As Democrats regroup after the 2024 election, some are finding cautious optimism in an unlikely place: state legislatures.

While the party faced disappointing results such as losing the Michigan state House, it did not face the kind of devastating wreckage down-ballot that often accompanies other national elections.

The state legislative results were far from a triumph for Democrats. But they stand apart from the presidential race, in which Vice President Kamala Harris lost every single swing state — including states where Democrats made gains in state government or preserved their majorities. Democrats held onto a one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House, flipped 14 seats in Wisconsin under new electoral maps, and broke the GOP supermajority in North Carolina, giving weight to Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein’s veto power.

“I just can’t recall an election that we have been in the same presidential battlegrounds and have been able to maintain the successes that we did have, and mitigate the losses in the way that we did,” said Heather Williams, the head of Democrats’ state legislative campaign arm. “To be able to hold our own in Pennsylvania and maintain that majority with the losses up-ticket, there’s definitely stuff to learn from that.”

It’s not the kind of sweeping dominance that Democrats had hoped for this election cycle, but strategists focused on these races say those results prove Democrats have figured out what it takes to be successful in the states.

Republicans find the idea laughable.

“I don’t know how anyone over there could look at this as anything other than an utter disaster,” said Republican State Leadership Committee President Dee Duncan, who is stepping down from his role at the end of the year.

While Democrats acknowledge they fell short, they see this year’s results as laying the groundwork for upcoming cycles — even if they can’t help what’s happening at the top of the ticket.

“We know that cycle after cycle we build the best sailboat we can in state legislatures but we don’t control the wind at the higher level of the ballot,” said Leslie Martes, chief strategy officer for Forward Majority, a PAC that spent $45 million this cycle on supporting Democratic state legislative candidates.

One lesson down-ballot Democratic groups are emphasizing: They need more money and attention from the rest of the party.

“While we are obviously encouraged by Democrats’ resilience in state legislative races, we should also be clear about one thing: this overperformance happened in spite of the national party’s efforts at the state legislative level, not because of them,” reads a post-election memo from Democratic group the States Project shared exclusively with POLITICO.

Founded in 2017 by former New York lawmaker Daniel Squadron and Democratic donor Adam Pritzker, the group has emerged as a top player in Democratic state legislative circles — spending more than $70 million on electing Democrats this cycle.

“Put simply, national Democrats continue to overlook and underfund state legislative campaigns,” the memo reads.

Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, had also forewarned a lack of investment in the leadup to the election.

It’s routine for committees to sound the alarm over money problems — and it is a particularly perennial complaint down-ballot, a level that often gets overshadowed.

Democrats credit a record amount of money poured into these races as one of the main reasons why their state legislative candidates largely bucked national electoral trends. The DLCC received $2.5 million from Harris’ campaign and the Democratic National Committee — a historic sum, though still a tiny amount considering the massive political spending further up the ticket. The DNC also put more than $260 million into state parties this cycle — money that, in part, went toward these down-ballot races.

In a key race for the Pennsylvania state House majority, eight-term Democratic state Rep. Frank Burns, running in a heavily Republican district, put in more than $4 million on advertising, while Republicans spent $2.5 million, according to ad tracker AdImpact. Two years ago, total spending was $1.5 million.

In Arizona, outside Democratic groups funneled in millions of dollars. The States Project alone spent $9.3 million in the state, according to the memo, which it said was 13 times more than the next largest national funder. Still, despite being outspent by Democrats in key races, Republicans ended up gaining ground.

The sole Democrat to flip a seat in the legislature, Rep.-elect Kevin Volk, said he’s still focused on his top issues, like improving public education and affordable housing, but Democrats’ failure to take control “changes the parameters of what’s possible.”

Now Democrats are looking ahead, because the power struggle in the states is far from over. Because of state legislators being elected to Congress, there are a handful of vacancies in Virginia and Michigan that could lead to ties in their state legislatures.

Democrats in Michigan face the potential of a tied Senate. A special election will be held to succeed Democratic Rep.-elect Kristen McDonald-Rivet in a swing seat, and if Republicans pick it up, they’ll have to rely on Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist to be the tiebreaker.

Virginia will hold a special election in January for Democratic Rep.-elect Suhas Subramanyam’s seat in the state Senate. It’s a district that Democrats are favored to hold, which will be important given their one-seat majority. If Republicans can flip it, it would bring the state Senate to a tie, leading to Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears casting tie-breaking votes. There will also be a special election for a safe Democratic seat in the state House.

