Never Give Up the Fight for Our Democracy
Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the presidential election. I was on campus with my friends, and none of us were okay.
I’m a college student, and for many of us this was one of the first elections where the outcome felt personal. We had followed the campaign, argued about it in group chats and stayed up on election night watching the map change. By the time the results settled, my friend group was sad in the way you can only be when you’ve cared a lot about something. Some of us were quiet. Some of us cried. We sat together and tried to make sense of what had happened.
Then a group of athletes nearby started laughing. They called us snowflakes and dumb libs.
I want to be careful about how I tell this, because I don’t think everyone who voted differently from me is cruel. People vote for all kinds of reasons, and plenty of Trump supporters would have been kind to us. But I remember how it felt. We had just lost something we cared about, and instead of space to grieve, we got mocked for caring.
What happened nationally
The result wasn’t close at the end. The Associated Press called the race for Donald Trump early yesterday morning, at 5:34 a.m. ET, with 277 electoral votes to Harris’ 224. His total kept climbing through the day as more states were called, reaching 292 after Michigan, with 270 needed to win.
The race was decided in the battleground states. Trump won Pennsylvania and Georgia, and then Wisconsin put him over the 270 mark. Trump also appeared to win the popular vote, which the Washington Times called unexpected. He is the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve nonconsecutive terms.
Republicans did well in Congress too. The AP reported that Republicans regained control of the Senate by flipping seats in Ohio and West Virginia, and one post-election summary put their total at 53 seats. Control of the House is still undetermined, though Republicans are expected to keep it. If they do, Trump will have unified Republican control of Washington to work with.
People will read that result differently. Trump’s supporters see a clear mandate, with wins in the battleground states, the popular vote and the Senate. Harris’ supporters see a painful loss and are already asking what comes next. Both readings are real, and I think it’s fair to say them side by side.
Harris’ speech
Yesterday afternoon, Harris spoke at Howard University. She told her supporters not to despair and to “never give up the fight for our democracy.” It was a smaller crowd than Tuesday night’s watch party, and she spoke directly to the younger people in it, telling them it was going to be okay. Her message was “Do not despair,” and it landed differently for those of us who had just been laughed at.
She also showed what losing looks like when it’s done with grace. Hours before her speech, she called Trump to congratulate him and discussed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power. She conceded the election but said she did not concede the fight that fueled her campaign.
What I’m taking from it
Being upset after a loss isn’t weakness. Caring about your country enough to cry over an election isn’t something to be ashamed of. And the fight for democracy doesn’t end on election night. It continues when we show up for each other, when we stay informed, when we vote again and when we refuse to let a bad day make us stop caring.
The people who laughed will graduate and go on with their lives. So will I. But I hope that when they lose something they care about, whether it’s a game, an election or something else, no one laughs at them. I hope they get what we needed yesterday, which was a little compassion and a reason to keep going.
I’m not giving up the fight.
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