💃 TGIF. On this date in 1977, downtown's Roxy Theater closed for good.

• During its heyday, the burlesque house on East 9th Street hosted entertainers like Abbott & Costello, Red Buttons and Ann Corio.

🌧️ Today's weather: Chance of light rain, with a high of 61 and a low of 47.

🪔 Wishing a happy Diwali to all who celebrate this Sunday!

Today’s newsletter is 1,054 words — a 4-minute read.

Cuyahoga County Democrats are celebrating a historic midterm election, notching victories up and down the ballot and the highest local midterm turnout this century.

Why it matters: Cuyahoga County still has electoral muscle, even if more often than not it forgets to go to the gym.

What they're saying: "I think Democrats worked harder and smarter than Republicans," Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair Dave Brock told Axios on election night.

• Brock touted a ground operation that knocked on more doors and deployed more Election Day volunteers than in 2024.

By the numbers: Cuyahoga County's unofficial voter turnout reached 54.9%, its highest midterm rate since at least 1998, Signal Cleveland reports.

• Only twice in that period has midterm turnout exceeded 50%: 2018 and 2026, both during Trump presidencies.
• Around 482,000 ballots had been counted as of noon yesterday, with roughly 11,800 provisional and overseas ballots outstanding.

The big picture: Brock credited opposition to Trump for energizing voters, but said the party's local organizing infrastructure was equally important.

Zoom in: Democrats coordinated campaign efforts across multiple suburban districts, for example.

• In the southwestern suburbs, mailers promoted Brian Poindexter (Congress), Courtney Scheff (County Council) and Megan Coy (Ohio House) as a package deal, Brock said.
• All three defeated Republican incumbents Tuesday.

Between the lines: "If we've got people in Strongsville and North Royalton voting for Sherrod and Amy, we knew they had a shot," Brock said.

• "Courtney is as capable, intelligent and passionate as any Democrat in this county," he added. "She's the opposite of Trump."

What's next: Brock is already recruiting candidates for next year's municipal elections and organizing county Democratic chairs to press elected officials on their priorities.

• "Now we have to hold Democrats accountable," he said. "We have to tell them what we want and what we expect of them."

Voters across the country reaffirmed that data center construction projects are one of the most unpopular topics in politics — and nowhere shot them down more prolifically Tuesday than Ohio.

Why it matters: As Democrats and Republicans seek answers for what helped and hurt their parties in Election Day's "blue tsunami," voter pushback to data centers has proven to be a bipartisan concern.

The latest: Per Ballotpedia, voters nationwide saw 41 data center-related ballot issues.

• Some issues created prohibitions, moratoriums or restrictions, while others requested rezonings or approval of planned projects.
• The Buckeye State was the epicenter of data center pushback, with 21 of those 41 nationwide issues located in Ohio communities.

The results: Nearly every vote across the country went against data centers, per the Ballotpedia tally — only a Harwood, North Dakota, issue appears to have bucked the trend.

Many of the ballot measures were rural and downstate, but a few communities in our region voted on data centers:

• Conneaut, near the Pennsylvania border, voted to prohibit data centers that use 25 megawatts or more.
• Hubbard, near Youngstown in Trumbull County, voted to ban all data centers in city limits in a landslide (77%-23%)
• Perry, in Lake County, voted to place additional regulations on data centers seeking tax incentives.

Between the lines: AI growth is forging ahead — but companies will need to figure out how to build the required infrastructure while data centers are a losing issue.

Go deeper...

👎 Gov. Mike DeWine says he won't support any attempt by lame-duck Republican lawmakers at the Statehouse to limit the powers of the governor before January. (Ohio Capital Journal)

⛔️ I-90 between Central and Carnegie avenues will be fully closed in both directions on the weekends of Nov. 13 and 20 for bridge demolition. (News5)

🛍️ Two millennial women who have launched seasonal vintage markets are debuting a holiday bazaar at the Cleveland Galleria Nov. 20. (Cleveland Scene)

👑 LeBron James returns to Cleveland tonight as a member of the scorching hot Philadelphia 76ers. Tipoff is at 7:30pm and airs nationally on Amazon. (ESPN)

It's now been a month since Ohio's gas tax holiday went into effect — and prices are now even more expensive at many pumps.

Why it matters: The break was meant to provide relief to cost-conscious drivers, though a gas price expert warned at the time that broader factors could still lead prices to fluctuate.

Catch up quick: Ohio drivers normally pay 38.5 cents per gallon of gas to pay for infrastructure needs.

• Lawmakers passed a 90-day tax holiday on Sept. 30, with the statewide average being $4.24 per gallon on that date, according to AAA.
• It was $3.97 on Oct. 4, when the break went into effect, and prices continued to drop in the days that followed.

Yes, but: Ohio's average was back up to $3.98 as of yesterday, per AAA.

• The Cleveland metro average stood at $4.03 yesterday — up from $3.14 a year ago.

👊🏾 Hey, Troy here. I had the honor of being the first visitor at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to see a highlight of the 2026 Inductee Exhibit.

State of play: The first you'll see as part of the exhibit, which opens Monday, is the "Wu-Tang Forever Time Capsule" — a yellow vault that accompanied the legendary hip-hop group on its "Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber" tour.

Zoom in: The capsule, which holds memorabilia fans submitted at each tour stop, debuted in May 2025 during a surprise Wu-Tang performance at Dave Chappelle's YS Firehouse in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

• Chappelle made the first contribution — a Wu-Tang-signed vinyl record from his personal collection.

The big picture: Wu-Tang is one of 18 honorees being inducted into the Rock Hall on Nov. 14 at Los Angeles' Peacock Theater.

• The ceremony will air Dec. 8 on ABC.

Artifacts from every inductee are featured in this year's exhibit, which we'll fully preview Monday.

👀 Sam is monitoring these sandstone "Guardians of Traffic" replicas, available on Facebook Marketplace.

🤔 Troy still has many questions after watching Netflix's gripping "Taken: Natalee Holloway" docuseries.

This newsletter was edited by Tyler Buchanan.