A year after Donald Trump shocked pundits and prognosticators by winning the White House, voters in several key races gave the president his annual political check-up, and like most yearly check-ups, there was some discomfort. In the biggest race of the day,
Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie in what was widely described as a test of Trumpism without Trump. (It turned out to be Trumpism without votes.) Here’s WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin with 15 takeaways from Virginia.

+ “Robert Marshall, who once referred himself as Virginia’s ‘chief homophobe,’ had held the position for more than two decades and recently introduced his own version of a ‘bathroom bill’ to the state legislature.” Last night, he lost to Danica Roem, who will become the first out transgender person to be elected and get seated in a state legislature. Marshall focused on hate. Roem focused on traffic.

+ Chris Hurst, whose girlfriend died in a live TV shooting, won a seat in Virginia’s statehouse.

+ In New Jersey, Phil Murphy won the gubernatorial race, and a politician who made a bad joke about the Women’s March lost to a woman he inspired to run.

+ NPR: Election day results brought many firsts for diverse candidates nationwide. And from The Guardian, a night of firsts: 10 historic victories from the US elections.