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Notes -
That three blue states voted blue no matter who in an off-presidential election in an era of tribal polarization and increasing base radicalism?
I suppose not, in the sense that a forecast of showers is always a bad sign for staying dry, but you're not exactly laying out what is supposed to be a surprise. The only somewhat eyebrow raising one there is Jay Jones, and it was already pretty clear that the party machine was closing ranks about him. Same with the California gerrymandering passing- the one-party state party machine is performing as a party-state machine does.
As for the rest, again, what is the baseline expectation to be deviated from? Just on historical norms alone you'd expect Trump to lose the house and possibly the senate next year.
Virginia's statewide elections are always off-presidential-year, by state law. Republicans swept all three VA races I mentioned above in the last general election in 2021. It is hardly the case that, at least in recent history, Republicans are incapable of winning statewide offices in VA general elections.
2021 was a very weird year that became a referendum on Democratic insanity around COVID and schools and sexual abuse therein
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California can reliably elect Democrats, but when it comes to specific issues, the ballot initiatives don't always go the way one thinks they would. Looking at recent years: Funding greenhouse gas initiatives by raising taxes on incomes over $2 million? Failed. Raising the minimum wage? Failed. Expanding the ability of local governments to impose rent control? Failed. Two initiatives to legalize certain forms of gambling failed. The measures voters actually approved in that time period were ones for increased funding for arts and music education, two involving healthcare, and one that increased sentences for certain drug and theft crimes. I don't know how much the party apparatus was involved in pushing or pushing against some of these, but there's no clear pattern here, and the left-coded ones that were approved were of the more boring variety. This probably received more attention than any of the others, but the margin by which it passed sends a pretty clear signal.
To add to your list: affirmative action was banned by ballot proposition in the 1990s, and a spectacularly-failed attempt was made to repeal it via another proposition in 2020—just after the Summer of Floyd, no less!
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