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Off-year elections gave Democrats some hope this week.

The party swept statewide elections in admittedly blue states and saw signs of a rebuke of President Donald Trump and a resurgence for Democrats after a year in the political wilderness.

They also, with a ballot measure in California and a strong majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates, began the process of redrawing congressional lines that could give them a better chance of regaining the House majority in midterm elections one year from now.

Voters in New York City, meanwhile, elected as mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who quoted Eugene Debs in his victory speech. It’s a marker Republicans will try to apply to the entire Democratic party.

I talked to CNN’s Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian for his thoughts on what the election means right now for Trump and Democrats, and what it means heading into the pivotal midterms. Our conversation, edited for length and style, is below.

What makes this a definitive rebuke of Trump?

WOLF: Democrats won up and down the ballot, but these are all local elections in blue states. Why can we describe this as a definitive rebuke of President Donald Trump?

CHALIAN: There’s no doubt these elections played out on blue turf. There’s also no doubt that these Democrats overperformed on that blue turf from what Harris did just last year, when Trump had a very successful election.

So you look at why. You can look in the exit polls. We asked voters in Virginia and New Jersey if Trump was a factor in their minds in this election, and for roughly half he wasn’t. But for those that said Trump was a factor, 2 to 1, he was a factor of opposition.

But there’s also the geography and the demography.

You look at some of the groups where, just a year ago, Trump had made real inroads. Whether it’s young men, specifically young men of color, or you look at some of his narrowing of deficits with independent voters. That all was wiped away.

One of the questions going in was, OK, can Republican candidates not named Trump, now that he is in office and not running this year, can they maintain or extend those gains?