EVERY CHURCH BASEMENT, FIRE HALL, AND SCHOOL GYM IN AMERICA (The Daily Whatever Press)—Yesterday, Americans by the tens of millions walked into rooms that smelled like floor wax and burnt coffee, signed their names in a binder, took a ballot from a volunteer, and took their country back.
I watched it happen all night on a live podcast with Dana, Julie, Michelle, and some of the smartest, best people I know, every one of them as deep into the county returns as I was. I drank more scotch and prosecco than a man my age should, and I honestly can’t tell whether I’m hungover this morning or still drunk.
I know what I saw, though.
I saw this country finally, finally do the right thing.
The relief
Democrats took the House at about 10:15 Eastern last night and the Senate about 80 minutes after that. Seven Republican Senate seats changed hands: Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maine. Two more, in Mississippi and Alaska, are still being counted.
Hakeem Jeffries posted, “Victory for America!” Chuck Schumer said Democrats had won the Senate “against all odds.” For once, nobody in Washington was overselling anything. I may not like Jeffries and Schumer, but for once, they were right.
I have spent a lot of this year writing from a place of fear. I worried the maps were too rigged, the courts too captured, and the man in the White House too willing to break whatever was left. Some weeks I wondered whether 2026 would even be a real election.
It was.