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Let’s start today by zooming all the way in on the results of Tuesday’s election: A Democratic majority in Congress means that your local representative may soon wield much more power in Washington. Rep. Katherine Clark of Revere, the current Democratic whip, is likely to become the House majority leader. And Rep. Richard Neal of Springfield could lead the House Ways and Means Committee, where legislation on taxes, tariffs, Social Security, Medicare and more must pass before reaching the House floor. The Bay State as a hub of political power? Sounds familiar. 

Clark said she promised to “fight for an affordable America that gives every single person a fair shot at the American Dream.” “Her challenge is twofold,” Peter Ubertaccio, a political scientist at Stonehill College, told GBH’s Esteban Bustillos. “Keep your caucus together, and that is always a challenge ... But then do so when the president is of a different party. And so the compromises that you may have to make in order to get a president to not veto a bill, if that’s the goal, is going to test the allegiance of your party members.” You can read more about that here.

Four Things to Know

1. Voters reject Question 5: The campaign behind ballot Question 5, the effort to change how Massachusetts calculates its tax revenues and give people more frequent refund checks, conceded defeat yesterday. It was a close vote, with 52% of people voting “No” and 48% voting “Yes.” Massachusetts will keep its current formula for state revenue limits.

One question remains too close to call: Question 7, about decreasing the minimum lot size required to build a single-family home to 5,000 square feet (with some caveats). The “Yes” votes had a slight edge, with 1,238,237 voters in favor (50.6%) and 1,209,381 votes against (49.4%).

2. No criminal charges in scientists’ frog embryo case: Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born Harvard Medical School scientist arrested and threatened with deportation last year after she tried to bring frog embryos into the U.S., is no longer facing criminal charges. Petrova spent four months in custody last year. She told reporters she didn’t realize she had to declare the frog embryos at customs.

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley filed a motion to dismiss the charges Tuesday night, saying “the resource costs of continuing this prosecution outweigh the public interest in its resolution.” This comes after a judge ruled in April that if prosecutors wanted to keep pursuing charges against Petrova, they’d have to give her lawyers access to documents about other cases in which they found travelers with undeclared items comparable to the frog embryos. Petrova’s attorneys wanted those documents as part of their argument that she was being prosecuted selectively.

3. Judge sides with Harvard in revoked tenure case: A federal judge ruled that Harvard officials did not discriminate against former business school professor Francesca Gino when they revoked her tenure. A group of scientists accused Gino of fabricating data in 2021, and the university stripped her of tenure in 2025. Gino had studied honesty and ethics in business.

Gino sued, saying the university discriminated against her and breached its contract with her. Harvard counter-sued for defamation. This week U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun ruled in Harvard’s favor and said the case should be dismissed without a trial.

4. No trip to Gillette: Gillette Stadium won’t host the state’s high school football championships for the first time in two decades because of scheduling conflicts with New England Patriots and Revolution games.

Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association officials are now looking for a new host. If you know a venue that can hold high school football teams, their families and their fans this December, get in touch.

‘I never thought I would see that in my lifetime’: Mass. Democrats react to blue wave

GBH’s Gitana Savage spent yesterday morning talking to Massachusetts voters about their thoughts on watching Democrats gain control of the House and Senate in Tuesday’s elections.

“Watching Texas, Kansas, Ohio turn the Senate and governor to blue — I never thought I would see that in my lifetime, especially Texas,” Celia Segel of Boston said.

Peter Cavieux told Savage he hadn’t been paying attention to polling before Election Day — and hasn’t since 2016. “After Hillary Clinton was projected to win and wound up losing, I didn’t bother with the polls,” he said. “But you could sort of see that the country was leaning to dumping Trump and his policies — repudiating him.”

“Let’s hope the Democrats don’t screw it up,” Cavieux added.

You can hear more from local voters here. 

Dig deeper: 

-Six takeaways from Democrats’ big wave on election night

-Here’s how some key demographic groups voted in the midterms

-How did a national ‘blue wave’ play out in key New England races?