Election Night 2017: It's a Good Night

Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2017

The POTUS seems to be unhappy with Ed Gillespie for losing even though he sort of did endorse him with robo-calls and stuff. Trump did not win in VA in his own 2016 election, and with his current popularity being, well, not exceptionally great, it's kind of weird that he thinks that going "more Trump" would have been better for a pretty mainstream GOP candidate in a fairly mainstream once-Red state. I'm going to say VA is definitely looking "purple" now. Gillespie's hard work involved adopting Trumpism in little, but people caught on that a vote for someone happy to spout Trumpist lines, would embrace what he stood for in other ways--Trump has it a little ass-backwards, I think.

But who really knows? Maybe Gillespie's turnout was lowered by the inept GOTV attempt by Don Jr., who Tweeted at VA folks to vote on Wednesday.

Anyhow, Democrats did well in VA and New Jersey. There are such good stories, too. There's Danica Roem, who beat bigot Bob Marshall to become a delegate of VA's 13th District. There's the story of Chris Hurst, a former news anchor whose fiancée was murdered. There is the story of Ravi Bhalla, who is is the first Sikh mayor of Hoboken.

It was an extraordinary night for Democratic wins, and for diversity and social justice. In Philadelphia, we elected a civil rights-oriented attorney to DA. Andrea Jenkins won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council. Jenny Durkan was elected the first mayor of Seattle since the 1920s (in a race that was bound to elect a woman, anyway--one of the great stories this year has been how many women have decided to run for office!) And Maine voted yes on a referendum to expand Medicaid in their state.

Progressives need to see this as just the beginning. We did well this time. We must keep it going!