A special election has not yet been scheduled for Republican Rep.-elect John McGuire’s seat in the state Senate, though it is expected to remain in Republican hands.

Virginia will also have a high-stakes battle for the state House next year. Democrats had a huge win in 2023, when they flipped control of the lower chamber, claiming full control of the state legislature.

“The dynamics change a little bit from election year to election year, and we’re in new, uncharted territory, but the basics stay the same, and we have pretty good results from year to year,” said Democratic Party of Virginia Chair Susan Swecker.

Swecker said she was emboldened by some of the recent results in Virginia. Based off of data that is still being finalized, Harris won 59 out of 100 state House districts — just one fewer than President Joe Biden did in 2020 — and 25 out of 40 state Senate districts, one more than Biden did.

But she also cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from this month’s election, and urged against finger-pointing.

“We are two weeks out from an earth shattering election, and we’re still trying to figure it out,” she said. “I think the worst thing you could do as a leader is stand out there and go, ‘Here’s the three things we need to change and the three things that we didn’t do right.’ How about taking a hot second and actually really look at stuff and figure out what happened.”

One of Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters just got picked for one of the most important roles in his second administration.

Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, was chosen Thursday to be the nation’s top law enforcement official by Trump just hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration in the face of Senate opposition.

Bondi is a partner at Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm that had been run by Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles and whose founder, Brian Ballard, is a top Trump fundraiser. She is co-chair of the law and justice division at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, which has been likened to a Trump administration in waiting.

Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and after he was elected in 2016, her name was floated for various jobs in the administration but it never panned out.

She appears more likely to have an easier path to confirmation as attorney general than Gaetz, who was dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.

Here are five things to know about Bondi:

She was the first female attorney general in Florida

Bondi served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011-2019, the first woman to hold the office. She initiated the state’s litigation against opioid manufacturers. It was settled after she left office.

She left office because of term limits and worked for Trump’s transition team after his first victory.

She has a close relationship with Lara Trump

Bondi has a close relationship with Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law and chair of the Republican National Committee. The two campaigned together against a ban on dog racing in the state.

On Tuesday, Bondi advocated for Lara Trump to be the replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of State.

She’s a former Trump lawyer

Bondi assisted Trump in his first impeachment fight as a senior adviser and lawyer, making the rounds on TV to help his case. Trump was impeached on charges of abusing his power and obstructing congressional investigations but the Senate acquitted him of the charges.

She nixed the Trump University fraud case

In 2016, news emerged that Trump paid a $2,500 fine because his foundation improperly donated $25,000 to Bondi’s political election committee in 2013 before her office opted not to pursue a fraud investigation into Trump University. Trump eventually paid $25 million to settle fraud complaints against the now-defunct university.

Bondi said she was unaware of Trump University complaints at the time and that the contribution had nothing to do with her office’s decision not to pursue the case. Trump has said he admired Bondi for never backing away from him amid the controversy.

Her dog custody battle played out publicly

Bondi was involved in a custody battle with Hurricane Katrina victims over a St. Bernard she adopted in 2005 after the dog was separated from his family during the storm.

The family had been trying to find the dog and Bondi refused to return him. She accused the family of neglect the animal, an allegation they denied.

The family sued, and the dispute lasted 16 months until the two sides settled before trial. Bondi returned the dog to the family with food and medication.

Donald Trump spent his presidential campaign running from Project 2025. Now, he’s using it to stock his White House and administration.

In recent days, Trump has tapped nearly a half-dozen Project 2025 authors and contributors, including Brendan Carr, who Trump picked this week to lead the FCC; former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who got the nod for ambassador to Canada; and John Ratcliffe, who was tapped for director of the CIA. One of Trump’s first selections — Tom Homan as “border czar” — was also a Project 2025 contributor.

The next Project 2025 alum to join the administration could be Russ Vought, the president-elect’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is being closely considered for a return to the role, POLITICO reported this week. That’s despite Trump once calling the group’s work product “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” and the leader of his transition team, Howard Lutnick, saying the group had made itself “nuclear.”

Not anymore.

“I don’t think the Trump administration sees Project 2025 as toxic,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute, who advised The Heritage Foundation project but declined to be listed as one of its authors. “So, it should not surprise us when some of the people who contributed to that effort get picked up by the administration.”

