New York Delivers Key House Wins, but Warning Bells Sound for Democrats

Democrats flipped two congressional swing seats in New York and were poised to retake a third on Wednesday, reversing embarrassing midterm losses in the state and keeping their party’s slim hopes of a House majority alive.

And yet, on the same night, President-elect Donald J. Trump delivered the strongest performance of any Republican nominee in the state since the 1980s, gaining ground even in its beating urban heart: New York City.

The whiplash results left Democrats and Republicans uncertain whether to celebrate or panic. On one hand, they validated Democrats’ concerted campaign to avenge 2022, when the party’s New York losses helped Republicans seize House control. On the other, they suggested a more durable shift to the right, upending bedrock political assumptions in one of the nation’s most Democratic states.

The two trends collided most clearly on Long Island. Democrats were on track to narrowly win both competitive House seats in bellwether Nassau County, where Vice President Kamala Harris ran 14 points behind President Biden’s 2020 margin to lose the suburban stronghold.

“We all need to take a deep breath and wake up,” said Representative Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, who barely held onto his Queens and Nassau swing seat by outperforming Ms. Harris.

He argued that Democrats succeeded in the down-ballot races because they were able to separate themselves from the party’s recent liberal positions on immigration, crime and the economy and out-organize Republicans.