The most-watched race yesterday was the contest for governor of Virginia, an important swing state that has been shifting from red to blue in recent years. Because Virginia does not allow governors to seek reelection, the open race pitted political newcomer and multimillionaire Glenn Youngkin against former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe.

The race was seen as an important bellwether for next year’s elections and even the presidential race of 2024. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both pushed heavily for McAuliffe; Harris even raised ethical and legal issues due to her video appeal to Black churches to vote for McAuliffe. The Virginia Democratic candidate himself, on the other hand, downplayed his connection to the Biden White House as the president’s popularity sags at the moment.

Youngkin, meanwhile, managed to thread a delicate needle with GOP voters, tying himself to former President Donald Trump while also appealing to moderate Republicans. As MSNBC host Joy Reid pointed out, Youngkin’s campaign played on hot-button issues, including supporting a school ban of Toni Morrison’s masterpiece novel Beloved and an appeal to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

Youngkin’s closing argument ad featured a vow to banish a Toni Morrison novel from Virginia schools. A pro-Youngkin rally featured genuflection to the flag that flew at the insurrection. The text and subtext of his campaign was literally about race, and he clearly did quite well. https://t.co/hvb5TSYrpE

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid ???? (@JoyAnnReid) November 3, 2021

In the end, Youngkin’s money, dog-whistles and ability to capitalize on a lack of Democratic enthusiasm all allowed him to gain ground on McAuliffe and eventually emerge victorious last night.

The other major governor’s race yesterday was in New Jersey, another state that was thought to be reliably blue until last night’s results started to appear. There, incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy was thought to be on his way toward a comfortable win over his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli.

While public opinion seemed to be on Murphy’s side leading up to the vote, history was not; as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
points out, no Democratic governor has won re-election in New Jersey since 1977, and the state has elected a governor from the opposite party of the sitting president during every election since 1985.

Murphy’s attempt to break those trends is on thin ice, as the race remains too close to call as of Wednesday morning. Like the surprise Republican victory in Virginia, the deadlock in blue New Jersey bodes poorly for Democrats as they seek to retain power in 2022 and beyond.

A number of state and city races ended with historic results last night. As Blavity previously reported, Democrat Eric Adams won the mayoral race in New York City, where he will be the second Black mayor in the city’s history, while fellow Democrat Alvin Bragg will become the first Black district attorney for Manhattan.

In Pittsburgh, Ed Gainey will become the city’s first Black mayor, after defeating Republican Tony Moreno.

In Boston, Democrat Michelle Wu beat Republican Annissa Essaibi George in a victory for diversity and progressive politics. Wu, who becomes the first woman and first person of color to be elected mayor of Boston, was supported by Massachusetts progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, who taught Wu and Representative Ayanna Pressley.

Wu also gained the endorsement of her immediate predecessor, Kim Janey, whose appointment to finish out the term of previous Mayor Marty Walsh made her the first woman and person of color to head the city (though not in an elected role).

Not all of the wins for diversity came from Democrats or mayoral races, however. In Virginia’s other big race, the position of lieutenant governor was won by Republican Winsome Sears, a conservative veteran and Black Jamaican immigrant who supports Trump. In her victory speech, Winsome noted her service as a Marine and declared that she "was willing to die for this country," which could explain why she opposes vaccine and mask mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the most unusual races decided yesterday was in Buffalo, New York. The election placed two Black Democratic candidates against one another for the role of mayor, as Democratic socialist India Walton again faced off against incumbent Mayor Byron Brown for the second time this year. Walton defeated Brown in the Democratic primary earlier this year. But Brown, who was initially elected the mayor of Buffalo in 2005, refused to drop out of the race, mounting a write-in campaign for the general election.

Brown’s campaign included the unusual tactic of distributing rubber stamps to supporters so that they could correctly print his name on the ballots, a practice which is allowed under New York state law. Although Walton gained the support of progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she failed to gain institutional support from more centrist New York politicians, and the write-in campaign appears to have won Brown another term in office in what he described as “one of the greatest comeback stories in our history” (the other presumably being this game by the Buffalo Bills in 1993).

In addition to state and local elections, two dozen ballot initiatives were decided across several states yesterday. Voters in Minneapolis rejected the proposal posed by Question 2 of the city’s ballot, which would have essentially dismantled the city’s police force in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Had it passed, CNN reports that the ballot measure would have removed a requirement that the city employs any police officers at all, and it would have placed any officers that remained under a newly created Department of Public Safety.

Though it was not strictly a “defund the police” bill, the Minneapolis vote was viewed by many as a test of the “defund” movement and of police reform initiatives more generally. The failure of the initiative reflects divisions even among reform advocates, as Black Minnesotan citizens were divided on whether to support this set of reforms.

Elsewhere, conservatives received a clear victory in Southlake, Texas, where anti-“critical race theory” advocates took control of the local school board. The election of Andrew Yeager yesterday gave conservatives a majority, given that they had won two seats on the school board earlier this year. As NBC News details, all three candidates campaigned against diversity training and history curriculum that they falsely labeled as “critical race theory” (avoiding the more accurate label of “honest teaching about racism in America").

On the other hand, a similar Republican strategy failed in Guilford, Connecticut, where anti-“critical race theory” candidates were defeated in the local school board election. Meanwhile, voters in Detroit approved Proposal R, which will create a “reparations commission” to examine the long-term impact of racism and discrimination in the city and recommend possible remedies "that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit."

Overall, last night’s results represent wins for diversity and for conservatism. They also indicate that elections for the next few years will be hotly contested at all levels, with important implications for the makeup of our country’s leadership and the policies and principles that will govern us going forward.