US Democrats still face big questions, despite election wins

A year after a painful election defeat, the Democratic Party stands at a fork in the road.

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After months of downbeat introspection, three election races this week gave them a much-needed burst of momentum.

In New York, there was the unlikely victory of a 34-year-old democratic socialist as mayor of the nation's biggest city, while it was a former CIA agent who won in Virginia to become the state's first female governor.

And in New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot who made opposing Donald Trump a focal point of her campaign delivered a decisive victory over a Republican candidate backed by the president.

These three candidates - New York state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Virginia's law-and-order moderate Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey congresswoman Mikie Sherrill - each ran a different race.