Biden Photo: VCG

US President Joe Biden returned from Europe Wednesday with a wake-up call for feuding Democrats holding up his sweeping domestic reforms in Congress - after a humiliating state election defeat that many blamed on inertia and infighting among the party's lawmakers.

"I do know that people want us to get things done," he told reporters asking for his takeaway on longtime favorite Terry McAuliffe's loss to a Republican newcomer in Tuesday's Virginia governor's election.

"And that's why I'm continuing to push very hard for the Democratic Party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill."

Amid nose diving approval ratings and frustration over his stalled economic agenda, Biden came home to a Republican red wave that swept over the eastern US Tuesday, from Virginia Beach to Long Island.

Republicans pulled off a decisive upset in the gubernatorial election in otherwise blue-trending Virginia, with untested multimillionaire Glenn Youngkin beating McAuliffe, while the Democratic governor of New Jersey won reelection but only barely.

There were also Republican gains across New York City and a conservative backlash to a liberal proposal in Minneapolis - the city where George Floyd was murdered by police - to dismantle the local force. 

Hours before the polls closed, Biden had voiced confidence about the votes in Virginia and New Jersey, rejecting suggestions that they were a verdict on his presidency. 

Asked several times on Wednesday if he took responsibility for the bloodletting in local elections, he avoided giving a direct answer.

But he told reporters at the White House: "People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things - from COVID[-19] to school, to jobs to a whole range of things and the cost of a gallon of gasoline."

"And so if I'm able to sign into law my Build Back Better initiative, I'm in a position where you're going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly. So that has to be done."

Biden, who campaigned as a centrist but has governed to the left, is facing a thorny path to the November 2022 midterm elections as he plays peacemaker between the increasingly polarized Democratic factions he has failed to bring together.