A year after devastating Trump loss, have the Democrats begun to find their way back?

Party was shell-shocked after 2024 defeat but Tuesday night's coast-to-coast romp signals brighter times ahead

It has been a year of soul-searching, hand-wringing, and self-flagellation for Democrats after a ballot-box rejection so thorough that some had come to believe that the party had lost not only the White House and Congress but the culture itself.

Shell-shocked, Democrats entered Donald Trump's second term in a political stupor - unsure of who they were or what they stood for. Their base had lost faith in its aging leadership class, and their brand, in Democrats' own words, had become toxic": a party increasingly confined to coastal states, big cities and college towns. And even there, warning signs were flashing.