2017 Election Recap And Analysis

One year after businessman Donald Trump stunned the Washington political-media complex, his party suffered stinging down-ballot defeats, losing two gubernatorial contests, two attorneys general offices and a first-in-the-nation vote to expand Medicaid coverage.

The Democratic clean sweep—the first national temperature reading of voters on the first election day since Trump's inauguration—spanned coast-to-coast, penetrated even hyperlocal contests and marked the party's best day at the polls since Barack Obama's reelection in 2012. 

After taking it on the chin in a series of special House elections, including one in Georgia in which the party cast the race as an explicit referendum on the president, Democrats got their groove back Tuesday. Here's what their wins, which represent a tremendous psychological boost to the party, mean for the country's politics and policies.