NPR on the winds of change in the Windy City: Lori “Lightfoot’s win breaks race and gender barriers, and she’s openly gay with a wife and daughter … Lightfoot’s election is the latest in a record number of black women elected mayor in the nation’s 100 largest cities. Lightfoot will become the eighth such woman to lead one of those cities, Chicago being the largest, when she takes office in May. The movement has been swift. Just five years ago, there was only one black woman leading any of the nation’s top 100 cities.”

+ “But in explaining how Lightfoot and Čaputová defeated much more experienced opponents, the key factor wasn’t their gender or sexual orientation: it was the fact that they were both outsiders taking on discredited political establishments. Their victories represented another chapter in the rise of the insurgent.” John Cassidy in The New Yorker: Lori Lightfoot, the Slovakian Elections, and the Rise of Political Outsiders.

+ Texas Observer: She’s 28. She’s an Immigrant. She’s in Charge of Texas’ Most Populous County. Get Used to It. (It’s not much of a stretch to conclude that the backlash to the Trump era has actually accelerated the rate of progress for women in politics.)