FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, November 12, 2017 [1. What Went Down On Election Night 2017]( [Read more]( [2. Northam Heads Into Virginia Governor’s Race With A Small Lead]( The first major statewide elections since President Trump was inaugurated take place on Tuesday. The governor’s race in New Jersey looks like it will be a blowout. But Virginia’s governor’s race is more interesting: Former Republican National Committee Chairman and 2014 U.S. Senate candidate Ed Gillespie faces off against Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. And while the race’s final result by itself isn’t likely to tell us much about the national political environment, it is likely to have a big effect on the 2018 midterms. [Read more]( [3. The Fundamentals Favor Democrats In 2018]( Democrats had a really good night on Tuesday, easily claiming the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, flipping control of the Washington state Senate and possibly also the Virginia House of Delegates, passing a ballot measure in Maine that will expand Medicaid in the state, winning a variety of mayoral elections around the country, and gaining control of key county executive seats in suburban New York. [Read more]( [4. 9 Key Questions About Roy Moore And The Alabama Senate Race]( On Thursday, the U.S. Senate race in Alabama became the latest avenue of American life to be rocked by a scandal involving improper sexual conduct. The Washington Post reported allegations that Republican Roy Moore pursued relationships with four teenage girls, one of whom was 14 at the time of a sexual encounter with Moore. Moore has unequivocally denied the report. [Read more]( [5. The One County In America That Voted In A Landslide For Both Trump And Obama]( In the year since President Trump pulled off his stunning upset of Hillary Clinton, Democrats have blamed the result on all kinds of factors: James Comey’s letter, Russian hackers, voter suppression, Jill Stein’s candidacy and depressed African-American turnout, to name a few. The truth? In an election decided by fractions of percentage points, it’s easy to call just about anything a difference-maker. [Read more]( [6. Is It Time For Republicans To Panic?]( Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. [Read more]( [7. There’s No Reason To Think Republicans Will Be In Better Shape A Year From Now]( Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. Today’s theme song: “Every Time I Turn Around” from the television show “Punky Brewster.” [Read more]( [8. LeBron Can’t Do It All Alone]( It’s been the better part of a decade since the early weeks of November could signal crisis for a LeBron James team. His Cleveland Cavaliers have been a mess at 5-6, 10th in the East, including a loss Sunday to the now 2-9 Atlanta Hawks, but it’s hard to drum up much genuine concern given the team’s history of getting its act together just in time for the postseason. It’s especially tough to make any proclamations until guard Isaiah Thomas, who was acquired in the Kyrie Irving trade, returns from a hip injury, and we find out how much he’ll be able to contribute. [Read more]( [9. North Korea’s Nukes May Not Be Its Biggest Threat]( In May 2015, the Pentagon publicly acknowledged that it had accidentally sent live anthrax to several labs across the United States — and to Osan Air Base in South Korea. North Korea reacted harshly. This was evidence of America’s plan to use weapons of mass destruction against their people, Pyongyang claimed in its demand for an emergency United Nations meeting. The North Koreans also resurfaced a propagandistic, ahistorical charge that American forces had already once used biological weapons against them, during the Korean War in the 1950s, when outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and smallpox gripped the nation. [Read more]( [10. Trump’s Trade Policies Keep Backfiring]( One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the nearly completed free-trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 other countries bordered by the Pacific Ocean. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Election Day 2017]( Lastly, The Riddler Edited by Oliver Roeder From Jim Nugent, a piece of a hexagon: The [regular hexagon]( below has an area of 1. What is the area of the shaded region? [Solve it!]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ESPN]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 147 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023.