Election day 2021 is in the books and it looks like we’re gonna get out of it with no violent insurrections or attempts to overturn the vote. So we’re making progress. The Bellwether election of the evening was a shellacking by the GOP as Glenn Youngkin cruised to gubernatorial victory in Virginia and the NJ Gov race remains too close to call. Off-year elections tend to be a Rorschach test for political analysts, and what they usually see in the ink blots is a confirmation that they’ve been right about everything all along. Two interesting trends: The Virginia election, while being bad news for Biden and the Dems, didn’t really seem to be all that much about Trump. And, as Jeff Greenfield explains: One Lesson of Virginia? The Culture War Still Works. (And that means we’re gonna get a whole lot more of the culture war leading up to 2022.)

+ Boston’s historic mayoral race encapsulates the story of the US’s changing demographics.

+ “While sup­port­ers in­sist­ed po­lice would still be part of the de­part­ment, op­po­nents of the chart­er change ham­mered on themes that echoed in voters’ rea­sons for say­ing no on ques­tion 2: Who’s going to an­swer 911 calls? What’s the plan for keep­ing the city safe?” Minneapolis voters reject plan to replace Police Department.