anne Arundale County worked with ICE to keep this criminal off our streets,» continued McLaughlin.
«Now, Maryland sanctuary politicians are playing Russian roulette with American lives by outlawing cooperation with ICE and forcing law enforcement to RELEASE criminals from their jails into our communities and perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.»
In addition to Gutierrez, DHS accused Maryland politicians of «choosing to protect» other «public safety threats» recently arrested by ICE in Maryland.
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The agency pointed to the recent arrests by ICE of Vladimir Herrera-Garcia, from El Salvador, who was convicted of homicide and larceny; Manuel Portillo Cardoza, from El Salvador, convicted of assault and lewd or lascivious acts with minor; Jose Rivera Medrano, from El Salvador, convicted of incest with minor, sex offense against child-fondling, and another sex offense; Nilo Herrera Sanchez, from Peru, convicted of strong-arm rape, sex assault, sex offense, and rape with weapon; And Jeffry Alfaro Lemus, an MS-13 member from El Salvador, convicted of possession of a weapon.
DHS stated that «by outlawing cooperation with ICE, Maryland’s sanctuary policies are siding with heinous criminal illegal aliens over public safety. McLaughlin added that «unfortunately, the only consequence will be the continued murder, rape, assault, robbery, and carnage of American lives.»
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Peru sinks deeper into chaos as seventh president in ten years ousted in ‘Chifagate’ scandal
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Peru’s interim president was removed from office Tuesday over corruption allegations, further destabilizing the country ahead of April’s presidential and congressional elections, according to reports.
José Jerí’s ouster follows an ongoing scandal called «Chifagate,» in which he was allegedly filmed at an undisclosed meeting with a Chinese businessman who holds a concession for an energy project, the Associated Press reported.
Jeri was also said to have met with another business person, reportedly under investigation for alleged involvement in illegal logging.
Lawmakers removed him by voting to censure him as head of Congress, which needed only a simple majority and automatically stripped him of the presidency.
WHO IS THE POPULIST CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT-ELECT IN COSTA RICA?
Peru’s Congress ousted President Jose Jeri following a scandal over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman in Lima. (REUTERS/Angela Ponce)
Jerí has said he will respect the outcome of the vote, has denied wrongdoing and will return to his role as a legislator, Reuters reported.
Tuesday’s ousting vote marks the latest twist in a prolonged political crisis that has seen seven presidents since 2016.
Jerí had assumed the post on Oct. 10, 2025, after the dismissal of his predecessor, Dina Boluarte.
Right-wing parties that had backed Boluarte withdrew support amid further corruption scandals. Since Boluarte had no vice president, Jerí, then head of Congress, was next in line.
Lawmakers will now elect a new head of Congress, who will also assume the presidency until July 28, 2026, when the winner of the April 12 election is sworn in.
TRUMP ADMIN WARNS PERU IT COULD LOSE SOVEREIGNTY AS CHINA TIGHTENS GRIP ON NATION
Jerí had assumed the post of president on Oct. 10, 2025, after the dismissal of his predecessor, Dina Boluarte. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
As the country heads toward the next vote, the presidential field remains crowded.
Conservative businessman Rafael López Aliaga currently leads in polls, while Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, is running second in most others.
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Fujimori narrowly lost her last presidential bid, securing 49% of the vote in 2021. If no candidate wins more than 50% in April, the top two finishers will advance to a June runoff.
Rospigliosi said parties have until 6 p.m. local time to present candidates, and the legislature is expected to vote on a new president Feb. 18.
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