Leading Off ● Virginia: In a major setback for voting rights, Republican Glenn Youngkin narrowly defeated former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the race to become Virginia's next governor, giving Youngkin the power to discontinue a practice begun by McAuliffe and his successor, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, of using executive orders to expand voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. Republicans also appear to have gained a razor-thin majority in the state House, though there are multiple races that are still too close to call with the possibility that Democrats could salvage a 50-50 tie after absentee and provisional ballots are fully processed. After winning the governor's office in 2017 and gaining full control over the legislature in 2019 to obtain unified government for the first time in a quarter century, Democrats passed dozens of laws to expand access to voting, reform redistricting, and make the election process run more smoothly, progress that is now at risk from a Republican governor and state House. Democrats still narrowly hold the state Senate by 21-19 since it wasn't up for election this year, but Republicans would only need to persuade a single Democrat to defect to reverse some of those changes after also flipping the lieutenant governor's office, which breaks ties. Read more