Now Project 2025 alums are slated to have key roles in his administration — particularly on the economy, immigration and dismantling the administrative state.

And with the most recent round of controversial Cabinet nominees, Cannon quipped, the Trump transition is “doing their level best to make Project 2025 look reasonable.”

Still, there are limits. Roger Severino, an anti-abortion stalwart who held a prominent role at HHS during the first Trump administration and was the lead author of Project 2025’s health care chapter, was rejected by Trump’s transition team to fill the No. 2 job at the agency over his participation in the project. Anti-abortion groups had lobbied hard for his nomination, but Trump’s team is trying to distance itself from the strict federal curbs on abortion Severino called for in Project 2025, after running on promises to leave the issue to the states.

In some cases — like Vought — it’s unclear whether the influence of Project 2025 alumni ever truly ceased, even when Trump repeatedly disavowed the project on the campaign trail. Despite those pronouncements, Vought has played a key role behind the scenes, informally advising the Trump campaign on trade and economic policy alongside Trump loyalists like Vince Haley, the campaign’s policy lead, and Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade chief.

Vought wrote a section of the Heritage report on paring back federal spending and regulations, as well as Project 2025’s 180-day transition paybook. In an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show on X, he said he would pursue a “massive deregulatory agenda” alongside Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and be “as radical or aggressive as you can” in reducing full-time federal employees and contractors.

Officials at The Heritage Foundation, amid a rocky summer where some prominent Republicans were criticizing the group — namely, top operatives on the Trump campaign, like senior adviser Chris LaCivita — were already anticipating that their standing would vastly improve after the election. Throughout much of 2024, the think tank took the position of “we’re going to slide down a little bit and be quiet,” said a Heritage official granted anonymity to speak freely.

But by October, the official said, there were already signs that there “was less cautiousness about Project 2025 and Heritage,” giving way to quick nominations of Heritage fellows and Project 2025 contributors to Trump’s new administration.

At a book release party last week for Heritage President Kevin Roberts — whose September publication date was pushed back until after the election, amid concerns about the Project 2025 brand — Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) was among several members of Congress there to lend support for the organization.

“I told Kevin, I think it helps,” Norman told Blue Light News of all the backlash and hand wringing over Heritage and Project 2025 in recent months, arguing that the publicity would ultimately serve to be helpful to the organization implementing its agenda.

That’s certainly not how Trump’s team saw things for months, though.

Democrats proved successful in raising awareness of the group’s plans, an effort that began in February and picked up traction by early summer. Voters began bringing up Project 2025 organically in focus groups conducted for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Google searches started picking up, peaking in July.

That was around the time where Trump himself issued a statement on Truth Social, writing that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” and claiming he had “no idea who is behind it.”

Sensing a threat, MAGA Inc., the main super PAC supporting Trump, launchedits own Project 2025 website this summer, calling it a “hoax” and trying to capture concerned voters’ search traffic.

But those close to Project 2025 stress that Trump isn’t likely to adopt its recommendations wholesale.

“It was never accurate to say that Project 2025 was the Trump agenda,” Cannon said. “But he’s certainly friendly to parts of Project 2025 — particularly the most concerning, repressive parts, like immigration restrictions.”

The trade chapter of the report, for instance, included separate arguments for free trade and protectionist policies, reflecting a deep divide within Trump world over tariffs.

“Remember, you had Heritage giving 30 pages to a defense of free trade,” Cannon added. “So, there are also things in there that Trump doesn’t like and would never do.”

For Democrats, the spate of hires come as a deflating — if not unexpected — development in the transition. During the presidential campaign, Democrats went all in on linking Trump to the controversial blueprint, a controversial, hard-line conservative agenda. President Joe Biden’s rapid response team decided in February to start hammering the issue, according to a person with direct knowledge of the strategy, eventually seeing the effort take off ahead of Biden’s collapse in the June debate. Kamala Harris, after replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket, spent at least $5 million tying Trump to Project 2025, according to AdImpact.

In response, Trump distanced himself from the project — only now to turn to some of its authors for roles in his administration.

“It’s the least surprising revelation that we’ve seen in this administration,” said Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, the possible Democratic National Committee chair candidate who hoisted an oversized prop version of the 900-page policy plan at the Democratic National Convention and railed against it during prime time. “You can’t look at something that had 140 members of the previous Trump administration who had a hand in writing this, and believe for a second that he had no idea what this was. So, yeah, it’s, ‘I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.’”