Should Glenn Youngkin’s margin hold up in Virginia, which at this time on Wednesday morning appears to be a near certainty, it’s completely unclear what he will do as governor other than exercise his fear of children’s books. The shallowness of Youngkin’s campaign seems to be a strong indicator that all those Republican think tanks were right when they seized on the completely fabricated threat of “critical race theory” to lead them into the coming cycle. Certainly there has been frustration over the lingering epidemic, and the “supply chain crisis” that has occasionally deprived a family of their favorite toilet paper. However, Youngkin’s victory can be neatly explained by an enormous shift in a single demographic: According to NBC News, white women without a college degree made a 19% swing to the GOP side when compared to the presidential race a year earlier. 

Just as Russia actually devoted far more of its effort to increasing racial tension rather than into directly promoting Trump, Republican leadership understands that race remains an incredibly potent lever for motivating their white base. That’s especially true with the “poorly uneducated” voters for whom Trump declared his love. Looking not just at Virginia but at situations like that in Southlake, Texas, where a school board election positioned Republicans to kill the school’s plans for teaching about racial diversity, it’s hard not to come away with a clear indication that malignant racism and white fear remain a ready source of votes for anyone willing to tap that ugly vein.

And yet … maybe it would be wise not to read Virginia as such a definitive verdict on anything at all. After all, this is the eighth time in a row that an incoming president has been followed with an opposition party win in the Virginia governorship. Those victories have had absolutely no power to predict the outcome of elections that followed.

And there’s an even better reason to keep our chins up when it comes to defeating the electoral power of racism. As USA Today reports, people of color won races across the country, including several historic firsts.

In Boston, Michelle Wu became the first Asian woman elected as mayor. In fact, as the Associated Press reports, Wu is the first woman, the first Asian, and the first person of color elected to that role even though she follows Mayor Kim Janey, who is Black. That’s because Janey was actually appointed mayor after previous office holder Marty Walsh took a slot in the Biden administration. Not only does the AP call this win a marker of how Boston is moving past its history of ethnically segregated neighborhoods, but “a pivotal moment for Boston, which has wrestled with racial strife throughout its history.” To take the position, Wu beat out Essaibi George, whose father was a Muslim immigrant from Tunisia. Both candidates are Democrats.

In New York, not only did Eric Adams decisively stomp Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s second Black mayor, he was joined in that victory by former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who will now be the first Black Manhattan district attorney. According to The New York Times, sitting Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who has generated some excitement with his investigation of the Trump Organization but failed to lodge any charges directly at Trump or his family, did not seek reelection. In his campaign, Bragg noted that he had sued Trump “over 100 times” while serving in the state attorney general’s office. But what happens with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigation at this point is still to be seen.

In Pittsburgh, Ed Gainey says he was inspired to run for that office by the protests following the police murder of George Floyd. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, Gainey will become that city’s first Black mayor. Gainey won office directly talking about breaking down the racial dividing lines in Pittsburgh, and making the city more accessible and more livable for everyone. 

In Cincinnati, Aftab Pureval won another Democrat versus Democrat contest, beating out David Mann to become that city’s first Asian mayor. According to NBC News, Purveal was considered a possible candidate for Rob Portman’s Senate seat, but has promised that he’ll serve a full term as mayor. Still … stay tuned.

In Dearborn, Michigan, state legislator Abdullah Hammoud has become that city’s first Arab mayor. It’s Hammoud who, as reported in The Detroit Free Press, issued a statement that might sum up a string of results that featured the word “first.”

A string of mayoral victories might seem like a poor consolation when “the big prize” of the evening was lost. However, these victories show the Democratic Party filling its ranks with a diverse cast who, in the future, will be prime candidates for roles that go beyond a single city.